Monday’s Den: Wrapping up Super Sunday…….

— Patrick Mahomes is on a path to be the best quarterback in NFL history. If you were choosing sides to start a team with every NFL player ever, which QB are you taking before Mahomes? He’s already played in three Super Bowls, won two of them and he’s only 27.

Chiefs 38, Eagles 35
— Chiefs in first half: 21 plays, 128 yards, 7 points.
— They doinked a 42-yard FG off the left upright.
— Chiefs in 2nd half: 34 plays, 221 yards, 24 points.
— Only 8 of Kansas City’s 53 plays were on third down.

— Eagles in first half: 45 plays, 265 yards, 24 points,
— Chiefs also scored a defensive TD in the first half.
— Eagles in 2nd half: 29 plays, 142 yards, 10 points.
— Philly had two scoring drives that each took 7:00+ off clock.

— Eagles converted 11-17 on third down, 2-2 on fourth down.
— Philly ran 72 plays for 417 yards, Kansas City 53 for 340.
— Eagles had 17 first downs in first half; Chiefs ran 20 plays in first half.

— Thursday’s game in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season will be played in Kansas City.  

— The NFL’s dream game; close, high-scoring Super Bowl with a dramatic ending.

— I had forgotten that the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl seems like an afterthought with all the pre-game hoopla, the coin toss, a million commercials. Last year when the Rams were playing, it was so annoying. “Just start the damn game!!!” was heard in my living room…….lol

— People bet on the coin toss of the Super Bowl; I remember a friend telling me he bet on the coin toss of a Super Bowl and I rolled my eyes. He immediately called up and doubled down on that bet, which he won.

— Indianapolis Colts are apparently hiring Eagles’ OC Shane Steichen as their new coach this week.

Arizona Cardinals are going to interview Eagles’ DC Jonathan Gannon for their head coaching opening; if they hire Gannon, Eagles will be the first team since the 2013 Bengals to lose both their coordinators to NFL head coaching jobs in the same offseason. 

— 49ers’ QB Brock Purdy has his elbow surgery on February 22; they said the surgery has a six-month recovery time, so Purdy will miss most, if not all of training camp.

— Kind of ironic that in a year where all the Hall of Fame inductees except one are defensive players, coach Don Coryell is being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Coryell was a great, great offensive coach; he was 42-27-1 coaching the Cardinals, 69-56 coaching the Chargers, after he went 36-8 coaching San Diego State.

Coaches like Joe Gibbs, Jim Mora Sr, Jim Hanifan, Al Saunders, Ray Perkins all worked under Coryell. This honor is long overdue.

— Carolina Panthers hired former NFL QB Josh McCown as an assistant coach; there were rumors that Houston had wanted to hire the inexperienced McCown as head coach, but that obviously never happened.

— Marquette 89, Georgetown 75— Hoyas are now 1-34 in their last 35 conference games; their streak of covering the spread also ended here, at 7 straight covers.

— Southern Miss 76, UL-Monroe 67— Golden Eagles have won nine games in a row; they’re 12-2 in their first year in Sun Belt, after going 10-43 the last three years in Conference USA.

— Dayton Flyers have a player from Mongolia, Mike Sharavjamts, whose father was the first Asian Harlem Globetrotter. Dayton has a Mongolian fans’ Facebook page with 15,000 followers, as basketball becomes more popular in that country.

— Not only was Nevada basketball coach Steve Alford a great shooter in his playing days, he’s become a very good coach and he also has a single-digit golf handicap. Nevada is 20-6, 10-3 in the Mountain West— they’re shooting 80.1% on the foul line, #3 in the country.

— San Antonio Spurs have lost 12 games in a row; they’re 14-43, an awful team, but hey, they traded for seven 2nd round draft picks last week. Their G-League team could be really good next season.

— Toronto Blue Jays signed SS Bo Bichette to a 3-year deal worth $33.6M, which eliminates his arbitration years.

— Houston Astros signed P Cristian Javier to a 5-year, $64M deal. He can block trades to 10 teams in 2026-27. 

— Arizona Diamondbacks gave lefty reliever Andrew Chafin a one-year, $5.5M deal, with a team option for 2024.

— Good news: There is more fun coming this week. Spring training starts, more college basketball with the conference tournaments only 2-3 weeks away, NBA’s All-Star Game, the XFL starts up and the Daytona 500 is next week. Lot of stuff going on. 

Author: Armadillo Sports

I've been involved in sports my whole life, now just write about them. I like to travel, mostly to Las Vegas- they have gambling there.