Super Bowl LIX (59) Recap
Super Bowl LIX (59) finally arrived. The regular season, playoffs and Pro Bowl are in the books. The new Pro Football Hall of Fame class was just announced. They will be enshrined in August. Now it was time for the Super Bowl. The AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs are took on the NFC’s Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch from 2 years ago. In that game the Chiefs won 38-35 in the final seconds.
The Chiefs just came from playing their 7th straight AFC Championship game, with 6 of those games being played at their home field Arrowhead. The 2024 Chiefs won their AFC Wast Division for the 9th straight year. After easily dispatching Houston in the Divisional round, the Chiefs won a thrilling AFC Title Game over Buffalo that involved several controversial calls going in the Chiefs favor. The Chiefs for the third straight year won the Lamar Hunt Trophy named after their late founder and owner.
The Eagles won the NFC Title Game for the second time in three years. The Eagles defense shut down Green Bay in the Wildcard round and barely survived the Rams in a snowstorm in the Divisional Round. In the Conference Title Game, the Eagles carpet-bombed Washington and put 55 points on the board. Despite reaching multiple NFC Title Games and holding up the George Halas Trophy four times, the Eagles have only won one Super Bowl.
The Chiefs entered looking to make pro football history. They were one game away from football immortality. They sought to become the only NFL team to ever win three straight Super Bowls. Green Bay won three straight championships from 1929-1931 and from 1965-1967, but most of those wins were before the Super Bowl era that began with the 1966 season.
The game also featured emotional subplots that went beyond football. Two recent plane crashes occurred with planes that began in Kansas and Missouri, with one of those planes crashing in Philadelphia. The host city New Orleans was a victim of a brutal terrorist attack only 5 weeks earlier on New Year’s Eve. Yet the heavy hearts gave way to why people were in attendance. It was time to play football.
The Chiefs won the coin toss and deferred. The Eagles after a touchback moved to a 4th and 2 at midfield. Nick Sirianni gambled big and bold early on. Jalen Hurts went deep to AJ Brown for a 32 yard gain. Yet offensive pass interference on Brown nullified the gain and killed the drive. The Chiefs took over at their own 12. Patrick Mahomes immediately hit Juju Smith-Schuster for an 11 yard gain. Yet this would be the furthest thing from an 88 yard drive. The story of this game was the Philadelphia defense. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio for the first time all season did not blitz one single time. With the eagles rushing only 4, they simply overwhelmed the Kansas City offensive line. Mahomes frequently had nobody to throw to all game. Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is known as a genius on that side of the ball. On this day, Fangio was as well.
The Eagles got the ball back at their own 31. Hurts went to Dallas Goedert for 20. On 3rd and 5 from the Kansas City 32, Hurts threw incomplete but defensive unnecessary roughness added 15 yards. Hurts then went deep to Dotson for a 27 yard gain down to the one yard line. The entire football world knew it was tush push time, but it didn’t matter. Hurts took the quarterback sneak and got a violent offensive line to ram him forward into the end zone. The touchdown made it 7-0 Eagles. The Eagles got it back at their own 20 and moved to a 3rd and 10 at the Kansas City 30 early in the third quarter. Under heavy pressure, Hurts went deep and threw a bad pass that was intercepted. Yet the Chiefs were pinned at their own 2 and ended up punting the ball back. The Eagles took over at their own 43 and moved to a 4th and 3 at the Kansas City 25. This time Nick Sirianni played it safe. After a false start, Jake Elliott hit a 48 yard field goal to make it 10-0 Eagles.
After a touchback, consecutive sacks of Mahomes had the Chiefs facing 3rd and 16 at their own 24. Football fans are so used to the Chiefs string at will that it was just assumed that the Chiefs would turn on the switch and come back. Instead, Mahomes fired over the middle and was intercepted by Cooper DeJean. DeJean was celebrating his 22nd birthday, and he criss-crossed and weaved in traffic, getting help from some spectacularly timed and delivered blocks. DeJean became the first player in NFL history to have a defensive touchdown in the Super Bowl on his birthday. The 38 yard interception touchdown return had the Eagles up 17-0.
With 1:49 left in the half, the Chiefs were pinned at their own 6 yard line. Mahomes went back to pass and threw the ball just as he was getting tripped up by his own offensive lineman. The ball was thrown way off the mark and Zack Baun made a diving interception. The Eagles took over at the Kansas City 14. Hurts went to Brown in the flat, and Brown tiptoed past the pylon for another touchdown. The Eagles were dominating 24-0. A few years ago the Chiefs trailed 24-0 in a home playoff game. They scored 28 points before the half to take the lead en route to a 51-31 win. Yet this Eagles team was prepared.
Former New England quarterback Tom Brady was announcing the game. Brady threw an interception for a touchdown in the Super Bowl that had his team trailing Atlanta 28-3 in the third quarter and 28-9 in the fourth quarter. Brady led New England to a miraculous 34-28 overtime Super Bowl win. He led a 25 point comeback. The Chiefs were only down 24. Yet they had only 23 yards of total offense at halftime, with half of that coming on the first play from scrimmage. The Eagles held the ball for 20 minutes in the first half compared to only 10 minutes for the Chiefs.
As for the halftime show, there was one. The halftime show has nothing to do with football, and therefore deserves no further elaboration. The President of the United States was at the Super Bowl for the very first time. A pop star who is dating one of the players was also in attendance. The President was cheers and the pop star was booed. Since politics and pop culture have nothing to do with football, further elaboration of them is also not required.
The first drive of the second half was key for the Chiefs. After a touchback, they quickly picked up one first down just like they did on their first drive of the game. Yet just like in the first half, this drive also bogged down. Consecutive sacks had the Chiefs punting again. The Eagles moved from their own 20 to a 1st and goal at the 4. The defense stiffened. Elliott hit a 29 yard field goal to have the Eagles up 27-0. The Eagles after a touchback soon faced 4th and 4 at their own 47. Walrus Andy Reid went for it. Yet on a day when nothing went right for the Chiefs, Mahomes’s pass was knocked away at the last moment incomplete. Rather than run the ball, Nick Sirianni went for the kill shot. One play and 10 seconds was enough for Hurts to throw a perfect bomb to Devonta Smith for the touchdown.
The Eagles now led 34-0 late in the third quarter. The greatest comeback in an NFL game came during the 1992 season in the playoffs. Backup Frank Reich overcame a 32 point third quarter deficit. Buffalo was down 35-3, but Reich led them to a 41-38 overtime win. Yet while the Chiefs entered the game seeking football immortality with a 3-peat, now it was the Eagles seeking football immortality in a different way. No NFL team ever pitched a Super Bowl shutout. In 1971, Dallas held Miami to only 3 points. In 2018, New England also held the Rams to only a field goal. The 2000 Baltimore defense shut out the Giants, but the Giants managed to avoid the shutout with a special teams touchdown on a kickoff return.
There would be no football immortality. The Chiefs took over at their own 10 and Mahomes quickly went bombs away to Xavier Worthy for a 50 yard gain. That one play more than doubled their entire offensive output after almost three quarters. On 3rd and 7 from the Philadelphia 37, Mahomes went to Travis Kelce for 13. Shockingly, it was Kelce’s first catch of the game. Mahomes then went deep to Worthy again for a 24 yard touchdown. The 2 point try failed, but the Chiefs were now down 34-6. There would be no comeback. Elliott hit fourth quarter field goals of 48 and 50, the latter one set up by a sack of Mahomes that forced a fumble.
The Eagles were now winning a laugher up 40-6. The entire fourth quarter was garbage time. Mahomes threw a pair of touchdowns in the final 4 minutes, the latter coming on a 50 yard bomb to Worthy after the 2 minute warning. Yet all that did was shrink a 34 point deficit to an 18 point deficit. The onside kick failed. Hurts was on the sideline laughing as backup Kenny Pickett took 3 knees to end the blowout.
There would be no 3-peat. Instead, the Eagles won their second Super Bowl in franchise history. Mahomes was sacked 6 times and had 3 turnovers that led to 17 Eagles points. Hurts only threw 22 passes, completing 17 of them for 221 yards, 2 touchdowns, and the one early interception. Yet Hurts also added 72 yards on 11 carries, many of them designed runs. This was a ground and pound attack. The Eagles ran the ball 45 times for 135 yards. While it was only 3 yards per carry, it was the Eagles defense that made this a blowout. Phenom running back Barkley only had 57 yards on 25 carries, a paltry 2.3 yards per carry. Yet it didn’t matter. The Eagles took time off the clock and dominated the time of possession. The Eagles also had 221 receiving yards on only 17 catches.
The blowout loss made Andy Reid a most unhappy Walrus indeed. He used to be Walrus Lite, the guy who could not win the big one. Then he drafted Mahomes, won a Super Bowl, and upgraded to full Walrus status along with his former boss Mike Holmgren. Yet winning 3 straight would have gotten Reid to the status of Eternal Walrus. On this day it was not to be. As for the Eagles, they are a ruthless fan base that fired Reid. Theygot rid of Doug Pederson after he with a backup quarterback won the very first Eagles Super Bowl championship. Last year, only one year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, the fans were already calling for Nick Sirianni’s scalp. Yet Sirianni is now the only coach in Eagles history to lead his team to more than one Super Bowl appearance. Two years after losing to Reid, Sirianni finally got to taste the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The Eagles won 18 games including playoff games this season, a franchise record. Questions abound over whether Philadelphia defensive standout Brandon Graham and Kansas City wide receiver Kelce would retire. Walrus Andy Reid is 66, and rumors of his retirement have been floated for a couple of years now. Tears flowed for the winning and losing players, which is fitting given that the late beloved Dick Vermeil used to coach both of these teams.
The 2024 NFL season and Super Bowl LIX are now in the history books. It is only 3 months until the 2025 NFL Draft, 6 months until the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, and 7 months until the 2025 NFL regular season kicks off. For now, it was time for those in Kelly green to party in New Orleans and Philadelphia. 40-22 Eagles