Arrowhead Pride
Philadelphia outplayed Kansas City from start to finish.
The Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 on Sunday night in Super Bowl LIX, with the Chiefs coming up one game short of winning three consecutive championships.
The Chiefs made a decision late in the season to move Joe Thuney from left guard to left tackle, inserting Mike Caliendo at left guard.
Given the struggles of rookie Kingsley Suamataia and second-year lineman Wanya Morris and an injury to D.J. Humphries, head coach Andy Reid felt it was the team’s best option. Kansas City made it all the way to the Super Bowl with a makeshift left side, but Philadelphia proved to be too great a challenge.
Without needing to blitz, the Eagles penetrated the offensive line all night — and when they couldn’t penetrate it, they pushed the Chiefs’ lineman into quarterback Patrick Mahomes. While it’s tough to operate that way, Mahomes did not help himself with a few questionable throws.
I didn’t sense Kansas City to be panicking down 10 points, just given every Super Bowl win of this era required overcoming a 10-point deficit. But the game turned significantly when Cooper DeJean took Mahomes’ errant pass to the house and put Philadelphia up 17-0.
The Eagles smelled blood in the water and continued to attack.
At halftime, Kansas City had run 20 offensive plays, and only three of them were runs. Running backs Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco combined for three yards in the first two quarters, and with the Chiefs chasing points, they continued to air it out.
Up three scores, the Eagles began to realize the pass was always coming, allowing their four-man front to tee off and go. It didn’t make for a fun night for Mahomes, who was hit 11 times, taking six total sacks.
At least at the beginning of the game, I thought defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had a sound plan, and the defense was managing running back Saquon Barkley well.
All the Chiefs needed was to sustain a drive and put points on the board — or, more simply, gain a single first down. After Mahomes hit wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on the first play of the game for 11 yards, Kansas City did not record a single first down for the rest of the half.
With the quicksand enveloping, the Eagles went up-tempo, wearing the defense down even more. By the time the middle of the third quarter rolled around, the Chiefs couldn’t afford to punt, which meant a short field.
For all that was made about the Chiefs having an obvious quarterback advantage (including comments from yours truly), Jalen Hurts outplayed Mahomes on the biggest stage, spreading the ball around to all of his weapons and picking up and running the football...
