As a long time Chiefs fan, football head coach Drew Steffen has seen his team in a lot of big moments.
“When I lived in Kansas City, we went to quite a few games,” Steffen said. “We were there when Dee Ford jumped offsides, the Houston Texans game when they came back by 24 or whatever.”
Most recently, Steffen said he was at the AFC Championship game when the Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals to advance to the Super Bowl for the third time in four years.
Steffen said when your favorite team is in these moments, fans can’t take them for granted.
“It’s been fun to enjoy and watch them,” he said. “I’m excited.”
The Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII Sunday as the Chiefs will look to secure the franchise’s third Vince Lombardi trophy.
It will not be an easy task, however, as the Eagles enter the game with an overall season record of 16-3 and come off two playoff victories they won by at least 24 points each.
Despite this, junior Kole Manley said he thinks the Chiefs stack up well against the Eagles.
“I think as long as our o-line holds up against their edge rushers and their d-line, I think our offense can take care of business pretty well,” Manley said. “What worries me is our defense a little bit. You know, they’re hit or miss sometimes. But they’ve been playing good down the stretch, so hopefully they can keep it up.”
Manley said the main thing the Chiefs defense needs to do is limit big plays from wide receiver A.J. Brown and running back Miles Sanders.
As the Cardinals quarterback, Manley said he is excited to watch two MVP candidate quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts play in the biggest of spotlights.
“I’m really looking forward to see how Jalen Hurts handles the big moment,” Manley said. “He hasn’t been in the league very long. He’s proved a lot this year, but he can prove a lot more this week. And Mahomes, everyone’s talking about that ankle, but it looked good against the Bengals. But with an ankle sprain you never know. One bad step could change a lot of things.”
Senior Eythen Moore said it is essential for the Chiefs to keep Hurts in check as well.
“For the Chiefs, I’d say it’s just like making sure they don’t have Jalen Hurts go out and do what he did against the Niners,” Moore said. “So, I’d say just making sure they keep track of Jalen Hurts and keep that run game and scrambling to a minimum.”
As for the Chiefs offense, senior Kale Hammerschmidt said he thinks they need to get the football to their playmakers often.
“My keys to the game I think are getting (Isiah) Pacheco the ball in the run game and getting that going,” Hammerschmidt said. “I’d say getting (Travis) Kelce lots of touches. I think we always do well when we spread the ball around.”
For the first time in Super Bowl history, two brothers will play against each other. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Eagles center Jason Kelce will share the same field Sunday.
“I think it’s really cool,” Manley said. “There is a petition going around that people wanted their mom to do the coin toss. I think that’d be really cool. But, it’s a tough position for a parent to be in and decide who you want to win.”
Another interesting storyline in this Super Bowl is the fact that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid will be facing his former team. Reid was the head coach of the Eagles for 13 years before coming to Kansas City in 2013.
However, Steffen said he thinks Reid won’t let that distract him from focusing on the game.
“I think there’s obviously emotions at it,” Steffen said. “But I think Andy Reid has done it for so long that I think that’s a story, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily any extra motivation there.”
As for his final score prediction, Steffen said he thinks Mahomes, Reid and the Chiefs will get the job done by a score of 24-21.
Manley and Hammerschmidt both picked the Chiefs to come out on top in a high scoring game. Manley’s final score was 36-31 while Hammerschmidt’s was 34-31.
Moore said he thinks it will be a fun game to watch and the Chiefs will win 28-24.
The Super Bowl starts at 5:30 p.m. Sunday and will air on FOX.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
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