Exclusive Interview with Yahoo Sports NFL Analyst, Jason Fitz

SportsGrid

Watch Exclusive Interview with Yahoo Sports NFL Analyst, Jason Fitz - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Out here on Radio Row in New Orleans Kevin Walsh with Jason Fitz of Yahoo

00:05Sports and NFL Analyst over there. We're out here getting ready for Eagles

00:09Chiefs. We've seen the game before two years ago in the Super Bowl. They played

00:14the year following actually at Arrowhead. Both teams were off of a bye. The Eagles

00:19win that game. I don't think calling it 1-1 is fair though because winning the

00:23Super Bowl matters a lot more. I'm curious when you started to get into

00:27this game here, the Chiefs favorite in the matchup, how much did you look back

00:32at the performances from the two teams in the first Super Bowl meeting that we

00:36saw two years ago? Very little honestly because if you're looking at the Eagles

00:40I mean you're talking about a complete transformation offensive coordinator

00:43defense coordinator like it's a different team so what's difficult here

00:47is that as much as we want to look at hey Philly was up in that game at the

00:50half and they had every opportunity to win I don't know how that plays into

00:54this situation if we're being honest and that's one of the hardest things like

00:57all of us that love sports or cover sports spend so much time talking about

01:00the history of matchups and the history really is so meaningless to what's

01:05actually going to happen in this game. The history that I look at that matters

01:08to in this game is look at Andy Reid and his record off of bye weeks. Look at the

01:12success that Steve Spagnuolo their defensive coordinator has had in the NFL

01:16playoffs. Those are the things that I think those are palpable stats and

01:19information that you can take with you moving forward but the matchup before I

01:22think Philly is just a wildly different football team and they didn't have

01:25Saquon then either. Yeah they they absolutely are I think on both sides of

01:29the ball I could argue maybe more even defensively because the defense going

01:33into the game two years ago was led by a great sack unit everyone knew the

01:38secondary was vulnerable the line couldn't get there for the reasons that

01:42they couldn't get there Mahomes lit them up I'm fascinated to see and I'm curious

01:48what you're expecting out of Pat specifically in the game going up

01:50against what I think is pretty confidently the best defense in the

01:54National Football League. Yeah you're a thousand percent right and by the way

01:58home run of an offseason to be able to get Quinion Mitchell and Cooper Dejean

02:02two guys that you know I've been lucky enough cover the draft at this point for

02:04the last eight years and they were both can't miss prospects that somehow we're

02:09still sitting there you know it's just the way the board falls sometimes you're

02:13right I think what's gonna have to happen here though is Mahomes is gonna

02:15have to get the ball out of his hands incredibly quickly which he's been doing

02:18anyway but especially when you apply the pressure up the middle that we expect

02:22that they will be able to put to apply. Joe Tooney moving out to tackle has

02:26helped solidify the offensive line for the Chiefs but I would argue that that

02:29makes them vulnerable right up the center we all know if you can get to a

02:32quarterback up the gut so I'd expect that Andy Reid's gonna be moving the

02:35pocket around a lot of it you know trying to find ways to get Mahomes

02:38moving a little bit and then he's gonna have to get rid of the ball in lightning

02:42speed over and over in it. And you pair that the rush attack is really struggled

02:47I found their ability to run the football in the red area against Buffalo

02:52to be the complete difference in that game where quarterback runs from Mahomes

02:57that they never call Kareem Hunt had a big run early on I do think that is one

03:02of the maybe fascinating swings of this game is if Kansas City can run it with

03:08some effectiveness stay balanced and on time I wonder if that presents some

03:13challenges that Philly maybe isn't necessarily prepping for. Yeah and look

03:17the Chiefs aren't a great running team but they're an efficient run team when

03:20they need to be able to run the ball they do and that's an interesting

03:24element in this game because the aggressiveness of the Eagles defense is

03:27something that you know Kansas City gonna try and take advantage of so even

03:30if it's not flat-out normal you know lineup like we have this concept of what

03:34the run game looks like based on what it looked like 20 years ago now there's so

03:38many creative ways to run I would expect also a lot of jet sweep sort of stuff

03:42like how can they try and keep movement emotion and try and just slow down the

03:46interior of that defensive line for Philly at least for a second to see if

03:49they can get some space. On the other side of it I think one of the fascinating

03:53things that we've kind of heard throughout a Philly season and certainly

03:57in the postseason is well they're not gonna let Saquon beat him and I would

04:01think people would stop saying that going off of what's been happening I all

04:06the respect for Spaggs he's been amazing but I do find it interesting that there

04:11are some and I'm wondering where you like well Spaggs isn't gonna let Saquon

04:14beat him. These DCs are not letting Saquon do anything I think Dan Quinn's a

04:18very good defensive coordinator maybe doesn't have the pieces that Spaggs has

04:22but the Eagles rush offense as a whole is a completely different animal. That's

04:28a really important point that you're making and I would just say that you and

04:31I could decide that we want to roll the basketball out and take on LeBron and

04:35when we walk out on the court we're gonna say you know what not gonna let

04:37LeBron dunk on us today that's not gonna keep LeBron from dunking. I don't

04:41think you can slow like I fully expect the Saquon's gonna be able to get

04:46120 plus yards in this game and that's just who he is and then the other part

04:50of it is people keep talking about the explosive runs understand that when they

04:53start run blitzing to try and slow down Saquon which is the method to it well

04:57now you've got a great offensive line and all they have to do is seal that one

05:00block off and now all of a sudden nobody's in position to stop him Saquon's

05:04so it's it's a monster nightmare to just say we won't let him beat it it just

05:08doesn't work that way. We're here on Radio Row with Jason Fitz Yahoo Sports

05:11inside coverage right? Inside coverage. As we're as we're getting to button up

05:16here do you in this moment feel that you have your pick settled for this game who

05:21you actually think wins it? Yeah because even though it's not logical I always go

05:25back to this number there have been seven times in Patrick Mahomes career in

05:29the playoffs or Super Bowl that he's had the ball in his hands with under four

05:32minutes to go in the game needing a score to tie or win seven times for

05:36example Brady had 11 times five of those times he got the score Drew Brees had

05:40six times in his career three of those times he got the score the league

05:43averages about 40 seven times Mahomes has had the ball in that situation all

05:47seven times he got the score and the problem is the only way you beat the

05:51Philadelphia Eagles is if you are up by more than two scores even though I sorry

05:55beat the Chiefs even though I don't even though I believe the Eagles are a better

05:59team and it's a matchup nightmare I can't get those numbers out of my head I

06:02think Kansas City wins the game and all of us are trying to figure out why

06:04because that's just who they become. It is I think what's so interesting to me

06:10is can that Eagles defense for 60 minutes present enough challenges where

06:17the offense can extend because I think the Buffalo defense was not at this

06:21level and all of a sudden Pat looked as smooth as he did it's gonna be a lot of

06:25fun to watch play out a lot of fun talking ball with you. Always my friend

06:28appreciate you. Yep make sure Yahoo Sports Jason Fitz covering the National

06:31Football League

Category

Transcript

Recommended