The Philadelphia Eagles will look to get revenge Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

Before the Eagles and Chiefs battle inside Caesars Superdome in the big game, Pro Football Hall of Fame sportswriter Ray Didinger joined Pat Gallen on “Gallen Questions” to preview the matchup, discuss the keys to the game and more.

When the Chiefs have the ball

Heading into the Super Bowl, Didinger believes limiting Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is the key to the game for the Eagles if they want to hoist their second Lombardi trophy in franchise history.

“If I were Vic Fangio, my strategy going into this would be very simple — play Kelce,” he said. “Double-team him, don’t let Kelce beat you. Make [Patrick] Mahomes play with his wide receivers. But you cannot let Kelce take over the game, so if I’m scheming anything over the next two weeks preparing for the Super Bowl if I’m Vic Fangio, that’s what I’m doing. It’s a way of trying to bracket, limit and contain Kelce and make Mahomes make those wide receivers play.”

In Super Bowl LVII two seasons ago, Kelce led the Chiefs in receiving with six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. Kelce had a down week in the AFC championship against the Buffalo Bills, but he recorded seven catches for 117 yards and a score against the Houston Texans in the divisional round.

The Eagles have also struggled against tight ends in two playoff games this postseason.

Last week against the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game, former Eagles great Zach Ertz had 11 catches for 104 yards. In the divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams, Tyler Higbee hauled in seven catches for 54 yards.

With Nakobe Dean sidelined with an injury, Oren Burks will get the start once again for Philadelphia. Burks has played well, but in last year’s Super Bowl as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, the Chiefs picked on him after Niners linebacker Dre Greenlaw left the game with an injury. Burks allowed nine catches on nine targets and a touchdown in the Super Bowl loss.

“The Eagles can’t allow [Kelce] to take this game over,” Didinger said. “You can’t allow this to become a pitch-and-catch game between Patrick Mahomes. This is going to be the challenge for Vic Fangio —  you’re going to have to find ways to cover him and force Mahomes to look for the other receivers. That’s where winning this game begins.”

When the Eagles have the ball

If the Eagles want to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, another key Didinger highlighted was handling the blitz calls made by Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

Spagnuolo’s defense has a 34.9% blitz rate, which ranked second in the league in the 2024 season and only trailed the Minnesota Vikings.

In Super Bowl LVII, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts played arguably the best game of his career against Spagnuolo’s defense. He completed 27 of his 38 passes for one touchdown and rushed for three more on the ground. He made big throws throughout the entire game and outdueled Mahomes, even though they fell short.

In the following season, in 2023, Hurts completed 14 of his 22 passes for 150 yards and an interception against the Chiefs in a 21-17 on the road.

Hurts improved against the blitz in 2024 after teams dialed it up constantly against the Birds in the 2023 season. Since the bye week, Hurts is 47 of 73 for 648 yards and seven touchdown passes with zero interceptions when facing the blitz. He also has a quarterback rating of 124.7, which ranks second in the NFL over that span.

Hurts’s biggest test on the biggest stage will be facing Spagnuolo, who coached under former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson in Philadelphia.

“[Spagnuolo] implements a lot of the Jim Johnson philosophy, which is uber-aggressive at all times,” Didinger said. “So he’s going to come after Jalen Hurts. Even in the last game, Washington had some success with blitzing up the middle, getting pressure up the middle and forcing Hurts to get out of the pocket and try to move to his left and breaking down the timing and rhythm of the passing game, and Spagnuolo is absolutely going to do that.

“So, for the Eagles’ offense to function, we all know it’s going to start with the running game. But for the passing game to function, they’re going to have to find a way of sealing up that middle and controlling those middle blitzes because you know Spagnuolo is going to be calling them.”

Eagles’ X factor in Super Bowl LIX

While Didinger said Kelce is the X factor for Kansas City in the Super Bowl, he picked someone who doesn’t suit up on the field in a helmet and shoulder pads for the Eagles. Didinger said that Fangio, the veteran defensive coordinator who has the unit ranked No. 1 in the NFL, is Philadelphia’s X factor in the big game.

Didinger said that in Super Bowls the Eagles have lost, the team’s defenses have usually underwhelmed, but he’s confident that Fangio will have his team ready to play.

Two years ago, the Eagles had a 24-14 lead over the Chiefs at halftime in the Super Bowl, but then-defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon wasn’t able to stop Mahomes and Kansas City’s offense.

“That game two years ago against this Chiefs team, the second half of that game, Andy Reid probably coached the best 30 minutes of his career and thoroughly took Jonathan Gannon to school,” Didinger said.

Heading into the Super Bowl, Fangio has faced Mahomes eight times. He’s 0-8 in those games when he was the head coach of the Denver Broncos and last year as the defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. But in those games, Fangio’s teams only scored more than 20 points in one game, so he didn’t have much help from his offenses in the losses.

“This is the one time when I think the Eagles have a defensive coordinator who’s going to be equal to the moment,” Didinger said. “Fangio has been around forever, he’s been in big games before and he’s really, really good at understanding what the other team wants to do offensively and taking away their best.”

“Gallen of Questions” airs on Saturdays at 8 p.m. on PHILLY57 and CBS Philadelphia.