Tag: Steve Spagnuolo

5 things Eagles can learn from Chiefs’ win over 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII

We’re looking at five things the Philadelphia Eagles can learn from the Kansas City Chiefs 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 58

The 2024 NFL offseason is officially underway after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII to secure back-to-back Lombardi wins.

It was enjoyable for Fletcher Cox and the Eagles to see Deebo Samuel and the 49ers suffer another heartbreaking defeat, but now the real work begins.

There are lessons to be learned from every game played, and even though Philadelphia wasn’t in the Super Bowl, they can take formulas and gems from both teams.

With NFL free agency fast approaching, here are five things the Eagles can learn from the Chiefs’ 25-22 win over the 49ers in overtime.

Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo: ‘Brock Purdy is really good’

Do you know who was impressed by Brock Purdy’s Super Bowl performance? The Chiefs defensive coaching staff:

There aren’t a ton of silver linings for the 49ers after their latest playoff disappointment, but the play of quarterback Brock Purdy in Super Bowl LVIII should provide at least a little bit of optimism for the future. Even the Chiefs defensive coaching staff was impressed by the 49ers’ young signal caller.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, whose defense tied quarterbacks in knots all season, had high praise for Purdy after the game.

“The zones, I just think their wideouts and quarterback are so good at their timing routes, and Brock Purdy is really good,” Spagnuolo said via MMQB. “He knew when we were in certain things, and he found seams.”

Purdy competed 23-of-38 throws for 255 yards and one touchdown with no turnovers. He also led three go-ahead drives in the fourth quarter and overtime, and over those two periods completed 9-of-13 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown.

MMQB’s Albert Breer noted on Twitter that one Chiefs coach even compared Purdy to future Hall of Famer Drew Brees.

Sunday’s loss was a brutal one that the 49ers probably feel like they could have (or should have) won, but if Purdy is as good as the Kansas City coaching staff says he is, this won’t be his last opportunity to win a championship.

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Ex-Giant Steve Spagnuolo is now the most decorated DC of all time

Former New York Giants DC Steve Spagnuolo won his fourth Super Bowl title on Sunday, the most of any coordinator in the NFL’s long history.

The Kansas City Chiefs stormed back twice on Sunday night, finally defeating the San Francisco 49ers, 25-22, in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII.

With the win, former New York Giants defensive coordinator and interim head coach, Steve Spagnuolo, became the most decorated coordinator in the NFL’s long history.

Not only is Spagnuolo the first coordinator to win titles with multiple teams but after hoisting his fourth Lombardi Trophy, he broke a five-way tie with Richie Petibon, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, and Josh McDaniels, who each won three.

“You end up in the positions as they come, right?” Spagnuolo said, via Giants.com before the Super Bowl. “You can’t control that sometimes. I’ll be honest with you, it’s great to have all that, but it’s always been about the relationships with the players. And I value that more than anything. When it’s all said and done, I hope my personal legacy is that I was able to share, educate, mentor, coach, teach guys along the way in this business.

“It’s always been about trying to influence, help, mentor, better somebody and something, and it happened to be football. So, I hope when it’s all said and done, it’ll be the relationships and I would’ve been able to at least help some guys along the way.”

Spagnuolo, of course, was the architect behind the Giants’ defensive gameplan that limited the then-perfect New England Patriots — the NFL’s highest-scoring team that season — to just 14 points in Super Bowl XLII.

After winning his fourth championship, it’s time for Spagnuolo to not only get a second chance as an NFL head coach but to begin being discussed as a potential Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Once a Giant, Always a Giant.

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Five things the San Francisco 49ers must do to win Super Bowl LVIII

If the San Francisco 49ers are to win Super Bowl LVIII, they might want to pay attention to these five advanced scouting points.

Every Super Bowl comes down to a few big plays, and a few key matchups. You never know what it’s going to be, but when the game is over, and it’s time for coaches and players to review what happened and why, everyone will go back to their advanced scouting reports — how they aligned their guys and how those guys played from a schematic perspective — and try to discern what went right and what went wrong.

Not that we’re professional advanced scouts at Touchdown Wire, but here are five things the San Francisco 49ers should probably pay close attention to when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs today in Super Bowl LVIII.

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Five things the Kansas City Chiefs must do to win Super Bowl LVIII

If the Kansas City Chiefs are to win Super Bowl LVIII, they might want to pay attention to these five advanced scouting points.

Every Super Bowl comes down to a few big plays, and a few key matchups. You never know what it’s going to be, but when the game is over, and it’s time for coaches and players to review what happened and why, everyone will go back to their advanced scouting reports — how they aligned their guys and how those guys played from a schematic perspective — and try to discern what went right and what went wrong.

Not that we’re professional advanced scouts at Touchdown Wire, but here are five things the Kansas City Chiefs should probably pay close attention to when they take on the San Francisco 49ers today in Super Bowl LVIII.

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Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is the real star of Super Bowl LVIII

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is a schematic wizard, but his real superpower is getting his players to buy in without fail.

It was February 3, 2008. Super Bowl XLII, in which the New England Patriots were supposed to complete the second undefeated season in pro football history. Instead, the underdog New York Giants put Tom Brady in a special section of hell with pass-rush concepts that had their defensive linemen moving around gap to gap, and often standing up in NASCAR fronts for which the Patriots seemed to have no answers. Brady was sacked five times, and hit nine more times, completing 29 of 48 passes for 266 yards, one touchdown, and a passer rating of 82.5 in a 17-14 Giants win.

Not what anybody expected from a quarterback — and an offense — that had set the NFL ablaze all season long, but Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had the perfect plan for Brady and the Patriots, and that bore out. Spagnuolo threw the entire buffet at Brady with advanced blitzes, moving linemen, and NASCAR fronts in which as many as all four defensive linemen were standing up pre-snap.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=My0ahKLvxzs

“I remember that game, and watching what they were doing, and I’ve watched it again since,” Super Bowl XLII Most Valuable Player Eli Manning told me on Friday. “He had Antonio Pierce, middle linebacker, and obviously now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. They were flip-flopping blitzes, and I’d never seen that before, where they had a WILL [linebacker]-free safety blitz, and they’d see Brady read it and change protections to pick up that blitz, and they would flip-flop  and roll it to bring a SAM [linebacker] and strong safety. You had free guys hitting Brady, so just mixing in and having that capability and communication and the trust in the defense to do that. To execute it, that’s the first time I’d ever seen that.

“I have great respect for Coach Spagnuolo and all he’s done in his career, his opportunity to win his fourth Super Bowl is impressive, and he always has the threat of blitz. That’s what he brings — exotic blitzes and exotic coverages. It’s a lot of work to get ready to play one of his defenses.”

Fast-forward 15 years, and “Coach Spags” is still doing it his way — perhaps at a higher level than ever before, and he’s now winning Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs. Moreover, he’s doing it now with the NFL’s youngest defense. There are a lot of deep football reasons why the Chiefs’ defense has carried the team to Super Bowl LVIII as the offense has been up and down (to say the least), but there are also personal dynamics between Spagnuolo and his players that mean a lot.

Let’s dive into why Steve Spagnuolo is the real star of Super Bowl LVIII.

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Steve Spagnuolo could become most decorated DC in NFL history

Former New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is on the cusp of setting a significant all-time NFL record.

Former New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is set to coach in his sixth Super Bowl this Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off in Las Vegas.

Spagnuolo has already won three Super Bowl titles and is the only offensive or defensive coordinator in NFL history to win a ring with multiple teams.

Four other coordinators have won three Super Bowls — Richie Petibon, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Josh McDaniels. Two of those four (Weis and Crennel) have Super Bowl wins as Giants assistants.

Should Spagnuolo’s Chiefs win on Sunday, he would become the most decorated defensive or offensive coordinator in NFL history. But don’t try and tell him how great he is — Spagnuolo brushes that talk off.

“You end up in the positions as they come, right?” Spagnuolo said, via Giants.com. “You can’t control that sometimes. I’ll be honest with you, it’s great to have all that, but it’s always been about the relationships with the players. And I value that more than anything. When it’s all said and done, I hope my personal legacy is that I was able to share, educate, mentor, coach, teach guys along the way in this business.

“It’s always been about trying to influence, help, mentor, better somebody and something, and it happened to be football. So, I hope when it’s all said and done, it’ll be the relationships and I would’ve been able to at least help some guys along the way.”

Sure, you end up in the positions as they come, but those positions do not always indicate success. Success is something you earn, and you can’t be a successful coach without helping people along the way.

Spagnuolo has been one of those coaches, and a win on Sunday solidifies his legacy as one of the greatest coordinators of all time.

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The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Super Bowl LVIII

It’s time for Super Bowl LVIII, which means that it’s time for Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar to dive into the Chiefs-49ers matchups with tape and advanced metrics.

It’s nearly time for the biggest game of the NFL season, which means it’s time for our guys Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, to do a very deep dive on Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, using all kinds of tape study and advanced metrics.

Here, the guys cover these topics, as well as many others:

  • Why run defense for each team could be the key to the entire game, and why Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco might unlock it all for Kansas City.
  • How Christian McCaffrey became the NFL’s best and most prolific zone runner.
  • How Steve Spagnuolo might blitz Brock Purdy, who has been amazing against the blitz all season.
  • Why Patrick Mahomes, who in the past has been similarly “unblitzable” in recent seasons, hasn’t been that in 2023.
  • Steve Wilks’ 49ers defense is far more multiple than some people think — especially in coverage — and why that could be a problem for Mr. Mahomes.
  • The Chiefs’ four-strong formations and use of 13 personnel, and how those two things have come to define Andy Reid’s offense to a great degree.
  • Why linebackers for both teams will be so important.
  • The Secret Superstars of Super Bowl LVIII.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

 

Chiefs DL Chris Jones on what gives Steve Spagnuolo an edge: ‘He’s Italian’

#Chiefs DL Chris Jones attributed Steve Spagnuolo’s success to the seasoned coordinator’s Italian heritage.

The Kansas City Chiefs defense has been among the most impressive units in the NFL this season and helped give the team a chance to defend its Super Bowl title.

Few players on Kansas City’s defense have been more impactful than lineman Chris Jones, who tied for the top spot on the Chiefs’ leaderboard for sacks during their 2023 campaign.

Jones is known as a bombastic character who is always quick with a joke during comments to the media. This week, a reporter asked him about what makes defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo such an effective coach, and Jones wasn’t shy in sharing his thoughts.

“He’s Italian,” Jones quipped, smiling. “He’s amazing. His resume speaks for itself, I think he’s the only [defensive coordinator] who was able to go to the championship with two different teams. He’s been very successful in the scheme of defense that he’s ran over his span in the NFL. It’s Spags, man. What can you say?”

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Jones’ hilarious take on Spagnuolo’s success is sure to stick with fans in Chiefs Kingdom for some time, and with any luck, the defensive lineman can help add another ring to his coordinator’s collection against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.

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4-Down Territory: Super Bowl LVIII Preview Edition!

In this week’s “4-Down Territory, Doug and Kyle get into all the Super Bowl LVIII particulars, and predict who will win.

Now that Super Bowl LVIII is set between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, it’s time for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to get heavy into the biggest game of the season in  “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. What must the San Francisco 49ers do if they want to win this game?
  2. What must the Kansas City Chiefs do to take their third Lombardi Trophy in the last five seasons?
  3. Who will be the Secret Superstar in Super Bowl LVIII?
  4. Finally, who will win the game, and why?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.