NEW ORLEANS — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots couldn’t finish the job. The Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s were incredible teams but fell short too. The 1980s San Francisco 49ers and 1990s Dallas Cowboys were NFL royalty but their streaks stopped at two straight Super Bowl
There have been 59 Super Bowls played and still no team has won three of them in a row. The Chiefs’ quest for a three-peat starts over at zero after they were thoroughly dominated by the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night.
It was one of the most one-sided games in Super Bowl history, which was shocking given the stature of the Chiefs coming in.
It was supposed to be a coronation for the Chiefs. How many times in the week leading up to the game was it uttered that it’s impossible to beat Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid in a big game? Of all the possible results for this Super Bowl, the only one that didn’t seem possible was the Eagles blowing out Kansas City, but it happened. The Eagles’ defense unfathomably made Mahomes look like one of the worst players on the field in the first half as they built a 24-0 halftime lead. Mahomes had two interceptions that led directly to 14 Eagles points, one on a pick 6 by Philadelphia rookie Cooper DeJean.
When DeJean was returning that interception, which came on a reckless throw by Mahomes, it started to sink in for everyone that the Chiefs weren’t going to have some magic act to come back and win a close game, as they have so many times. The Chiefs weren’t on the Eagles’ level Sunday. When Jalen Hurts hit DeVonta Smith on a 46-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, it put Philadelphia ahead 34-0 and the celebration could begin.
Hurts went 17-of-22 for 221 yards and two passing TDs, and rushed for 72 yards and a TD on 11 carries. He was voted the game’s MVP.
The 1929-31 and 1965-67 Green Bay Packers can rest easy. They’re still the only teams with three NFL championships in a row. The Chiefs came closer than anyone to being the first to win three Super Bowls in a row, but their run at history got blown apart by an Eagles team that was determined to not lose to the Chiefs in a Super Bowl again.
Chiefs buried by halftime
All week, the Eagles kept talking about focus. They learned from Super Bowl LVII, when most of their players were in their first Super Bowl and they took in the entire experience of the week.
This time, the Eagles wanted to win the game. It showed.
Saquon Barkley was taken out of the game by the Chiefs’ defense before halftime and it hardly mattered. Jalen Hurts threw a bad interception with the Eagles in field-goal range in the first half and nobody will remember it. The Eagles’ defense simply took over the game.
There are plenty of numbers that indicated Mahomes had the worst half of his NFL career in Super Bowl LIX, with the Chiefs going for a historic third title in a row. He had a 10.7 passer rating. The Chiefs had one first down in the first half, and it came on their first offensive play of the game. The Eagles had 23 yards in the first half, the lowest in the first half for the Chiefs since Mahomes became their starting quarterback.
Pick a stat, and it tells you the simple story of Super Bowl LIX: The Eagles weren’t just the better team, but better by miles.
The Eagles won Super Bowl LII, the franchise’s first Super Bowl title, in a close game against the New England Patriots that wasn’t decided until the final moments. While nobody in Philadelphia could celebrate too early, because Mahomes is hard to count out, it was a pretty stress-free Super Bowl Sunday for Eagles fans. The Chiefs have won 17 straight one-score games, and the Eagles figured out how to get around that.
They made sure the Chiefs were never competitive.
Eagles have an all-time performance
There are reasons a team has never won three straight Super Bowls. There are a lot of extra games involved. It’s tough to keep your roster together year after year, especially in the salary-cap era. Injuries are unpredictable and can derail any team’s season.
And sometimes, you run up against a team that on that particular day in the playoffs looks like it could beat just about any other team in NFL history.
The Eagles’ performance, particularly on defense, ranks among the best in Super Bowl history. Philadelphia’s front pummeled the Chiefs’ offensive line, which was a theme in Kansas City’s other Super Bowl loss with Mahomes four years ago to the Buccaneers. The Eagles were 16-1 after September, with their only loss coming when Hurts suffered a concussion in the first quarter and Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels threw a game-winning touchdown with six seconds left. That’s how close Philadelphia was from running the table for a stretch of four and a half months.
The Chiefs’ pursuit of history and other flashy teams like the Ravens, Bills and Lions kept the Eagles’ dominance in the shadows for much of the season. Barkley’s brilliance was a recurring headline but the Eagles as a team were strangely under the radar. Even when they scored 55 points in beating Washington in the NFC championship game, the focus leading up to the Super Bowl was how unbeatable Mahomes, Reid and the Chiefs’ dynasty was in big games.
The Eagles’ first Super Bowl win was probably sweeter after such a long wait. But it’s probably safe to say that Super Bowl LIX was the most dominant game in Eagles franchise history. Now their pursuit of a three-peat can begin.