By: Kylan Watson
The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles faced off tonight in one of the best super-bowls in recent memory. Each team took the other’s best shot and responded accordingly. Despite the Eagles dominating most of this game, Kansas City was able to overcome that thanks to a three touchdown and one field goal offensive performance that the Eagles had no answers for. That was the difference in this game as the Chiefs were able to beat the Eagles 38-35.
The Eagles started the game off with a bang marching right down the field and using a Jalen Hurts quarterback sneak to put Kansas City on their heels early in the game. Hurts had one of his best performances in an Eagles uniform tonight he completed 27/38 passes for 301-yards, and completed one touchdown passed, and rushed for three touchdowns in tonight’s contest. Hurts went drive for drive with the best quarterback in the league Patrick Mahomes which speaks to his development in one season. He is definitely the franchise quarterback in Philadelphia and deserved to win tonight’s game because the Chiefs could not stop the Eagles offense throughout most of it. The only thing that stopped the Eagles was a fumble that the Chiefs scored on to tie the game at 14. When the Eagles do not beat themselves, they are a hard team to beat which Kansas City found out throughout this game. That one turnover was a blemish on an otherwise spotless first half for Philly. They scored 24-points in the first half and were threatening to runaway with this game. The Eagles also kept drives allowed and possessed the ball for eight more minutes and had more first downs than Kansas City had all game. By all metrics they were the better team, but they had to play another half and that is where the game was decided.
Despite the offensive explosion from Hurts and the offensive unit. The Chiefs weathered the storm they marched right down the field and scored a touchdown to cut the lead to three. Once that happened Kansas City got their swagger back as they were able to keep Mahomes clean throughout the second half. He was not even touched by an Eagles defender unless he was scrambling for positive yards. The Eagles defensive unit inability to stop Hurts ultimately cost them this game and wasted a career defining performance by Hurts. The Eagles had one of the best defensive lines in the league. They gave their opponents fits throughout the playoffs. Not tonight though which is a credit to the Chiefs offensive line, they invested a lot of money in it after getting dominated by Tampa Bay’s disruptive defensive line a few years ago in the Super Bowl. They did not let it happen again tonight and that led to Kansas City’s offense scoring three touchdowns and one field goal to earn their second Lombardi Trophy in three years. They were in a fight throughout this game, but Mahomes made the right plays late in the game and that allowed his team to win. He carved the Eagles secondary up for not sending enough defenders to put him on the ground. He found his receivers over the middle in space and it took some good tackles to keep this game as close as it was.
Despite Mahomes’ offensive dominance the game was still there for the Eagles, had they gotten a stop and kept contain and prevented Mahomes from scrambling 20-yards to put them in field goal range late in the fourth quarter. We might be talking about the Eagles earning their second championship in five years. That was not to be today as the defense just could not sack Mahomes tonight and he had all the time in the world to find his receivers. It is very hard to ask defensive backs, even ones as great as Darius Slay and James Bradberry, are. To hold up when a great quarterback like Mahomes has time to find his man in space. Despite the defense not doing its part Jalen Hurts was able to march right down the field and tie this game up. Mahomes had to play brilliantly to close this game down and both these teams may meet up again in future super bowls, but tonight one of the best quarterbacks in the game outdueled the most complete team in the league. That’s what happens when you play a superior talent you can dominate the game and still lose.
On what he learned after losing tonight, “This is tough. There’s so much to learn from. I always hold myself to a very high standard…this is something I know that will motivated me. You either win or you learn. It’s a very tough feeling to come up short,” said Hurts.
