There was a lot of head-scratching offensive stuff from Monday night’s Eagles win in Kansas City. Two wide receiver screens while backed up near the goal line. A brutal zone read and loss of yards on third down. A bunch of QB draws, one that found the end zone, but plenty that went nowhere. It was a disjointed effort in which spurts of creativity and chunk gains were bogged down by some really bizarre plays and shoddy execution.

That said, the Eagles put up 21 on the road, in KC, in crap weather, against a top-5 defense.

This tweet really stood out on the timeline:

The most underrated storyline going into this game was the potency of the Chiefs defense. I’m not sure Eagles fans realized how well Spags had his guys playing, perhaps because this Eagles team torched KC in the Super Bowl nine months ago, to the tune of 35 points and 417 total yards. Andy Reid hasn’t exactly been known for his stout defenses in KC, but they’ve been incredible for most of the season.

Here’s what they’ve allowed this year:

  • vs. Lions: 21 points
  • at Jag-wires: 9 points
  • vs. Bears: 10 points
  • at Jets: 20 points
  • at Vikings: 20 points
  • vs. Broncos: 8 points
  • vs. Chargers: 17 points
  • at Broncos: 24 points
  • vs. Dolphins: 14 points
  • vs. Eagles: 21 points

So yeah, only once this season have the Chiefs allowed more than 21 points, and the Lions and the Eagles were the only teams to crest 20 at Arrowhead.

That’s not to put lipstick on the offensive pig, because Brian Johnson’s unit embarked on some butt-ugly drives last night, and by “drives” I mean three-and-outs. That sequence of Chris Jones sacks was particularly putrid. Jalen Hurts threw the interception and the execution before halftime was “a joke,” as Howard Eskin would say.

But if we go back to Kansas City’s stats before the Eagles game, they were top-5 or top-8 in almost every meaningful, macro-level category:

  • 15.9 points per game allowed (tied 2nd)
  • 288.2 yards allowed per game (4th)
  • 112.2 rush yards allowed per game (17th)
  • 176 passing yards allowed per game (5th)
  • 24 big plays allowed (#1 overall)
  • 9.9 pressures per game (8th)
  • 26.8 defensive pressure percentage (4th)

So on and so forth. It’s a really good unit, probably underrated because we’re conditioned to believe that Patrick Mahomes is always running some high-powered offense that overshadows the D, but that’s certainly not the case this year. The Birds’ offense only put up 238 yards and converted on third down at a 27.2% clip, but they ripped off some big gains on those key drives and got into the end zone three times, despite seven punts and an interception. It wasn’t pretty, but they got it done on the road against a top defense.