By Brandon Simmons
Eagles Soar over Wounded 49ers
The Philadelphia Eagles put on another dominant performance, this time over the San Francisco 49ers. However, things might have went awry for the Niners since they lost their QB, Brock Purdy, to injury in the 1st quarter. Philly started out hot with a 7-0 lead, thanks to a Miles Sanders run. However, after the 49ers responded with a Christian McCaffrey run, the Eagles responded with 2 more rushing touchdowns by McCaffrey and running back Boston Scott. In fact, Eagles QB Jalen Hurts piled on with his own rushing touchdown in the 3rd quarter to put the game away.
This was a game that the Eagles took control of when they saw the opportunity, which was given to them rather quickly. As soon as the 49ers lost Brock Purdy to injury, things went completely out of control. The Niners put in Josh Johnson at QB but something just felt off. While they tried to give it a good shot in the 2nd quarter, it did not seem they had a lot of hope in their signal caller and was ready to get things out of the way. They even put Purdy back in the 3rd quarter but still ran the ball as if he was one the sideline. With the staled movements of the Niners offense, the Eagles took advantage with their run game, getting big plays from running backs Gainwell and Sanders. For the 2nd straight week, Hurts had to do nothing as he finished the game with 121 yards passing. In a game that looked to be challenging for Philadelphia, the Eagles are now soaring to a Super bowl with relative ease.
The Chiefs Survive a Close One
The Kansas City Chiefs escape a tough battle with the Cincinnati Bengals in a 23-20 win. It was a gae that looked fishy for Kansas City, considering the fact that Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was dealing with a high ankle sprain coming into this game, but none of that seemed to matter. The Chiefs jumped out to a 13-6 lead before halftime. The Bengals responded with a catch by wide receiver Tee Higgins that tied the game up. Mahomes throws a touchdown to wide receiver Montes Valdes Scantling that to take a 20-13 lead. After a Bengals 3 and out, the Chiefs take possession but Mahomes fumbles the ball away. With the ball in hand, on 4th and 6, Bengals QB Joe Burrow throws the ball to wide receiver Ja’marr Chase to convert, which sets up a rushing touchdown by running back Semaji Perine in the 4th quarter. After that, both teams traded punts until Kansas City defensive tackle Chris Jones sacked Burrow on 3rd down. That sack prompted a punt which put the ball in Kansas City’s hands on a return that took them to the KC 47. On 3rd and 4, from the Cincy 47, Mahomes scrambed for 5 yards but was forced out of bounds and hit as well, which generated an unnecessary roughness penalty, giving the Chiefs an additional 15 yards. That extra 15 yards set up the game winning field goal.
At the end of the day, the Chiefs were simply better. Kansas City had everything stacked against them. The Cincinnati Bengals were younger, on a hotter win streak against the Chiefs and their important weapons were healthier. Still, it did not stop the Chiefs from making the big plays that were needed, in spite of Mahomes’ injury, because the team didn’t need him early one to stay in this game. In the first quarter, KC generated 3 sacks, and 5 overall. Still, Mahomes was able to put up 326 yards passing and 2 touchdowns with 0 picks. And the talk surrounding the high ankle sprain plastered doubt about Mahomes’ ability to scramble, but he sort of erased that at the end of game and even generated the unnecessary roughness call to set up the go ahead field goal.