Eagles relive Super Bowl nightmare to prepare for super rematch with the Chiefs

Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

PHILADELPHIA—When Nick Sirianni started preparing his team for its first game after the bye week, he knew he’d have to make them do something one of them wanted to do. He had to make his players watch the film of last year’s Super Bowl. He had to have them relive and remember what went wrong.

No, it wasn’t easy — not even for the coach — to relive Philly’s 38-35 loss in Super Bowl LVII last February. The Eagles (8-1) may have been focused on preparing for their game against Chiefs (7-2) in Kansas City on Monday night while watching the old film, but even Sirianni had moments where he wanted to scream at what he saw on the screen.

“There’s going to be things that make you say, ‘Oh man, that was a really good play,’ or ‘Oh man, I wish we could have that one back,'” Sirianni said. “Do you find yourself sometimes doing that? Yeah.

“But you’ve got to remind yourself that, ‘Hey, our job is to get prepared for this game.’ What happened in the past happened in the past. We’ll learn from our mistakes.”

That, of course, is the object this week as the Eagles prepare for one of their biggest test of the season and a game that has been circled on a lot of calendars since the schedule came out last April. To do that, Sirianni wants his Eagles to take their usual, focused approach and not get caught up in the memories and emotions of what happened nine months ago.

But that’s easier said than done. Already, left tackle Jordan Mailata admitted in a radio interview on Tuesday that the game is personal to him. “I’ll never forget that red and gold confetti falling on my head,” he told WIP radio. “I’ll never forget the emotions from that day.”

“Yeah, it’s personal to me,” Mailata said in the locker room on Thursday. “I know I’m not going to get that championship or I’m not going to get the rings back. But I don’t want to lose.”

Using that as motivation isn’t Sirianni’s preferred approach. He has implored his players this week “to keep the main thing the main thing,” using one of his favorite cliches. But he does understand the emotions involved. And took no issue with how Mailata said he felt.

“If the motivation for Jordan is helping him and he’s not distracted by it, by all means use it,” Sirianni said. “If the motivation is distracting to you, then don’t use it. If you can use that for extra motivation, then go ahead. If it’s a distraction, then leave it aside.”

Chiefs concerns entering Super Bowl rematch vs. Eagles

Most of them have at least tried to leave it aside.

“I prefer not to (use it as motivation),” said center Jason Kelce. “It’s not the same game. I’m motivated to win the game. I don’t need the Super Bowl to motivate me to beat my brother or Andy Reid. I don’t buy into Super Bowl revenge games. Each season is different.

“Nothing that happens on Monday night is going to change what happened last year”

“Last year was last year. We can’t get back that ring,” added defensive end Brandon Graham. “But we can make it feel a little better by getting a win this week.”

The first step in doing that was, as Sirianni said, learning from their mistakes and making the corrections from that Super Bowl loss. It’s not a perfect comparison. The Eagles’ defensive personnel has changed a lot, and the Chiefs defense — ranked fourth in the NFL and giving up just 15.8 points per game — is playing much better than it was at any point last year.

But there are still enough similarities to make it important that they were able to tough it out and suffer through one of their most agonizing memories.

“We’ve seen it a lot at this point, and whenever you watch it there’s plays that you want back and things that were there that weren’t capitalized on, which is frustrating,” Kelce said. “But it didn’t work out. No sense in looking back on it any other way. We’re more just focused on this one.”

“It is kind of weird,” Mailata added. “But it’s also a big help because you can see the similarities between last year and this year on both sides. You can learn from it.”

Sirianni said the film study has been “helpful”, though he admitted, “We understand it’s probably helpful for them to look at as well.” Some of his players, like Kelce, kept their emotions in check by focusing just on their position and the players they’ll face on Monday night. Others were able to soak in the big picture of that game without much trouble at all.

“It was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Mailata said. “It was a lot easier to remove the emotion behind it and just focus on the game plan that we had installed. Be in the moment.”

If the Eagles really could do that in the game, they’d have a chance to pull off what would be a huge win. As they return from their bye week, they are the clear favorites to get back to the Super Bowl again from the NFC. They have a two-game lead in the NFC East over the Dallas Cowboys (6-3), but they only lead the Detroit Lions (7-2) by one game in the chase for home-field advantage.

Maybe just as importantly, it would be a statement win — a sign that they might be better than they were a year ago, and better positioned to win the championship that eluded them. After all, in the end, the only thing that will erase the pain of losing Super Bowl LVII would be winning Super Bowl LVIII.

“Some of us still have that sting (from the Super Bowl loss), but it’s not as bad because of the team we have this year,” Graham said. “If we take care of business this year, all of that will be over with when we’re holding up that trophy.”

And they know that this isn’t a game where the winner gets the trophy. They didn’t need the game film to remind them of that.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.