Super Bowl Recap

By Matt Quinn

Well that escalated quickly. The Philadelphia Eagles put an emphatic stop to the Chiefs’ dreams of a third consecutive Super Bowl title by the tune of 40-22 in a game that really wasn’t even as close as that scoreline would tell you. It took the Chiefs until the 4th quarter to even cross midfield. It was as brutal of a Super Bowl beatdown as any you’ll ever see, especially of a team that was chasing that third straight title that would have put them in the conversation as the greatest NFL dynasty ever. From the very start of this one, the Eagles absolutely outclassed the Chiefs in every way. Jalen Hurts made big play after big play, earning the Super Bowl MVP award and rightfully so. He was unbelievable, just like he was in the last Super Bowl he played in. 

The story of this game was the Eagles defense. They hit, sacked, hurried, and overall flustered Patrick Mahomes the entire game. Mahomes was sacked six times and turned the ball over three times, one being a strip sack fumble and the other two being bad interceptions, including a pick six to rookie corner Cooper Dejean that basically started the onslaught that followed. This was total domination and one stat that really shows just how lopsided this game was from the start was the fact that at halftime, the Chiefs had only mustered a shocking 23 yards of total offense while the Eagles had 24 points. That’s right, the Eagles had more points than the Patrick Mahomes led Chiefs had yards. Mahomes was as bad as he’s ever looked in any game, let alone the Super Bowl. He missed a ton of throws, forced some bad throws and just plain made some really bad reads. Alot of that can be attributed to the Eagles pass rush as Mahomes was getting crushed on a bunch of drop backs.

Mahomes wasn’t the only one who played poorly, however. The usually reliable Travis Kelce had several drops as did the rest of the receiving core, including one really bad one by veteran DeAndre Hopkins on one of the few busted coverages by the Eagles. Hopkins had nobody within ten yards of him and could’ve easily scored on the play, instead Hopkins tripped over his own feet and dropped the ball despite it hitting him right in the hands in a sequence that he usually executes routinely. Call it bad luck, call it Hopkins showing his lack of experience in big games, but either way, that drop was critical. 

If there’s one thing the Chiefs did do relatively well it was limiting Saquon Barkley. He had 25 carries for just 57 yards and no touchdowns. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, they did not have the same success against Jalen Hurts. Except for one pretty bad interception that essentially ended up being an arm punt, Jalen Hurts was the one that kept the offense humming. He had 221 yards and 2 touchdowns and added 72 yards and another score via the “Brotherly Shove”. For as great as Barkley is for this team, Jalen Hurts is just as vital. The Eagles lost just one game this year in which Jalen Hurts started and finished and they largely dominated most of the games they won. They cruised through the playoffs, beating the Packers and then hanging 55 on the upstart Commanders, and then they finished their work by putting the smack down on the two time defending champions in a way possibly no other team was capable of doing this year. It was a stunner of an outcome in terms of how it went down and with the combination of Hurts, Barkley, a swarming defense led by stud Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio, and head coach Nick Sirianni, the Eagles will be a problem for anyone in the coming seasons.