PRESS BOX: Who’s going to win the Super Bowl?

Thailon Wilson, Staff Writer

As the 2023 NFL Season comes to an end, the final game to decide the Super Bowl 57 Champions in Phoenix is coming up on Feb. 12. 

In a previous article by The Commonwealth Times, the sports staff guessed that the Buffalo Bills would be the team to beat. As an avid Philadelphia Eagles fan, it hurt to admit that the Eagles would not win.

However, now that the Super Bowl is the next and final game, my team — the Eagles — will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs to determine who will be the Super Bowl champion.

In an unbiased view, it’s a battle of the most complete team versus the team with the best tight end and quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce. 

VCU sophomore Zach Stephan said the power of Mahomes and Travis Kelce is why he believes the chiefs will win the Super Bowl. 

“I think the Kansas City Chiefs will win just because of how dominant Patrick Mahomes is, as well as how Travis Kelce can take over games like he did against the Buffalo Bills last year in the playoffs,” Stephan said.

The dominance of the Kansas City duo is unstoppable against most teams in the league, but recently Mahomes suffered a right ankle injury in the divisional round, according to the NFL.

The injury hindered Mahomes’ ability to scramble and create the magician-like throws that we know him for, but that isn’t the only aspect of his game that will help in the Super Bowl.

Mahomes is an NFL MVP award candidate after he threw for a career-high 5,250 passing yards and 41 passing touchdowns, according to ESPN, so Mahomes is definitely serviceable as a stable pocket passer as well. 

While the Chiefs have the better passing offense, the Eagles own the trenches as the number one rushing attack in the postseason with an average of 208 rushing yards per game, according to ESPN.

Along with the Eagles’ rushing attack, have two wide receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith who both had 1,000-plus receiving yards seasons, according to ESPN. 

The run game and deep threat potential allows the Eagles to play a very aggressive run-pass option, or RPO playstyle.  

VCU junior financial technology student Matthew Taleghani said if the Eagles can get their run game going, he sees the Eagles being able to hold on to the lead and win the game.

“If the Eagles can get out and score early and get a stop, I believe they’ll be able to play their game and run all over the Chiefs,” Taleghani said.

The Eagles also have a very well-rounded defense with a defensive line that led the league in sacks with 70 and is third on the all-time sacks record list in a single season, according to Statmuse. 

The Eagles are led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is also an MVP candidate who led the team to a record of 14 wins and three losses.

VCU homeland security student Braden Weissmann said Hurts’ running game and the offensive line will lead the Eagles to a win.

“Hurts can run and Mahomes can’t currently and our offensive line and D-line is better, so I think we can win by at least 20,” Weissmann said.

This game has a lot of storylines that are very important to note like how this will be the first-ever game with two Black starting quarterbacks with Hurts and Mahomes. I can see either winning the Super Bowl MVP.

VCU junior health sciences student Jacqueline Williams said that it would be nice to see the Eagles win their second ever Super Bowl.

“It’d be cool to see the Eagles win their second ever Super Bowl, and I also think it’s really cool that both quarterbacks are young quarterbacks,” Williams said.

This is also the first-ever game with two brothers facing off against each other in Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and Philadelphia’s starting center Jason Kelce. 

Fox Sports commentator Shannon Sharpe said on his TV show “Undisputed” about how he completely understands why sports bettors have the Eagles as -1.5 favorites to win. 

 “When you look at the way they can run the ball and pass the ball with Hurts as well as look at their special teams and defense, I am not surprised that the Eagles are the favorites,” Sharpe said in his show. 

As a fan of the Eagles, of course I just want to straight up say I believe the Eagles will win, but in full honesty, it will come down to whose offense gets hot first. The Eagles will win ultimately because of how complete the team is.

However, I do see a world where the Chiefs get red-hot first and don’t look back, but with the Eagles’ defense, it’s hard to see that world coming to fruition.