The Chiefs Ran Out of Magic Against Philly
The Eagles knew a close game would favor Patrick Mahomes. So they blew K.C. out instead.
Winning one Super Bowl is hard. Winning two in a row is so tough that it’s only ever happened nine times in history. And three straight? The Kansas City Chiefs had the first ever true Super Bowl three-peat within their sights Sunday night. The Philadelphia Eagles, however, presented a new kind of problem for the defending champs.
Sure, Philly had blown a double-digit halftime lead against K.C. in the Super Bowl a few years ago, with Patrick Mahomes leading one of his signature comebacks. But the 2024-25 Eagles were a better team than they had been then, with extra dimensions that Kansas City hadn’t grappled with before. These Eagles were big, fast and versatile. They were better on defense. The Chiefs knew it wouldn’t be easy to make history.
And, boy, was it ever not easy. Instead of K.C. hoisting the Lombardi Trophy yet again, the Eagles outclassed them in practically every way en route to a dominating 40-22 win on Sunday night that wasn’t even as close as the score indicated.
The overall numbers slightly favored Philadelphia, on the basis of their stronger regular-season résumé, juxtaposed against the Chiefs’ slimmer margins for most of the year. But the reason why K.C. was still favored in the Vegas books was simple: Mahomes is seemingly unstoppable in the clutch, and the Chiefs had won a record 17 consecutive one-score contests. If the game was close — and each of the previous three Super Bowls had been decided by just 3 points — logic dictated that Kansas City would be tough to beat.
The Eagles made all of that irrelevant, though, by absolutely beating the brakes off of the Chiefs. They led 24-0 at halftime, outgained K.C. by more than 70 yards, won the turnover battle 3-1, and dominated time of possession by nearly 15 minutes. In an era of close Super Bowls, this was just the third since 2002 decided by 18+ points:
It isn’t hard to draw parallels to the last previous blowout on the list above — the 2020-21 Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ domination of the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. Just like then, the Eagles pressured Mahomes, hassling him into mistakes (he had multiple interceptions in each game) and largely shutting down the K.C. offense’s timing and ability to consistently move the ball. Despite minimal blitzing, Philadelphia got to Mahomes and sacked him six times for 31 yards on Sunday, holding him to even fewer passing yards than he had against Tampa four years ago.
On the other side, Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts was nearly flawless, spreading the ball around and running effectively when he wasn’t throwing. On both sides of the ball, the Eagles pushed their talent advantage and peaked at the exact right moment of the season.
Earlier in the playoffs, I wrote that however the Chiefs’ season ended, it would be seen as a referendum on either their clutch DNA or the red flags they’d gotten away with all year long. And it’s easy to see this Super Bowl as Kansas City’s flaws finally coming back to haunt them. But the more accurate story focuses on how great this Eagles team was. I had noted that Philly’s ceiling was higher than anyone’s in the league when they played their best game — and when it counted the most on Sunday night, that’s exactly what this Eagles squad produced.
Filed under: NFL
Chiefs critical mistake was not going with a highly motivated Carson Wentz in the 2nd half...not sure if I'm joking yet...