I know that each NFL season is filled with twists and turns. You never know what to expect. But, this season has proven to be the least consistent that I’ve seen in a long time. I mean, look at last season at this time. The Philadelphia Eagles pretty much had it in the bag that they would be going to the Super Bowl. It seemed that way early in this season, too. But, now the Eagles have lost two games in a row, and they’re big point-spread losses, too. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs are 8-5. That’s not one of the top records in the NFL. So, what’s wrong with the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs?

It’s a good question. Are these guys healthy enough? Is there something else going on? Going into this season, many critics really thought the upcoming Super Bowl would be a repeat of last season’s Eagles, Chiefs game.

Let’s talk about the Eagles. Their defense is not so hot this season. In their big loss against Dallas on Sunday (Dec. 10), the Cowboys were able to convert five of their first six third downs and get 24 points up on the board. The Eagles’ defense just couldn’t stop them. They certainly couldn’t contain quarterback Dak Prescott, either. So, defense is an issue, as it was last year with the Eagles. But, possible more crucial is that their offense is showing signs of weakness. That’s more significant, because that’s something on which they could always rely.

Also, the Eagles are keeping the not-good trend of trailing at halftime. For Sunday’s game, they trailed for a sixth straight game. Jalen Hurts and the team just can’t go into second halves with that kind of deficit. They’ve shown that it’s just too hard for them to come back from a significant point deficit in the second half.

Now, onto the Chiefs. We just spoke about the halftime deficit that the Eagles have been showing. Well, on Sunday up against the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs had another double-digit deficit to start. While the Chiefs have historically been able to come back from these deficits, this year is different Patrick Mahomes and the crew don’t seem to be able to make up for it, and that really hurts them in the final score.

Another key issue with Kansas City is that they just aren’t showing offensive consistency for most of these games. As with the Eagles, the Chiefs’ offense has always been their strong suit, or at least for the last several years. Because of that, this team has become reliant on an explosive offense. If you take away that consistency with the offense, you have a problem. Mahomes seems to really just rely on Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice in the passing game, but he needs more than that. In the Bills game, those two players combined caught 13 of Mahomes’ 25 completions, so that says something.

It appears the Eagles and Chiefs both have something in common: They need to work on their offensive line. Let’s hope they get it together before their Super Bowl hopes are dashed.