The Philadelphia Eagles spoiled the potential Chiefs three-peat with a dominant display on the biggest of stages to claim Superbowl LIX. The 40-22 scoreline does not reflect the rampant nature of the Eagles in New Orleans on Sunday night. It took two late fourth-quarter touchdowns from Mahomes to save his team from complete embarrassment. But the story had already been written. And Eagles head coach Nick Sirriani had already received the traditional Gatorade shower, prior to the two-minute warning, which highlights the Eagles’ absolute dominance from the onset.
It was an eye-opening spectacle for a multitude of reasons, mainly the way in which Andy Reid’s Chiefs were blown away in every facet of the game, all hope of a third consecutive championship destroyed. Arguably, the contest was over even before Kendrick Lamar’s headline-grabbing halftime show. With the NFL world coming to terms with what unfolded in the culmination of the sport’s 2024/25 season, it’s time to reflect and deconstruct just how this game panned out, and some wider ramifications for all involved as we enter the long offseason.
Let’s give the Eagles credit where it is due to start off with. Jalen Hurts was unquestionably crowned Superbowl MVP after he set a new record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in the big game with 72 yards. He added a competent and stress-free 221 passing yards and three total touchdowns with only five incompletions to round off his impressive performance.
If you had said before the game that Barkley would rush for less than 60 yards, most would have predicted a Chiefs victory. They stopped the run exceptionally well, holding the Eagles star to just 57 on the ground at 2.3 yards per attempt. His longest gain was 10 yards, and yet KC lost by 18.
Perhaps the Chiefs spent too much time prepping for the threat of Barkley and not enough in other areas. After all, you need efficacy in offence, defence and special teams to win a ring. Barkley, however, did still do enough to surpass Terrell Davis for most rushing yards in a single season including the playoffs with 2504 yards. The obvious asterisk being that there are more games in the modern NFL season but a widely impressive feat nonetheless.
Regarding the Superbowl as an anomaly, and looking at Barkley’s season as a whole, it is stark to see a team that relies so heavily on their RB1, something we have not seen in the NFL for decades with the modern formula being so pass-dominant. Following Barkley catalysing a league-wide renaissance at the position, it will be intriguing to digress whether this will be a model to follow moving forward or just a mere outlier in the trend.
Philadelphia led 24-0 at halftime, the second biggest lead in SB history, only behind the 35-10 advantage that the then Washington Redskins took into the half against the Denver Broncos in Superbowl XXII. To bestow the complete supremacy of the Eagles, they outgained their opponents 179-23 in total yards in the first half. The Birds had 62 rushing yards to Kansas’ three. Yes, three! And the almighty Chiefs had one first down, yes, one, compared to Philly’s 13. It was 34 zip to the Eagles before the Chiefs even crossed midfield. It was a shock to the millions of hardcore fans watching on, who had seen Mahomes be so efficient and so unrelenting for so long.
Now, Mahomes was extremely flustered in relation to his standard production levels and just all-around magician-esque brilliance. But his O-line failed to get to grips with the ferociousness of the opposing D-line of the Eagles. Astoundingly, Vic Fangio blitzed zero times all game, yet they hit Mahomes eleven times and sacked him six times. The three-time Superbowl MVP’s three turnovers, two interceptions and a lost fumble were the most by the Chiefs in the playoffs since he became the starter.
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Moreover, their continued inability to stop the Eagles’ pass rush coincided with Mahomes holding onto the ball for longer. Historically, Mahomes, and the Chiefs offence for that matter, almost always play better when Mahomes gets rid of the ball quicker or scrambles.
Through three quarters on Sunday, Mahomes was, on average, holding the ball for 3.65 seconds after the snap, which is longer than he has done in all but one career start. That time-to-throw metric shrunk to 3.30 seconds by the end of the game but means Kansas City are now 6-12 when Mahomes has an average time-to-throw of 3.23 seconds or longer. Thanks to garbage time reconciliation when the contest was already over, the Chiefs reduced the overall deficit in the box score and the overall score.
After going 3-11 on third down, and having just 12 first downs the entire game (the tenth fewest by a SB team), Kansas City’s capitulation ended with them becoming the ninth back-to-back champs to fall short of the elusive three-peat. It was the fourth playoff loss of Mahomes glittering seven-year career thus far, but ostensibly his worst performance as typically the guy you can count on the most when the occasion matters the most.
While the entire blame can’t be placed on Mahomes’ shoulders, his no-show in the season finale certainly quietened the talk of comparing him to Tom Brady, who himself was in the booth calling the game for FOX.
FOX had the privilege of being the main broadcaster for Superbowl LIX in New Orleans, and it was Brady’s first in the booth in his maiden season as a colour analyst. The majority of the discourse on Brady’s performance all season long has been relatively polarising. With his minority stake in the Raiders, it limits him on what he can and cannot say, which fans understandably find frustrating. He is also not allowed in pre-production meetings with the teams due to his Las Vegas involvements which further reduces his chance to find a unique talking point or perspective from the teams who are playing the games he is calling.
FOX are paying the seven-time champ $375 million to be a part of their network. Well, Brady has a long way to go if he is to win over the fans with his commentary. The general takes from Sunday of Brady’s calls were that he said a lot of what was happening but not a lot of how or why. It serves to suggest that the best players in the game are not always the best broadcasters.
Greg Olsen was ushered out of the main analyst role at FOX with Brady’s arrival, even though Olsen has received a lot of positive regard from the media, fans and players. As a spectator, we do not need to be told what is going on, we can see it with our own eyes, we need Brady to elicit analysis that derives from his in-game experiences from his long career.
There is obviously time for Brady to progress and learn the trade, with Fox undoubtedly backing him, but with how much they invested, there is seemingly a magnitude of pressure on him and FOX not to flop. FOX’s next Superbowl call will be in 2029, so Brady has four years to perfect his craft and get another go in the big game.
Of course, the public opinion will differ from the broadcast’s opinion as the latter will be more positive about their guy, but Brady did not add enough insight to the game, considering his illustrious career under centre for the Patriots. This poses the question, would Olsen have been better? We won’t know the answer, we will just have to speculate. But the reality is that the post-retirement booth/owner version of Tom Brady is here to stay.
In the end, the play on the field is what matters most, and the Eagles certainly delivered that for their second Lombardi Trophy in eight seasons. With all the criticism they had received from around the league in the past couple of seasons, this sure will silence the haters, and rightly so.
The 18-point margin of victory is the first Superbowl to be won by multiple scores since Tampa Bay’s win over Kansas City four years ago. Cooper Dejena’s pick-six on his 22nd birthday as a rookie corner epitomised the tenacity and playstyle of Fangio’s stellar defence. A true humiliation of one of the best NFL teams we have seen in recent history. All this talk of dynasties and comparisons to the once esteemed Patriots, but the Philadelphia Eagles tore up the script and created their own.
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