Kansas City Chiefs Beat the Philadelphia Eagles to Win Super Bowl LVII
By: Andrew Beaton (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
PHOENIX—Patrick Mahomes somehow got the Kansas City Chiefs to this Super Bowl despite a bum ankle he had hastily rehabbed after an injury three weeks ago. Then late in the first half against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, the star quarterback was again writhing in pain on the field and on the sidelines.
With the Chiefs already trailing, Mahomes had aggravated his injury with a championship on the line. For Mahomes to win another Super Bowl, he would have to engineer a comeback. And he would have to do it on one healthy leg.
“I felt really good—and then that happened,” Mahomes said later.
That’s when Mahomes turned in a performance that showed again why he’s not just the best player in the sport today, but also on an accelerated track to stand among the game’s all-time greats.
Mahomes and the Chiefs are Super Bowl champions, again.
In a phenomenal duel between Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, the game’s top two quarterbacks this season, the Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 in an epic shootout. While Philadelphia had Kansas City on the ropes with a 24-14 halftime lead and an opposing quarterback who was clearly ailing, the Chiefs stormed back late to reassert their vice grip on the National Football League with a win on a game-winning field goal with eight seconds left.
“I told y’all this week, there was nothing that was going to keep me off that football field,” Mahomes said just after he was named the game’s most valuable player.
As Kansas City rallied in the second half, it had pulled out to a 35-27 lead in the fourth quarter when Hurts led Philadelphia down field for a touchdown and converted a two-point conversion to knot the game up with 5:15 to go. Tied 35-35, it was Mahomes Time.
“You’re in the Super Bowl and you can worry about getting it healthy in the offseason,” Mahomes said.
With the clock ticking down, Mahomes led a methodical drive down the field against the Eagles elite defense. The drive’s biggest play was also the guttiest, when Mahomes managed to scramble 26 yards deep into Philadelphia territory.
Then a critical third-down penalty against the Eagles—what some saw as a phantom defensive holding call against Philadelphia defender James Bradberry on a pass play—allowed the Chiefs to run down the clock. Even as Philadelphia attempted to let Kansas City to score, the Chiefs wisely opted to eat up time and not give its opponent another chance with much left on the clock.
Then with seconds left, Harrison Butker’s short field goal sailed through the uprights. Philadelphia’s last-ditch attempt went nowhere. The party was on again for Kansas City.
The Chiefs’ run of success is already the makings of the sport’s next dynasty. They’ve made five straight conference championship games. This is their third Super Bowl appearance in the last four years. And this marked their second victory in that span.
Mahomes, 27 years old, had already been named the league’s most valuable player before this game kicked off, and he added to his legacy with this win. But for a player who has tore apart defenses with astonishing throws that his peers wouldn’t dare attempt, he won this Super Bowl through a distinctly different style. While the Chiefs have so often seemed like a one-man show during the Mahomes era, his teammates continued to come through on Sunday with critical plays that helped catapult them to victory.
More than Mahomes is often accustomed to, he handed the ball off to running back Isiah Pacheco after the injury—and Kansas City was rewarded when the rookie broke off some key runs. A 65-yard punt return by Kadarius Toney, a mid-season acquisition, set Mahomes up with a short field for an easy score. And one of the Chiefs’ first half scores came on a fumble return for a touchdown.
What made the game so remarkable wasn’t simply Mahomes’s capacity to stay on the field and perform admirably through an injury that has dogged him for three straight playoff games. It was also his battle with Hurts, who turned in an incredible performance—only to fall short.
The 24-year-old Hurts emerged as the game’s breakout star this season, and this performance cemented his meteoric rise as a player capable of carving through defenses in a multitude of ways. He became the first player in history to run for two touchdowns and throw for another—and that was before halftime.
In a game billed as a showdown between teams that had been the league’s two best all season—both finished the season with a 14-3 record and earned the No. 1 seed in their respective conferences—it quickly became clear that the game would be long on offense. Both clubs scored on their opening possessions, and it was knotted up again at 14-14 after Hurts made his one big mistake, an unprompted fumble that the Chiefs returned for a touchdown.
Hurts ultimately ran for three touchdowns and threw for another, with over 300 yards passing. He was a one-man wrecking crew that Kansas City couldn’t contain for much of the game. Philadelphia went into the half leading by 10 because Hurts was simply fabulous.
The tenor of the game shifted shortly before halftime, however. Mahomes had suffered a high-ankle sprain during the team’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round of the playoffs a few weeks ago, when he was hardly able to move and even handing the ball off left him in visible pain. A week later, he played through the injury, which often sidelines players for the better part of a month, as Kansas City beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship.
Mahomes appeared to be much improved during the early part of the Super Bowl, but when he was brought down late in the first half the injury was clearly aggravated. He grimaced on the field and hobbled toward the sideline where he was in obvious agony. When the Chiefs went into the half down 24-14, it looked like the biggest game of the season could be decided by the best player in football being sapped of his powers.
Mahomes, though, came out of the break mobile enough to make the plays when he needed to. His 182 passing yards were modest by his lofty standards. Yet he still wound up with three passing touchdowns and gritted his way through the key late run that set up the game-winning field goal. The Chiefs managed 24 second-half points—all after his ankle injury flared up again.
Then after Hurts’s last-second Hail Mary attempt fell short, Mahomes was spry enough to celebrate on the field with his teammates. There was a shower of yellow and red confetti waiting for them.
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