It’s been weeks since their Super Bowl 57 loss, but it looks like the Philadelphia Eagles are still ruminating over what could’ve been.
On Tuesday, during the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, former Eagles’ defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon spoke about what went wrong for the Philadelphia defense. Now the head coach of the rebuilding Arizona Cardinals, Gannon offered up an unsurprisingly diplomatic reflection on a performance that saw the Eagles surrender 24 second-half points.
This didn’t fly with Philadelphia safety and 2022 co-interceptions leader (6) C.J. Gardner-Johnson. When he saw Gannon’s answer about the Eagles’ defensive woes, Gardner-Johnson put him on blast for his coaching in a now-deleted tweet:
The optics of Gardner-Johnson critiquing his former coach aside (there’s a good reason he deleted it), he probably has a point.
After the Eagles smacked the Kansas City Chiefs around in the first half, the Chiefs adjusted to fight back from a 24-14 deficit. I’m not sure the Eagles, especially Gannon’s defense, did.
The Chiefs had four second-half possessions. They used them to score three touchdowns and notch the 38-35 game-winning field goal. That’s practically perfect, and for a stage as big as the Super Bowl, it’s simply not good enough. When Patrick Mahomes is the opposing team’s quarterback, you have to be better.
Was Gannon completely to blame for his unit’s failures? Assuredly not. The players still have to perform. But Gardner-Johnson putting his former DC back under a microscope is still probably justifiable.
