Chiefs ‘could start 0-2’ with loss to Eagles, Can KC stop Saquon Barkley? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Chiefs ‘could start 0-2’ with loss to Eagles, Can KC stop Saquon Barkley? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Live from New York. It’s the show that is cautiously optimistic about Mac. Jones. No. Hold on. Whoa. Hold on. You cannot do that, bro. What? Cuz the show is not I What did I say? Leader of the show. You said he is the leader of the show, but he’s not the entirety of the show. Brew. Am I allowed to say like I’m not going to say I’m optimistic? Look, I could see him going out there and having a couple but that’s nothing. Danny cautiously optimistic. Yeah, he could beat the Saints. Okay, you think he’s resurrected his career? Jesus, guys. He didn’t clear it with any of us. My point is this. Is he allowed to say the first things first to show that if he’s the only person that believes it? I don’t know. We just We just did it. And how many people have to ask? You’re optimistic about M. Jones? Cautiously. No. I mean, cautiously. No. I think it’s possible he goes out there and plays. Well, we’re counting down the days his Super Bowl rematch. We will be uh in Kansas City on Friday from the Power and Light District. Come on by. Patrick Mahomes spoke today about how he can be better against the Eagles. Here’s a wild stat. Super Bowl loser seems extreme. People who lost the Super Bowl in a rematch the next regular season, everybody loses except when the Eagles went into Arrowhead and won. So everybody loses except when it’s Chiefs Eagles. Sounds good to me. That’s what I mean. That’s what that’s what that’s what you’re showing me. Wow. Odd, right? That’s like a classic Super Bowl hangover. It also is a interesting thing that this used to be incredibly rare that we got it and now we’ve gotten it three straight years. We got four times in the 27 years before. No offense to the 90s schedule makers that were Super Bowl rematch. Uh, what would an 0 and2 start mean for the Chiefs? Not much. Oh, not much because of who they’re playing. Be it wouldn’t be Owens too like and I’m not picking on Cincinnati with Cincinnati’s opening schedule or you know what I the the Chargers are a team that I know some smart people like you really believed in. I think everybody thought would be good. Nobody was like that Chargers are going to be a four- win team. They played great. And everybody thinks the Eagles are, you know, somewhere from very good to excellent on that scale. And this is, as Brew was saying about the NerS yesterday, potentially this is not an excuse, but a potential explanation of the Chiefs being without their top two receivers, depending on how the game looks, would be another reason that you would not panic about it. And, and this is the part that I think while they’ve never started 0 and2 with Mahomes, they have had bad starts. And I think that’s the point I was trying to make earlier, which is 2021, they started three and four. And two of those games were two of were the only two regular season blowouts of Mahomes entire career were within that three and four start. And one of them was to Ryan Tanahill and the Titans. The other one was to Josh Allen. And then they rallied it with that. So I don’t think it would mean anything huge about the season as a whole. What it would mean is for the first time in a in since that year, they don’t have a mid-season margin of error. You know what I mean? That that that they have to be able to lock in in a way before Rashid gets back when, you know what I mean? Maybe without Xavier Worthy and that that Ravens Lions portion of the schedule becomes a little more ominous. I agree with you. I would not think they’re not going to make the playoffs if they start 0 and2. And that’s, you know, a big deal cuz most teams that start 0 and2, the overwhelming majority don’t make the playoffs. And most teams in the league right now that start 0 and2 will be written off. Not the Ravens, not the Chiefs, some of these other teams. Where I do think it would have significance, Nick, is that I think the Mystique already has taken a shot by the way the Eagles beat him in the Super Bowl. obviously what the Chargers just did. If Philly beats him again, it’s his first time be the first time Mahomes has ever lost three straight games in his career and then when you know in two of well all three losses obviously the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. All three of those games the Chiefs are like hyped for and they still can’t you know get it together and win the game. I think like this Chiefs mystique which I think is real. I think it’s definitely been real for the Ravens. I think it’s real to some degree for the Bills and everybody else except maybe Cincinnati and the Eagles. I think that would be largely gone if not totally gone if they lose this game. And I think that would be a big deal. Yeah, I’m more with you. It would be a blood in the water type situation. They wouldn’t be done. I I think the Chiefs are going to be contenders for the next 10 years with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, but Mahomes has never lost three straight in his career. That would be something. It would be the first time ever. Last year, all of the close games, all of the weird results, like we talk about it in the media is like the Chiefs just have like the will of a champion and they know how to win and all that. That’s all correct. By the way, I know, but I think that the players who play in those games that lose when the ball gets doked off of an upright, they look at the film after the game and they’re like, “We were a play or two away from beating the Chiefs.” I don’t think that the players themselves that lost those one-sore games, they look at it as we almost beat the champs, we almost beat the Chiefs. And so you combine all of it with three straight losses, a blowout in the Super Bowl, the fact that they do have a suspension, and I’ve heard you mention the three and four thing, and it’s interesting like after that Super Bowl loss, we can bring up the schedule here, just play it out. They play a lot of tough games. So, if they start 0 and2, let’s say they beat the Giants one and two, they could beat the Ravens obviously, but the margin for error, as you put it, make make them three and four just for the exercise. Make them four and five going into the buy. They’re still fine. Like again, I don’t I don’t see that’s that’s where what how many what’s the worst record you think they could have to make the playoffs? Well, let me I can I put it phrase a little differently? I think 10 wins gets you in. I I I think you might get in with a nine with nine, but I think 10 wins is in a expanded field. I don’t think 10 wins is missing. I agree. And so hold on. I was going to say something else, but KW has a Cheshire Cat Grin look on his face. Go ahead. I don’t want to say it. Go ahead, buddy. Yeah, but now you have to. Buddy, this is the This is I have to you you and I I don’t want to say it. You’re going to be so mad at me. I’m not going to be mad at you. I guarantee you, I bet you $100,000 you’re going to be mad at me. Deal. Who? Wow. You know how they call you, Mr. Consistency? I do. You know how they call me the mayor affair? I didn’t like all this Chiefs talk, Chiefs are done talk. The way that Brew was going and the way that Danny was going and it’s like, what’s their worst record? It started to sound like fodder for one of those Chiefs mixtapz that comes up on social media. And that gets my antennas up. This might be a trap game for the Eagles. I told you. I told you you wouldn’t like it. I was so confident in the Eagles. Then I I told you I don’t like it. I’m the Jan Herz guy. But I started to get nervous. My antenna started to go crazy. I like I told you,000. I have to I have to wire while it’s $100,000. I don’t like that at all. I was so prepared to not be angry at your I was so mentally prepared like going to do this for you to just say some anti-chiefs thing that I then when you can’t instead I told you the guy the guy who makes $1 online sports wagers and cashes them out this guy hedging his Eagles take Yeah, I’m not heading. Yes, I’m starting to feel like a trap. You’re right. I’m furious. I’ll pay you slowly over the next 5 months. I owe you 100 grand because I start to feel like a trap. This guy I’m going to stab him in the heart that he is. Social media person is like, “Oh, word.” All right. Then Park said this and I just don’t want to be on. I’ve got I could feel it. I didn’t like that at all. You’re going to be all over it no matter what. That’s first of all. still in the jail. But this is at this point the pendulum has swung too far. They’re going to miss the playoffs. All this playoffs miss the playoffs. But if you if you lose to You’re like, “Oh, lose to the Giants. Abdul Carter.” I’m like, “Slow down, Parker. Don’t say that.” Hold on. Can I Can I say one thing in all seriousness? And do I really owe you 100 grand? No. He’ll let you cash out for 75. Uh Danny, last year his son picked every single week one Sunday game and he was 11 and0 and made him cash out and he hit them all. Um that but regardless this is the I just want to say one thing about Mystique. I will agree with you guys entirely that if the Eagles win this game, if we get a Super Bowl rematch for the first time in Momes’s career, the opposing team has the mental edge. You know, I I will agree with that that that specific rematch maybe I shouldn’t say his career maybe Brady at the very beginning, but for the whole time since we’ve been, you know what I mean, in this era. Um the I will agree with that. The mystique, the Chiefs mystique really to me only matters against one and kind of two teams and it only matters in the playoffs. And it’s the Bills and to a lesser degree the Ravens come the playoffs. And nothing can happen in my opinion in the regular season that if those two teams meet in January, if it’s Chiefs Bills in January, there is nothing that is going to make the Bills feel like like they have the mental edge here. You know what I mean? That Mystique will e even if they limp into the playoffs, maybe not the I think that’s fair. Maybe not the mental edge, but if the Chiefs are, and I’m not predicting this, but they’re 11 and six. They haven’t looked good. They getting in the playoffs as a wild card. I think the Ravens and the Bills say they have great seasons are certainly feel not feeling like they felt last year and the year before. The year before it was exactly what it was. They were 11 and six. Yeah, but they but the Chiefs were the year before the Chiefs were 11 and six. They did go to Buffalo. They did have to go to Baltimore. That was the team, but they were still the defending Super. were the defending champs and significant difference. But again, I don’t know how much defending Super Bowl champs means in the AFC playoffs when instead of being the one-time defending Super Bowl champs, you would be going to the playoffs as the three-time defending AFC with all the playoffs. Sure. Can I ask you a question about this game specifically? And there’s a lot of I watching uh the Chiefs documentary the kingdom the about the Super Bowl where Momes as the leader of the team thought they were in it when I think a lot of the fans felt like this is getting away from him but he still was like let’s go let’s go and he’s done it so many times. Do you think there’s a chance but then afterwards he’s like he was pressing trying to make something happen. He when he ran into I forgot the name of the Chargers guy that he bullied. He’s like I’m trying to make something happen. and I was trying to get people fired up and he’s like he never does that like really crush a guy in six maybe playoff games. Is there a chance that if the Chiefs fall down that we could see a version of Mahomes where he’s pressing and he kind of gets out of his normal Mahomesian self? Yes, I don’t think that’s good. No, I agree. But you’re asking as a guy is rooting for the Eagles. But I don’t know. I’m all to I thought he kind of did that in the Chargers game and I thought he was great in that in Oh, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, that’s what I thought that it’s been a little controversial in some quarters. I thought I thought Mahomes was really really good Friday night, but I agree with you, Brew. He was pressing. And I pressing. Here’s the thing. It’s weird. And I know we got to move on cuz he’s We talked about it earlier. He never gets He’s been blown out been blown out four times in his career. Lost by more than one score six times in his career. He He’s not afraid of being blown out. if it is going the wrong way, he is going to open the variance up and be like, “All right, this could go really bad.” And it did in the Super Bowl. Um, but that’s why he’s the best come from behind quarterback ever. That’s why his record when they’re down double digits is a playoff, you know what I mean? They win 60% of the games because he gives them that chance. Okay. Uh, underwhelming game one for Saquon Barkley. Danny, are you buying that the Chiefs can stop Saquon? Sure. I mean, they they did it in the Super Bowl. 25 carries, 57 yards, longest rushing attempt, I think it was 10 yards in that game. It’s kind of amazing that Steve Spagnolo is still there. Nobody will ever hire him to be a head coach again. It’s very lucky. It’s an unbelievably underrated lucky component of this Chiefs thing that like Andy Reid gets to coach the offense and a top three defensive coordinator in football for a defense that last year if you remove week 18 when they didn’t play anybody and they got the Denver game, they were second the second ranked scoring defense in the NFL and the year before they were the second ranked scoring defense in the NFL. Like it’s coincided with Mahomes’s not great statistical production. They’ve been consistently a great defense and their defensive coordinator will never leave. So if he sets this like, hey, we’re going to take away what you do best, the old Bellich check thing. Well, they’re going to take away Saquon Barkley. I think it’s definitely in play that that Saquon has a bad game again. Totally in play. The thing is, and they shut down the uh Chargers run game, you know, they they got past. I think they didn’t believe Harbaugh would pass as like, you know, they didn’t believe they’d listen to you and they they they were all in on stopping the Chargers run game. They did and they got shredded. But the thing is I what I don’t think they can do is stop both the run game and a pass a big passing game. That’s what happened in the Super Bowl. Jaylen has a great game. Saquon doesn’t. So, I think they can take away Squan. I don’t know. Can they take away the pass game? Maybe. I don’t think they can take away both. Go KO. I I’m just wondering what the I’m I’m sure they can because we’ve seen it. Now, granted, that led to 30 some odd offensive points in the Super Bowl. So, I don’t know if it’s the best strategy. And I think that you have to weigh in, which I think is very interesting for Spags. And you tell me he’s a great schematic guy. And what I think takes the defensive coordinators from good to great or great to legendary like Bellich was I also know what you want to do emotionally and this AJ Brown factor one catch for eight yards in the fourth quarter. I don’t it feels like they’re going to want to feed him the ball now. Does Spags let that happen like okay over feed AJ we’re going to take away Saquon or cover AJ like crazy and see what happens to that sideline. Listen, I I think and maybe this will be a mistake. It was It ended up obviously everything went wrong in the Super Bowl. So maybe if they I don’t know if there was that day a defensive game plan that would have changed that game, but that to me was more about the Eagles defense against the Chiefs offense that got everything arai. I think they’re going to have for the third straight game a very similar defensive game plan, which is if the quarterback’s going to drop back and throw it a bunch, we’re going to make him beat us. And I’m not, again, it’s not an insult, right? It’s not an insult Jaylen Herz because they literally just had Justin Herbert Bert do it. I just think that is the going to be the process. My biggest concern in this game for the Chiefs defense is that Jaylen Herz in week one had by a large margin the longest time to throw of any quarterback in the league. People have seen that little chart floating around Twitter where short passes and a ton of time to throw. Um, what I’m worried about is the Chiefs not being able to generate pressure on Jaylen. Jaylen looking and being like, I could try to force it in there. Not going to, and he gets out and runs. You know what I mean? And that he has I know that’s sounds recency biased because he just did something like that against Dallas. Great running game, but I think that he could have that’s where I think the Eagles could do real damage. I don’t think they’re going to give AJ Brown 15 targets. I do think Jaylen Herz might have 12 quarterback runs. Really? And that Yeah. And that to me is that that raises my blood pressure a bit. U Brew as as the wide receiver on the panel. Greg not here. You ain’t lying. How many targets do you think AJ Brown is going to get or should get? How about that? I’m gonna say going to get seven. I think the Eagles play to win. And I mean, he’s going to get more than one for sure. You should get more than one. Yeah. Why Why are you You seem like concerned, I guess, about the Chief’s defense when the body of work for them over the last two years suggests that the defense has been arguably what’s carried your team. Yeah. I I patently reject the idea that last year the defense was the best part of the team. I two years ago is always the best part, right? Two years ago, I believe when the Chiefs won beat the year they beat the Niners in the Super Bowl, that team’s defense was awesome. I was saying all year how awesome it was. Last year, I think that the Chiefs were in such low possession games because they were a 12play offense and they were forcing other teams to be a similar ball control offense that the points per game stat is less instructive than a points per drive stat. And I think that the Chiefs pass defense last year was the inability to generate pressure on the quarterback without either Spags dialing up something awesome or Chris Jones being like, I got it. And I think Chris knew it at the end, which is why he freestyled on that play like listen, we’re not going to be able to get home. We haven’t been able to cover. I need to get a generate a quick pressure like I did on Brock Party in the Super Bowl. Force the o overthrow like I did on Josh Allen in the AFC Championship game that year to force the bad throw. He tried to be a hero and the reason I didn’t kill him for it is because that he’s won us a ton of playoff games being a hero and he was trying to do that. So, I just think that right now they have real questions on getting to the quarterback. And when you marry that with I think a secondary that right now is a work in progress, that concerns me. That legit concerns me. Since the 17 game season, 30 teams started 0 and2. Only five made the playoffs. Three last year, but yeah, being an up. Most teams that start 0 and2 stink, right? That’s the thing is like like I excuse the number. Thanks for watching. Subscribe here to get more from the show and to check out clips from other shows on FS1.

The Kansas City Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl LIX rematch. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes, and Danny Parkins ask what it would mean for the Chiefs if they started the season 0-2, and if the Chiefs can stop Saquon Barkley.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Chiefs ‘could start 0-2’ with loss to Eagles, Can KC stop Saquon Barkley? | FIRST THINGS FIRST
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