At halftime of Super Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles led the Kansas City Chiefs by 10 points. The Philadelphia offense limited Kansas City’s potent offense over the first two quarters, allowing only one offensive score. It was a different story in the second half. Patrick Mahomes and company moved the ball seemingly at will and came away with a 38-35 win. So, what happened to the Eagles?
Jonathan Gannon, Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator during the Super Bowl and now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, was asked that question. One of his former now-former players, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, blamed the coach.
Seeing a tweet from Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP in Philadelphia with the caption, “Jonathan Gannon on what went wrong in the 2nd half in the Super Bowl,” Gardner Johnson had a simple, critical reply.
“You ain’t put us in position to make plays,” he said, in a since-deleted tweet (H/T Dov Kleiman).
#Eagles Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is calling out new #Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon, his former Defensive Coordinator. pic.twitter.com/jTlUZ6ZjEi
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 1, 2023
Naturally, Gardner-Johnson’s reply was met with a mixed reaction.
He’s not lying! Said this during the Super Bowl. He had no adjustments and was schooled in play-calling. It’s easy to do a job with a super talented and athletic team.
— Bernard Pollard Jr (@Crushboy31) March 1, 2023
Oops pic.twitter.com/gAuh9HWnyw
— T_Lipp (@Tony_Lippett14) March 1, 2023
There is a reason half the NFL tries to fight CJ, and why Javon Wims two pieced him https://t.co/pLpgnbkoK1
— Sadeek 🪐 (@SadeekNextWave) March 1, 2023
Eagles fans love CJG. He’s an eagle for life for this.
— Buzz Lightyear (@BigKidDinner) March 1, 2023
Gannon gave a more lengthy response to the question, not shying away from the blame.
“They made a lot of good plays in that second half,” he said. “We weren’t able to get some stops when we needed to. I obviously could have done a better job of coaching a couple things that I want out of the call. Tough to swallow when you look back at that. It’s such a big stage and we didn’t get it done for the city, for Mr. Lurie, for Howie and for the head coach. But I learned a lot from it and you know, you’ve got to give credit to Kansas City. But obviously I could have done a lot better job with what we were doing.”
Regardless of whether one agrees with Gardner-Johnson, this was ill-advised. Gardner-Johnson is now a free agent and a player badmouthing an outgoing coach probably won’t look too good to most teams.
At the very least, it feels unlikely that Gardner-Johnson will end up reuniting with Gannon in Arizona.
[Eliot Shorr-Parks, Dov Kleiman]
