Jalen Hurts bucked a long time of historical past simply by getting again to the Tremendous Bowl after dropping his first journey there as a beginning quarterback.
Now Hurts will attempt to turn out to be the fourth quarterback to win the NFL’s final prize as a beginning quarterback after dropping his first Tremendous Bowl begin.
Hurts got here shut two years in the past when Philadelphia misplaced 38-35 to Kansas Metropolis in Glendale, Arizona. With a win subsequent week in New Orleans, Hurts would be the first quarterback since John Elway 27 years in the past to win a Tremendous Bowl as a starter after dropping in his first journey.
Out of the 36 beginning quarterbacks who misplaced their Tremendous Bowl debuts, the one ones to finish up on the victory stage as a starter are Kansas Metropolis’s Len Dawson, who misplaced Tremendous Bowl 1 after which received it three years later, and Miami’s Bob Griese, who adopted a loss in Tremendous Bowl 6 with a win the next 12 months.
Simply getting again to this stage is uncommon for Hurts, who ended a string of 19 straight QBs who did not return to the Tremendous Bowl after dropping their first journey as a starter. The final to get again was Buffalo’s Jim Kelly, who misplaced 4 straight journeys within the 1990-93 seasons.
Hurts will one once more face Patrick Mahomes, who will tie Elway for the second most Tremendous Bowl begins at quarterback together with his fifth subsequent week, trailing solely Tom Brady’s 10. With a win, Mahomes will be part of Brady (six), Terry Bradshaw (4) and Joe Montana (4) as the one QBs with 4 rings.
Mahomes will make his fifth Tremendous Bowl begin as a small group of QBs has had a stranglehold on the AFC’s Tremendous Bowl berths. Within the final 22 seasons, solely six AFC QBs have began a Tremendous Bowl with Brady main the best way with eight, Peyton Manning having 4 and Ben Roethlisberger three. Joe Flacco and Joe Burrow every have one because the begin of the 2003 season.
It has been a wholly totally different case within the NFC with 19 quarterbacks combining for the 22 begins, together with one for Brady with Tampa Bay. Hurts joins Russell Wilson and Eli Manning as the one quarterbacks to begin two Tremendous Bowls for an NFC group because the begin of the 2003 season.
Run to sunlight
The Philadelphia Eagles ran their solution to the Tremendous Bowl.
The Eagles tied an NFL playoff report with seven landing runs within the NFC title sport win over Washington, matching the mark Chicago set in opposition to Washington within the 1940 NFL title sport.
Hurts scored on three of the TD runs with Saquon Barkley including three extra — together with his report seventh landing run of no less than 60 yards this season. The one different teammates to every run for 3 touchdowns in an everyday season or playoff sport since no less than 1940 got here when Priest Holmes (4) and Derrick Blaylock (three) did it for Kansas Metropolis in a 56-10 win over Atlanta on Oct. 24, 2004.
The Eagles additionally set a report for many yards speeding in a season with 3,731 within the common season and playoffs. The mark earlier than this season was 3,535 by Miami in its excellent 17-0 season in 1972. Baltimore additionally eclipsed that mark with 3,664 yards speeding.
The Eagles have an opportunity to interrupt their very own report for many landing runs in a season. They’ve 39 heading into the Tremendous Bowl — three shy of the mark they set within the 2022 season.
Robust luck Allen
Josh Allen as soon as once more got here out on the quick finish of a playoff matchup in opposition to Mahomes and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.
Allen is the primary quarterback ever to lose 4 postseason begins in opposition to one other QB, though little of the blame needs to be pointed in his path.
Allen has a 100.2 passer score with 11 mixed landing runs and passes and only one turnover in 4 playoff begins in opposition to the Chiefs and has misplaced all of them.
Allen’s 101.5 profession passer score within the playoffs ranks fourth finest among the many 74 quarterbacks with no less than six playoff begins within the Tremendous Bowl period, trailing solely Tremendous Bowl winners Mahomes (105.6), Kurt Warner (102.8) and Matthew Stafford (102.3). Allen’s seven profession playoff wins as a starter are probably the most for any QB who hasn’t made the Tremendous Bowl.
The Payments turned the primary group to win no less than 11 video games in 5 straight seasons with out reaching a Tremendous Bowl, topping the previoius mark of 4 held by San Francisco (1995-98) and Philadelphia (2000-03).
Teaching carousel
The teaching carousel is almost full of the New Orleans Saints the one group out of the seven who fired their head coach hasn’t discovered a alternative.
The brand new batch options 4 coordinators who bought promoted into their first head teaching jobs and two retreads in former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel getting the nod in New England and Pete Carroll getting employed in Las Vegas after earlier stints with the Jets, Patriots and Seahawks.
Carroll joins Invoice Parcells and Marty Schottenheimer as the one coaches since 1940 who’ve had non-interim stints with 4 franchises.
The addition of Carroll units up a power-packed roster of coaches within the division, led by Kansas Metropolis’s Andy Reid, who has 301 profession wins and his going for his fourth profession Tremendous Bowl title.
Denver’s Sean Payton (179 wins) and Carroll (181) have mixed for 360 extra wins with each successful Tremendous Bowl titles. Jim Harbaugh of the Chargers has a .685 successful proportion in 5 seasons as an NFL head coach with one Tremendous Bowl journey and a university nationwide championship.
He’ll attempt to be part of Carroll, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as the one coaches to win a title in faculty and the professionals.
The AFC West would be the first division to begin a season with each head teaching having beforehand been to a Tremendous Bowl. The 1999 NFC West got here shut with Atlanta’s Dan Reeves, Carolina’s George Seifert, New Orleans’ Mike Ditka and St. Louis’ Dick Vermeil all having gone with San Francisco’s Steve Mariucci the outlier.
Solely two divisions did not have any teaching adjustments with the NFC West and AFC North remaining steady. That is nothing new for the AFC North, which final had a training change following the 2019 season when Cleveland employed Kevin Stefanski to switch Freddie Kitchens.
Subsequent season will mark the sixth straight with the identical 4 head coaches for the 4 groups. That is the longest stretch ever with no teaching change, topping the 4 straight seasons for the NFC Central in 1978-81 and the NFC West from 2019-22.
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