OK, so this evening we’ll have Say Say performing before Tay Tay. A cultural convergence, disguised as a football game.
We’ve got the potentially dynastic Chiefs on one sideline, the nobody-loves-us Birds on the other. (“And we don’t care,” Jason Kelce, another ubiquitous presence, said after the Eagles won it a few years back. Except, well, they kinda do.)
Before we strip it down and try to determine what might happen under the watchful eye of Taylor Swift and Co., shoutout to the New York Giants for their contribution to the proceedings. They’re the ones who gifted Saquon Barkley – “Say Say,” as he was known in his Penn State days – to their NFC East rivals last summer. Terrific job on their part. Just awesome. Next to the G-men’s brainstrust, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison – he of last week’s Luka Doncic trade – looks like Branch Bleepin’ Rickey.
All Say Say did was run for 2K this season, then over 100 in each of the Eagles’ three playoff games to date. Jumpstarted the victory over Washington with a 60-yard TD run on Philadelphia’s very first offensive play. Had a vital 78-yarder against the Rams, and would have busted off another 70-plus-yarder against the Packers, had he not elected to take a knee with the game in hand.
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen was just named MVP, but Barkley has been the best player in football this year. Nobody’s stopped him yet, and it’s hard to envision Kansas City doing so today (his 28th birthday, btw), with all due respect to Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Especially given the fact that Barkley is working behind the best offensive line in football.
But it’s a matter of degree, a matter of how much damage Barkley inflicts. If he runs for 120 yards, KC still has a shot. If he goes for 150 or more, probably not.
Certainly Barkley’s performance this season (and especially this postseason) has been no surprise. He has always met the moment, as PSU fans well know. Exhibit A was his 79-yard lightning bolt against USC in the 2017 Rose Bowl, but there were plenty of other examples.
So he’ll be ready. And really, the Eagles would appear to have the better team. They have the deeper roster. The superior line play.
But the Chiefs have Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.
And would it be that much of a stretch to believe that a potential difference in the game might be a one-time ninth-round draft pick of the Eagles?
That would be Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub, widely regarded as the best in the business. An offensive lineman in his younger days, the Birds plucked him out of UTEP in the 1985 draft, then cut him in camp. A year later he began his coaching career, which included a three-year run in Philadelphia (2001-03). He arrived in Kansas City with Reid in 2013, and has been there ever since.
This year the Chiefs were ranked just 21st in special teams (the Eagles were 26th), but it would be a mistake to underestimate Toub’s Teams. KC cycled through three kickers because of injury – one of whom, Lampeter-Strasburg’s Matthew Wright, clinched the division with a bank-shot field goal against San Diego in early December.
And let us never forget that a Super Bowl-record 65-yard punt return by Kadarius Toney was an enormous factor in Kansas City’s 38-35 victory over the Eagles, the last time the clubs met on this stage.
So yeah, you will be tempted to visit the restroom or grab another beverage when the specialists take the field tonight. Word to the wise, though: Pay attention. It’s when the game could be decided.