No contest.
Forget the final score. This was a demolition. This was an annihilation. This was a destruction.
Eagles 40, Chiefs 22, and for the second time in eight years the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions.
The Eagles rolled out to a 34-0 lead and then coasted to the fifth championship and second Super Bowl title in franchise history at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Chiefs scored 16 points in the final three minutes and all 22 after falling behind by five touchdowns.
Let the celebration begin.
Let the 10 Instant Observations begin.
1. For years, for decades really, Eagles fans had to watch somebody else dominate the NFL while the losses piled up over here. The Steelers won a bunch of Super Bowls. Then the 49ers. Then the Cowboys. The Broncos won a couple. Then most recently the Patriots and Chiefs. It was always someone else. And for most of those years, the Eagles were fortunate to have a winning record or even make the playoffs. From 1961 through 1999 – that’s a 39-year span – the Eagles won five playoff games. At a moment like this, it’s impossible not to think about how the Eagles have become exactly that franchise that Eagles fans used to hate because they won so much. They’ve become the team everybody else wants to be like. They’ve become the team that keeps going to Super Bowls while their team falls by the wayside. Not only have they gone to three Super Bowls in eight years, they’ve now won two of them over the two franchises and two quarterbacks and two coaches that have dominated the NFL for much of the last quarter century and the two franchises that ended the Eagles’ 2004 and 2022 seasons in Super Bowl misery. They knocked off Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots in 2017 and now they’ve knocked off Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the Chiefs in 2024. They’ve slaughtered the dragon twice now, not just winning Super Bowls with remarkable performances but doing it against two of the greatest coaches and quarterbacks in football history. Eagles fans no longer have to watch Super Bowls and wish it was us. Thanks to Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman, thanks to Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni, thanks to Nick Foles and Jalen Hurts, the Eagles have become the team everybody else wants to be like. They’ve become the franchise everybody else wants to beat. They’ve become exactly what Eagles fans and their parents and their grandparents have been waiting a lifetime for.
2. Think 1969 Vikings, 1976 Steelers, 1985 Bears, 1991 Eagles. This was just astonishing stuff from Vic Fangio’s defense against a Hall of Fame coach and quarterback. It started up front, where Josh Sweat, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Milton Williams and Co. were just unstoppable. Absolutely dominating. They simply didn’t allow Patrick Mahomes to get set and even start going through his progression. They were in his face all night, sacked him six times, forced a fumble and two interceptions, and when he did get rid of the ball, it was either a little dink and dunk or an interception. By the time Mahomes finally completed a pass longer than 11 yards and got the Chiefs across midfield, it was late in the third quarter, the Eagles were up 34 points and Mahomes had a 10.7 passer rating after getting picked off by Cooper DeJean for a 38-yard pick-6 and Zack Baun to set up a touchdown. Forget the final score. When this game was still in the balance, the Chiefs did nothing. Their first nine drives netted no points and 43 yards – six punts, two interceptions, one failed fourth down. This defense has been playing better and better all year, and it all came together in the biggest game of the year with a master class in team defense. A year ago, they were one of the worst defenses in football. A year ago, they finished the season giving up 32 points in a wild-card loss in Tampa to cap a historic collapse. Enter Fangio and a complete transformation into a ferocious, intelligent, instinctive group that plays spectacular team defense and has no weak links. The Chiefs scored a few late who-cares touchdowns, but this was a complete destruction of one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in history. This group has a killer instinct, and we’ve seen it week after week since the bye. Defense just doesn’t get any better than this.
3. Jalen Hurts is a Super Bowl champion. He’s 26 years old, he’s been to two Super Bowls in three years, he’s a Super Bowl MVP, he’s won one, he’s averaged 12 ½ wins over the last three years, and if you still don’t believe this kid is elite that’s your problem. What a competitor. What a battler. What a quarterback. On a day when Saquon Barkley was bottled up the entire game, the Eagles needed Hurts to make plays through the air and the ground, and he did both. He threw for 10 first downs, ran for five more, and was in command of the offense all night. He did throw his first interception since Week 9 and wound up one pass short of the NFL record for most consecutive passes without an INT. But that was the only blip in an otherwise magnificent performance. Hurts completed 17 of 22 passes – that’s 77 percent – for 221 yards with two touchdowns and the one INT for a beefy 119.7 passer rating, and he added 72 rushing yards, most ever in a Super Bowl by a quarterback to win a Super Bowl after losing his first Super Bowl since John Elway in 1997. He’s the 10th quarterback to win a Super Bowl before his 27th birthday, joining all-timers such as Tom Brady, Troy Aikman, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Montana and Mahomes. He may not win football games the way you want him to, but you’re going to be celebrating his excellence for a long, long time. He’s a champion.
4. Nick Sirianni is a champion, too, and what a thing that is. A year ago, it really looked like he was getting fired after the Eagles lost six of their last seven, all of them in horrifying fashion. But he re-invented himself as CEO of the team, turned the offense over to Kellen Moore and focused on re-building an elite locker room culture leaning heavily into his core values and he got 53 guys to buy in, and here we are. Sirianni’s ability to get guys to work hard and study hard and practice hard and play hard is remarkable. To get 53 guys to set aside their own stats and accomplishments and play for their teammates above all else. Howie gave him a stacked roster, and Sirianni brought them together, from the all-pros and Pro Bowlers to the last guy on the practice squad. When you have everybody pointing in the same direction – every single person in the organization – special things can happen, and that’s what we all just witnessed. Sirianni may not call plays, but what he does for this team is far more important.
5. Cooper DeJean has played at such a high level, you knew it was just a matter of time before he recorded his first career interception. And, wow, did he pick the perfect time. With the Eagles up 10-0 in the middle of the second quarter, DeJean made a perfect read on an errant Patrick Mahomes pass, picked it off and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. Play of the game. It was only the second pick-6 ever by a rookie in a Super Bowl and the first in 39 years. In the Bears’ 46-10 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX after the 1985 season – also at the Superdome – Reggie Phillips of the Bears picked off Steve Grogan and returned it 28 yards for a TD. So DeJean’s 38-yarder is the longest pick-6 ever by a rookie in a Super Bowl. You just don’t see rookies making plays like this on the biggest stage in the game. It was also DeJean’s first career interception and it came on DeJean’s 22nd birthday. It was the first interception the Eagles have had in their five Super Bowls and the first pick-6 against Mahomes in 501 career pass attempts over 21 career postseaon games. DeJean also became the youngest player in Super Bowl with an interception, 175 days younger than Antoine Winfield Jr. when he picked off Mahomes in Tampa four years ago.
6. There was a day up at Lehigh early in Jeff Lurie’s tenure as ownership, probably around 1996 or 1997, that he said his only goal as owner was to bring Philadelphia “Super Bowl championships,” and he definitely used plural “championships” that day after practice more than a quarter of a century ago. It took a bit, but Lurie has now delivered two Super Bowl championships to his adopted hometown after the Eagles had gone 56 years without a championship. And Lurie buying the franchise from Norman Braman turns out to be one of the biggest moments in franchise because Lurie has transformed the Eagles from a perennial loser into a team that has reached eight NFC Championships and four Super Bowls since 2000, missing the playoffs only eight times in a quarter of a century. He’s the one setting the culture in the NovaCare Complex. He’s the one hiring the coaches. He’s the one who hired Howie Roseman as G.M. He’s the one who without exception gives his front office all the resources it needs to go out and get the best players available. He’s the most important person in the history of the franchise, and without him none of this would have been possible.
7. It wasn’t the Super Bowl anybody expected from Saquon Barkley, who ran 25 times for just 57 yards against a Chiefs defense that came into this game with one goal in mine – stuffing Saquon. That’s 2.3 yards per carry, lowest in Super Bowl history by a back with 20 or more carries. Steve Spagnuolo just made up his mind to not let No. 26 beat the Chiefs. He figured make the Eagles throw the ball and then he can unleash all of his exotic blitzes at Hurts. And yeah, that was Barkley’s worst performance this year. But pick your poison, Spags. If you want to sell out to shut down the running game, the Eagles are going to find another way to beat you. And for everybody who didn’t think the Eagles could win without Barkley dominating, there’s a parade up Broad Street later this week. Hurts made Spags pay, and Spags’ signature blitzes had no effect on the passing game. He was sacked twice, but they were inconsequential and Hurts showed tremendous pocket awareness in the face of the Chiefs’ pressure, either making throws on the run or using his legs to make plays. Spags is one of the best defensive coordinators in NFL History and he’s got four Super Bowl rings to prove it. But in this one, Kellen Moore and Hurts had all the answers.
8. How about Jake Elliott? He stinks all year. He can’t make a kick. Worst kicker in the league. I mean, he was terrible. So what does he do in the Super Bowl? Goes 4-for-4 with a 29-yarder, two 48-yarders and a 50-yarder. We saw Elliott kick 42- and 46-yarders as a rookie against the Patriots in Super Bowl LII and go on to become one of the best kickers in NFL history. But how could you be confident when he was the least accurate kicker in the NFL this year? During the regular season, Elliott made three field goals from 48 yards and out and in the Super Bowl he made three field goals from 48 yards and out. That’s insane. That speaks volumes about what kind of competitor Elliott is deep down. He missed 13 kicks during the regular season, but get him in a Super Bowl and he delivers in a huge way. Elliott is the first kicker in history to make three kicks from 48 yards and out in the same Super Bowl and he’s now 26-for-27 in his postseason career for 96 percent, and that’s 4th-highest in NFL history by a kicker with 10 or more attempts. Clutch. Incredibly clutch.
9. One thing that makes the Eagles a true team is that every single backup when called on to play has excelled. Whether it’s Tyler Steen, Kenny Pickett, Kenny Gainwell, Jahan Dotson, Oren Burks, Grant Calcaterra, they’ve all accepted their roles, embraced their roles and excelled in their roles. Which brings us to Avonte Maddox. He was released during the offseason. He re-signed after taking a pay cut. He began the season in the slot, then got benched. In nine games, he played four or fewer snaps. When he did play it was garbage time. He had played just six defensive snaps in the the postseason. So what happens on the Chiefs’ 4th-and-4 near midfield late in the third quarter? Maddox is on the field and lunges to bat down a Mahomes pass to DeAndre Hopkins. Very next play, Hurts throws a 46-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith. I love that play because it really exemplifies what this team is all about. Nobody had Maddox on their Bingo card for a big 4th-down stop in the Super Bowl. But when it was his turn to make a play? He made a play. That’s what the 2024 Eagles are all about.
10. And the beauty of this team is that they’re not going away. They’ll be back. This is a roster built to last and a team built to compete and everything is in place for the Eagles to enjoy sustained success, not just this year, not just next year but for years to come. Seventeen of the Eagles’ starters Sunday in New Orleans are 27 or younger. Cooper DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis, Mekhi Becton, Reed Blankenship, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens and Jalen Hurts are all 26 or younger. This is a franchise with a general manager who’s built three Super Bowl rosters in eight years and knows how to replenish the talent on the roster, one of only three head coaches ever to take two teams to the Super Bowl in his first four years, a quarterback who’s 42-9 in the last 51 games he’s started and finished. Since 2000 – a quarter of a century – the Eagles have had five losing seasons, four Super Bowl appearances and two championships. This is a franchise that has made the Super Bowl a realistic annual goal. That’s the standard now. Anything less is a disappointment. This team is not going anywhere.
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