- The Philadelphia Eagles are 2-point favorites to beat the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LVII on February 12th.
- Philly beat San Francisco 31-7 after the 49ers’ two remaining quarterbacks suffered injuries on Sunday.
- A late penalty cost the Cincinnati Bengals a return trip to the Super Bowl as they lost to the Chiefs 23-20 on a last-second FG.
The stage is set for Super Bowl LVII. And based on the early betting lines, it’s going to be a good one.
The Kansas City Chiefs opened as the -1 point favorite to beat the Philadelphia Eagles shortly after they beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. But, public money came in fast and furious on the Eagles and forced a shift to the line by sportsbooks.
Barely an hour after the opening odds, the spread flipped and the Eagles became the -2.5 point favorites at online sportsbook BetOnline. Early Monday morning, the odds were sitting at +2 for Kansas City and -2 for Philadelphia.
Historically, the betting favorite in the Super Bowl has gone 39-17 straight up. But given the odds movement less than 24 hours after opening, you can’t be too sure who’s going to be the favorite at kickoff.
Eagles Capitalize on 49ers’ QB Woes
The 49ers are out of QBs. Brock Purdy just entered the game after an apparent Josh Johnson injury. pic.twitter.com/Zclc4Z6gbx
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) January 29, 2023
The Eagles are heading to the Super Bowl after blowing out the luckless San Francisco 49ers 31-7 in the NFC title game. Philadelphia scored four rushing touchdowns against one of the best defenses in the NFL. But more than that, it was San Francisco’s QB woes that ended their Championship dreams.
San Francisco entered Sunday with a remarkable 12-game winning streak, including 7 consecutive games where third-string QB Brock Purdy started for the team.
Purdy had been thrust into the limelight after San Francisco lost starting QB Trey Lance and back-up Jimmy Garoppolo to injury. But after an immaculate run, Purdy himself succumbed to the same fate as his predecessors.
The Niners lost Purdy to a right elbow injury on their sixth offensive snap. Purdy likely suffered a sprained ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo MRI on Monday. The hope is that the UCL is not ruptured and would need only a six-week recovery period.
With Purdy out of Sunday’s game early in the first quarter, 4th string QB Josh Johnson took the helm before he too suffered a concussion which forced Purdy to play hurt.
With the San Francisco offense heavily compromised, the 49ers went scoreless in the second half while the Eagles added 10 more points to the 21, they scored in the first half.
The Eagles became only the second team in the 49ers’ last 13 games to score more than 23 points. The other time was when the Raiders put up 34 in the Niners’ second-to-the-last regular season game. But Purdy was there to lead the SF offense to 37 points scored. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.
Ossai’s Penalty Costs the Bengals
On 3rd and 4 at the Cincinnati 47-yard line with 17 seconds left in the game, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes scrambled to his right to secure a first down. As Mahomes stepped out of bounds after his 5-yard dash, Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai shoved Mahomes from behind, causing both of them to tumble to the ground on the Bengals’ sideline.
According to Ossai, he injured his left knee in the collision with Mahomes and will get an MRI to determine the damage. But that wasn’t the story.
Ossai was charged with unnecessary roughness and the 15-yard penalty enabled the Chiefs to get into field goal position with 3 seconds left in the game. Harrison Butker then sent a 45-yard kick through the cold wind over the crossbar to give the Chiefs a 23-20 win and put Kansas City back in the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons.
It was vindication for the Chiefs who entered Sunday’s game having lost their last three games to the Bengals, including a three-point overtime loss in last year’s AFC championship game. All three of their losses to Cincinnati were by a margin of three points, now they return the favor with a 3-point win over the Bengals.
For the Bengals, it snapped a 10-game winning run and it was their first loss to the Chiefs with Joe Burrow as their starting quarterback. Cincinnati was looking to repeat last year’s win in the AFC title game and return to the Super Bowl and complete the job they failed to do last year. Instead, they went from going to another OT game with the Chiefs to a disastrous loss that will make the Bengals wait another year to avenge.
Eagles vs Chiefs at Super Bowl LVII
Joseph Ossai tackled Patrick Mahomes when he was out of bounds, caused a 15-yard penalty, and got himself injured all in the same play pic.twitter.com/WWiPw1DeT3
— Sportsville (@Sportsville_) January 30, 2023,
But while San Francisco’s QB injuries and Ossai’s penalty were the biggest difference makers in Sunday’s Conference title games, they did not erase the fact that the Eagles and Chiefs were the top seeds in their respective conference in the playoffs and were the best regular season team in their respective groups.
Philadelphia and Kansas City both finished the regular season with 14-3 SU records and entered the playoffs with home-field advantage throughout their respective conferences. Their journey to Super Bowl LVII began differently.
The Eagles opened with 50-1 odds to win Super Bowl LVII and had 15 teams ahead of them in the title odds boards. Those odds shortened to 25-1 after they acquired AJ Brown. But the Eagles took flight as they won their first 8 games of the season and went on a 13-1 SU to emerge as one of the top favorites to win the Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs were one of the betting favorites right from the get-go, opening with 11-1 odds. Kansas City didn’t start too strong but was still 4-2 SU after six games. They then went 10-1 SU to finish the regular season while posting single-digit Super Bowl LVII odds from week 2 onwards and by late November, they emerged as the odds-on favorite to win the Lombardi Trophy.
Now the two teams meet on February 12th at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona, in the first-ever Super Bowl featuring two black quarterbacks.
