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It would have been hard enough for the Philadelphia Eagles to simply battle Patrick Mahomes and the high-powered Kansas City Chiefs’ offense in Super Bowl LVII. They are unequivocally a dynasty in the making. But the men in midnight green were forced to fight a flag-happy officiating crew along with the worst field conditions in recent memory.
The FOX Sports cameras flashed a picture of a cart loaded up with cleats as Eagles players kept changing them in an effort to avoid slipping on the field. It didn’t work. The questionable turf, identified as Tahoma 31 Bermuda Grass, cost $800,000 and the NFL spent two years preparing the sod for Sunday’s game.
All that time and money went wasted. Both the Chiefs and Eagles criticized the field conditions, acknowledging how hard it was to dig their spikes in and turn the corner. After the Chiefs’ 38-35 win, Pro Bowl linebacker Haason Reddick aired his grievances on the “worst field” he’s ever played on.
“I’m not going to lie: It was the worst field I ever played on,” Reddick said. “I slipped a couple of times. I felt like I had a good pass rush, felt like I beat my man, try to turn the corner and couldn’t turn the corner. Like I said, I’m not making excuses, but you watch the film and you can see when I slipped. At the end of the day, they still won.”
Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata compared it to “playing on a water park.” Chiefs pass rusher Frank Clark called the field “kind of terrible” and cited the painted areas as being extra slippery. If anyone needed visual evidence, it came when Jake Elliott slipped and twisted his ankle on a kickoff attempt.
Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts Not Making Excuses
Head coach Nick Sirianni didn’t deny the field conditions were less than stellar, although he wanted to make it clear that wasn’t the reason his team lost. Eagles players swapped out cleats in the middle of the game and adjusted on the fly. Both sides were dealing with the same issue in Super Bowl LVII.
“When you say something like that, it’s not like we were playing on ice and they were playing on grass,” Sirianni said. “We all had to figure out our shoes. You do your best to figure out the playing surface as soon as you possibly can, sometimes you have to change cleats in the middle of the game. Same way as if you had to change a game plan or a play.”
Meanwhile, quarterback Jalen Hurts played like an MVP despite the terrible field conditions. He went 27-of-38 for 304 passing yards while rushing 15 times for 70 yards. His three touchdowns on the ground set a new Super Bowl record. Ditto for those 70 rushing yards which broke Steve McNair’s record in a Super Bowl. He was phenomenal.
And, predictably, he wasn’t about to blame the turf for coming up short on the scoreboard. When asked about the field, Hurts said: “I have a number of pairs of cleats, so I find a way.”
Eagles Defense Feeling the ‘Sting’ After Super Bowl Loss
Defensive end Brandon Graham provided a thoughtful answer to the emotions raging in the locker room after Sunday’s loss. He wasn’t pointing fingers or making excuses about poor playing conditions. The Eagles flat-out loss and a big reason why is because their defense couldn’t get off the field.
“It hurts. We know we didn’t put our best foot forward in this game,” Graham said. “Give all credit to Kansas City. They came out, the boys played hard until the end. Like I told the team, ‘don’t forget what you did this year.’ It’s going to serve us next year. Feel this sting because it definitely hurts. Boy, it stings. You can taste it. You can feel it. All we had to do was make a play on defense.”
The Eagles were outscored 24-11 in the second half, giving up a 10-point lead and failing to get any pressure on Patrick Mahomes. They recorded zero sacks and surrendered 340 total yards of offense on 53 plays, or 6.4 yards per play. Those aren’t Super Bowl-winning numbers.
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