Super Bowl preview: Mark Craig’s Five Extra Points

Super Bowl LIX is now a mere week away. While we Swifties wait breathlessly for our Taylor sightings and cutesy commercials, and ponder our prop bets — including 13 Swift-related wagers as of Thursday, according to BetOnline — here are five things to think about when it comes to the actual game. (P.S. Wonder where the NFL stands on Travis Kelce and Swift betting on the number of times they’ll kiss on the field after the game and then working in cahoots to rig that particular prop bet in their financial favor? They are a young couple just starting out in life, after all.)

1. Mahomes’ feet are first-ballot, too

Patrick Mahomes isn’t a running quarterback until the biggest moments need him to be one of the best running quarterbacks ever. In his four Super Bowls over the past five years, the Kansas City quarterback has 23 carries — not counting kneel downs — for 196 yards (8.5), one touchdown and 13 first downs, seven of which came with the Chiefs needing at least 7 yards. He played the Eagles two years ago with a high-ankle sprain. Big deal. His 26-yard run with 2:55 left set up the winning field goal in a 38-35 thriller. The 49ers bottled his legs up early last year. Meh. He finished with nine carries for team-high 66 yards (7.3) and five first downs, including overtime runs of 8 yards on fourth-and-1 and 19 yards on third-and-1 — while trailing 22-19 from the 49ers’ 32 — to set up his game-winning 3-yard touchdown pass with six seconds left.

2. Can Hurts outplay Mahomes on biggest stage?

Answer: Yes. How do we know this? Because the Eagles quarterback did so in the Super Bowl two years ago, with one giant, game-changing exception, of course. If Jalen Hurts doesn’t fumble on linebacker Nick Bolton’s 36-yard scoop-and-score in the second quarter, it’s Hurts — not Mahomes — who wins MVP and the Eagles who are going for a second Super Bowl victory in three years, not the Chiefs who are going for an unprecedented three-peat. Hurts threw for 304 yards and a touchdown. He ran for a team-high 70 yards and three more touchdowns on 15 carries (4.7). There’s been much consternation about Philly’s passing attack, which mustered only 259 yards total in its first two playoff victories. But Hurts did turn things around a bit in the NFC title game with 246 yards and a touchdown on 20-for-28 passing.

3. Running backs still matter, right Saquon!?

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is the league’s ninth 2,000-yard rusher. Seven of the other eight never won a playoff game. O.J. Simpson (1973) and Chris Johnson (2009) missed the playoffs. Eric Dickerson (1984), Barry Sanders (1997), Jamal Lewis (2003), Adrian Peterson (2012) and Derrick Henry (2020) went one-and-done. Only Terrell Davis, whose 1998 Broncos won the Super Bowl, succeeded in the postseason. Barkley ran for 2,005 yards before resting in Week 18. He’s averaging 147 yards and 6.7 a carry in the postseason. He has the best offensive line in football and two weeks for it to heal from recent injuries. The Chiefs also have been leaky against the run this postseason, giving up 149 yards and a 5.1 average to Houston and 147 yards and a 4.6 average to a Bills team that underused running back James Cook (13 carries, 85 yards, 6.5, two TDs).

4. Keep an eye on the defensive coordinators, too

As head coaches, 66-year-old Vic Fangio and 65-year-old Steve Spagnuolo are a combined 30-71 with no winning seasons in seven tries. As defensive coordinators, they are as good as it gets. It took Chiefs coach Andy Reid less than 48 hours to fire Bob Sutton after Tom Brady and the Patriots rolled K.C. for 524 yards while converting 13 of 19 third downs in a 37-31 victory in Mahomes’ first of seven straight AFC title games. Since then, the Chiefs have reached five of six Super Bowls and are shooting for their fourth win. The Chiefs ranked second in points allowed last year (17.3) and fourth this year (19.2). Meanwhile, in Fangio’s first season in Philly, the Eagles have gone from 31st (252.7) to first (174.2) in pass defense and 30th (25.2) to second (17.2) in points allowed.

5. What will Sirianni fans do next?

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni has been described as “passionate but out of control.” If that doesn’t describe an Eagles fan, nothing does. Yet, these two emotional tsunamis can’t seem to find brotherly love. Fans who wanted Sirianni fired last year became crankier during a 2-2 start. Sirianni yelled back, literally, as the Eagles were beating the Browns to jumpstart their current 15-1 run. Andy Reid is the best coach in the history of both Super Bowl teams. His 301 career wins, including playoffs, ranks fourth all-time. No one wants him fired. And no one should want Sirianni fired regardless of what happens next week. The guy is 48-20, a .706 winning percentage that ranks fifth among coaches with at least 50 regular season games. Sirianni reached the Super Bowl in Year 2, lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs, needed a year to regroup, changed coordinators again this year and is back in the Super Bowl. Boo-hoo, Philly. Boo-hoo.