57 facts you need to know about Super Bowl LVII

I. Andy Reid being Nick Sirianni’s senior by 23 years makes this Super Bowl coaching matchup the second-largest age gap in Super Bowl history. That’s a full decade shy of the massive 33-year gap between Bill Belichick and Sean McVay in Super Bowl LIII.

II. Not sure if you’ve heard this, but Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce are the first brothers on opposing teams in a Super Bowl. This wasn’t how they envisioned it though. They once dreamed of leading the Cleveland Browns to a Super Bowl and Travis was crushed when the Browns didn’t draft him.

III. Need any other signs that we are witnessing a changing of the guard this season in the wake of Tom Brady’s retirement? The combined ages of Patrick Mahomes, 27, and Jalen Hurts, 24, tie them with Brett Favre and Drew Bledsoe as the youngest pair of opposing quarterbacks in any Super Bowl. Their cumulative ages would equate to the combined 51 years on this rock that Favre (then 27), and Bledsoe (then 24), had between them when the Packers thrashed the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 26, 1997.

IV. How dominant have the Eagles been this season? They’ve played a league-high 720 snaps with the lead.

V. On the other hand, Eagles skeptics considered them untested at the beginning of the playoffs. Philadelphia ended the regular season with the easiest strength of schedule in the NFL according to Football Outsiders. But here’s a reality check — the 49ers squad they disposed of in the NFC Championship Game ranked 30th and Kansas City’s schedule was 29th.

VI. Super Bowl LVII will mark the 15 straight postseason game the Chiefs have either hosted at home or in a neutral location.

VII. Historically, the teams that outrush their opponent in the Super Bowl are 41-14.

VIII. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are the first pair of Eagles receivers to both eclipse 1,000 yards in a single season.

IX. DeVonta Smith’s 95 catches this season passed former No. 1 overall pick Irving Fryar as the Eagles’ single-season receptions record holder while Brown’s 1,496 yards eclipsed Mike Quick’s single-season franchise record.

X. On throws 25 yards downfield or more, Eagles passers (mainly Hurts) ranked first in QBR, yards per attempt, and completion percentage.

XI. Hurts says he feels fine, but he has rushed for 40 yards or fewer in three consecutive games since returning from a sprain in the shoulder on his right throwing arm.

XII. Philadelphia has rushed for as many touchdowns in this postseason (seven) as the other 13 playoff participants combined.

XIII. The Eagles are a throwback. They would become the first Super Bowl champion with more rushing attempts than passing attempts plus sacks since the 2013 Seattle Seahawks. In the postseason thus far, they’ve continued that trend with 49 passes to 88 carries.

XIV. That discrepancy can be attributed to their run-heavy game script when they’ve built a comfortable lead. Otherwise, Philadelphia throws 55.3 percent of the time in early down situations when the game

XV. Hurts’ EPA per play drops from fourth in non-blitzing scenarios to 23rd when he’s blitzed.

XVI. When the Chiefs rushed four or fewer defenders, they ranked 23rd in EPA per pass play, but they blitzed less frequently (24.7 percent of the time) than ever before under Steve Spagnuolo.

XVII. The Chiefs allowed the fifth-most rushing yards per game (444) in the league. For obvious reasons, that doesn’t bode well for a matchup against Hurts.

XVIII. Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones was sack-less in his first dozen playoff contests until generating two sacks and five quarterback hits and 10 QB pressures against the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game.

XIX. Jones’s 21.5 percent pass rush win rate led all defensive tackles in 2022.

XX. Frank Clark’s 13.5 career playoff sacks are third-best all-time trailing Willie McGinest and Bruce Smith. Clark has 2.5 sacks in this postseason run alone.

XXI. Eagles All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson hasn’t surrendered a sack or a QB hit in two seasons. The last sack he allowed was during Week 11 of the 2020 campaign and the last time he allowed a pass rusher to get a clean lick on a quarterback was in Week 7 of the 2021 season.

XXII. During the regular season, Philly’s secondary finished first among 32 teams in combined forced incompletions and interceptions (66) according to Pro Football Focus. Mahomes has some work cut out for himself.

XXIII. Travis Kelce’s 1,467 postseason receiving yards are second to only Jerry Rice who accumulated 2,245 yards.

XXIV. Kelce has been targeted 177 times this season, eight shy of his 2020 career-high of 185.

XXV. As the 251st pick in the seventh round, Isiah Pacheco was 11 picks away from becoming Mr. Irrelevant. The scouting rub on Pachecho was that he rarely broke tackles at Rutgers. Since Week 10, Pachecho has phased through defenses, ranking ninth in carries, third in rushing yards, seventh in yards after contact, and has the fifth-most runs of 15 yards more according to Doug Ferrar.

XXVI. Between Week 9 and Week 18, the Eagles allowed 5.2 yards per rush, the third-worst average allowed per run in the NFL during that span. Expect a heavy dose of Isiah Pachecho as the Chiefs attempt to replicate what the Niners did on the ground against Philly between their highly-touted interior linemen Trey Smith, Joe Thuney, and Creed Humphrey.

XXVII. Allowed a 54.4 QBR to opposing passers in 2022 (third-worst in the NFL).

XXXVIII. Allowed a touchdown on 67.5 percent of opposing offense’s trips into the red zone, second-worst in the NFL, and they were the only team among the bottom six to reach the postseason.

XXIX. George Karlaftis has seven sacks, including one he recorded in the AFC Championship Game, and his 48 pressures were second-most among rookies, trailing only Aidan Hutchinson.

XXX. Chiefs linebacker Willie Gay Jr. and A.J. Brown won a state championship on the same high school team in Starkville, Mississippi in 2015.

XXXI. Philadelphia’s offense scored touchdowns on 67.8 percent of its red zone forays.

XXXII. According to The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia, Spagnulo’s defense plays man coverage on just 28.6 percent of their opponent’s pass plays this season, the lowest mark of any season since he took over in 2019 to stitch up their porous defense.

XXXIII. Leveled quarterbacks to the tune of 70 sacks this season, the third-most in NFL history since NFL record-keepers began officially tracking the stat for the 1982 season. In the new millennium, the 2000 New Orleans Saints (66.0) and the 2006 San Diego Chargers (61.0) are the only teams to collect more than 60 sacks in a season.

XXXIV. Edge rusher Haason Reddick forced five fumbles, which led the league. We got a glimpse of his nose for the ball when he knocked a pass out of Brocky Purdy’s possession and inadvertently caused the elbow injury that ended Mr. Irrelevant’s Cinderella story.

XXXV. Reddick’s 28 percent pass rush win rate ranked second in the metric among all defenders behind only Micah Parsons (30 percent).

XXXVI. How incompetent are the Arizona Cardinals? After drafting Reddick 13th overall after four years as an outside rusher at Temple, they wasted him at inside linebacker during his first three years. In that span, he compiled 7.5 sacks.

XXXVII. Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave led all NFC interior linemen in sacks with 11.

XXXVIII. Of the Eagles’ 70 sacks, 50 came when they were rushing four or fewer pass rushers. Not only was the league high, but they produced seven more than any other defense since Next Gen Stats began recording those advanced metrics in 2016.

XXXIX. The difference in sack rate between the Eagles and the No. 2 Patriots is equivalent to the difference between the Pats and the Bengals’ sack rate (29th).

XL. In all, Philadelphia is the first team in NFL history to have four players record 10 sacks in a season.

XLI. This season, Mahomes’ 17 passing touchdowns against the blitz were the best in the NFL.

XLII. Finished the regular season first in expected points added (EPA) per pass play, scoring, and yards per play

XLIII. Would be the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to lead the league in passing yards and hoist the Lombardi Trophy during that season.

XLIV. Threw 28 of his league-leading 41 touchdowns to either a running back or a tight end.

XLV. Connected with a league-high 12 receivers for scores.

XLVI. He and Travis Kelce have also connected on 13 career playoff touchdowns. The gold standard for playoff duos is unsurprisingly Brady and Gronk, who connected on 15 touchdown pitches and catches.

XLVII. Bounced back from a season in which he recorded the league’s 19th-best passer rating when teams rush four players or fewer by earning the league’s second-best passer rating in those situations throughout the 2022 season.

XLVIII. Has led the Chiefs to a third Super Bowl, but in his previous two has been surprisingly mortal throwing two touchdowns, four interceptions, and amassing a 64.2 Super Bowl passer rating.

XLIV. Finished the regular season ranked number one in passing yards allowed.

XLIX. Allowed the third-lowest passer rating in the NFL of 81.6 during the regular season.

L. James Bradberry was a preeminent shutdown corner in 2022, breaking up more passes than any defensive back not named Jalen Ramsey or Sauce Gardner. He also held opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating of 55.9 when they threw in his direction, good for the NFL’s third-lowest mark among corners who were targeted on a minimum of 50 targets.

LI. Teams didn’t fare much better throwing at Darius “Big Play” Slay, whose passer rating allowed of 60.0 ranked sixth in the NFL.

LII. Free safety C.J. Gardner Johnson’s six interceptions led the entire league, despite him only being available for 12 games.

LIII. A major criticism of defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was his defensive passivity. He struck down those questions by improving a defense that finished tied for 26th in takeaways a year ago and elevated them to fourth-best in the NFL. Their 27 total takeaways in 2022 was a sharp increase from the 16 they plucked from defenses in 2021.

LIV. After trading cornerback Rashad Fenton at the trade deadline, the Chiefs have relied on rookie defensive backs, Bryan Cook, Trent McDuffie, and Jaylen Watson for the majority of their defensive snaps in the second half of the season.

LV. Right tackle Andrew Wylie has surrendered a team-high nine sacks and he’ll have to fend off Reddick on the edge for much of the Super Bowl.

LVI. Kenneth Gainwell has played 167 third downs to just 52 for Philadelphia’s 1,000-yard back Miles Sanders.

LVII. Third downs are the ultimate cliffhangers. During the regular season, the Chiefs were head and shoulders above the rest of the league on third-and-long (facing seven or more yards to go), converting 45 percent of those scenarios into first downs. That was 12 percent better than the second-place Bengals. The Eagles’ defense is the NFL’s best at not allowing opponents to convert on third-and-long, only surrendering a first down 16 percent of the time.