The Philadelphia Eagles defense crashed and burned in the second half of Super Bowl LVII, giving up four consecutive scoring drives to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to ultimately lose, 38-35.
Two of the game's biggest plays came when Kansas City faked jet motion and reversed course for wide-open touchdowns. First, Kadarius Toney slammed the brakes early in the fourth quarter and found himself alone after Eagles defensive backs overplayed the motion. On the next K.C. drive, Philly called an all-out blitz on third down, and again no one covered the fake jet motion, leaving Skyy Moore alone for a score to put the Chiefs up eight points.
Speaking to Peter King of NBC Sports, former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who took the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job last week, shouldered the blame for the pair of coverage busts.
"Our players were prepped. I did not do a good enough job myself to put them in a position to make the play," Gannon told King. "I didn't do a good enough job to get out of the call what I wanted out of the call. I didn't give them the tools that they needed to win the down.
"On the second one, I thought [Mahomes] was gonna play that as a drop back and that [coverage] was a zero [blitz]. Jesus Christ wouldn't have covered that in a zero."
It's the first time we've heard Gannon openly discuss the breakdowns of his defense in the Super Bowl loss. Outside of two second-quarter forced punts, Philly had zero answers for Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Kansas City's final four possessions went 75-yard TD drive, 75-yard TD drive, 5-yard TD drive, and 66-yard field goal drive (after an intentional slide on what could have been another TD drive).
The Eagles' menacing front famously generated zero sacks of Mahomes, and Philly gave up 158 rushing yards in the game.
The Super Bowl was the culmination of Eagles fans' fears all season: In the most significant moments, Gannon's D couldn't get a key stop against a star quarterback.