Eagles soar, denying Chiefs a 'three-peat'

NEW ORLEANS — There was a three-play sequence in the second quarter of the Super Bowl on Sunday night that not only summarized the way things went for Patrick Mahomes, but also the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Philadelphia had taken a 10-0 lead and the two-time defending champions were on the ropes when Mahomes was sacked by the Eagles' Josh Sweat. On the next play, Sweat bottled him up again. And on the ensuing play, the two-time NFL MVP was under such duress that Mahomes threw an interception that Cooper DeJean returned for a 38-yard score.

Six sacks. Three turnovers. And not an ounce of Mahomes magic.

By the time he was done dragging himself off the Superdome turf, and the Eagles were able to run the last seconds off the clock, Mahomes and the Chiefs were sent home with a humbling — humiliating, even — 40-22 Super Bowl defeat.

"They played better than us from start to finish," Mahomes said. "We didn't start how we wanted to. The turnovers hurt. I take all the blame for that. Those turnovers swung the momentum of the game, and they capitalized on them. They scored on one, and got a touchdown immediately after another. That's 14 points I gave them. It's hard to come back from that in the Super Bowl.

"I didn't play to my standard," Mahomes said, "and I have to be better next time."

The six sacks were the most Mahomes has endured since LSU took him to the ground the same number of times in the 2015 Texas Bowl, when he was still at Texas Tech. The pick-6 was his first in the playoffs and ended a streak of 297 consecutive passes without an interception. Another pick and a lost fumble represented the second-most turnovers in a game in his NFL career.

It all added up to one of Mahomes' most disappointing performances, too.

"He's a human being, man. I guess the world got to see that," Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said.

The Chiefs were trying to make history as the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls, and Mahomes and five of his closest teammates — including Travis Kelce and Chris Jones — were aiming for a fourth ring in six seasons.

But, rather than playing with poise and precision, as they did in two triumphs over San Francisco or their win over Philadelphia two years ago in Glendale, Arizona, the Chiefs looked like they did against Tampa Bay on Feb 7, 2021.

That was the night the Buccaneers blitzed Mahomes into oblivion in a 31-9 Super Bowl loss.

"These will be the two losses that motivate me the rest of my career," Mahomes said.

The Eagles didn't even need to blitz him to create pressure Sunday night.

The Chiefs managed just one first down over the first 30 minutes, and it came on their first offensive play, an 11-yard pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster after they had forced the Eagles to punt. The rest of the half? They gained just 14 more yards.

"Their defensive line did a nice job," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, in perhaps the understatement of the night.

The result was a 24-0 deficit that seemed insurmountable, as Kendrick Lamar began his halftime show. In fact, things were going so bad for Kansas City that even Kelce's girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, was getting booed by the pro-Eagles crowd.

Mahomes wasn't entirely to blame. The Chiefs' offensive line was dominated by the Philadelphia defensive front, which not only sacked him three times in the first half, but put so much pressure on him that it played a big part in both of the interceptions; the second one by Zack Baun late in the half led to another Eagles touchdown.

In truth, the Chiefs struggled all season to protect Mahomes' blindside. They tried rookie Kingsley Suamataia at left tackle, before coach Reid benched him for second-year pro Wanya Morris, who struggled so much himself that he was inactive for the Super Bowl. They ultimately moved All-Pro guard Joe Thuney outside and put Mike Caliendo in his place.

That lineup seemed to work late in the regular season, when the Chiefs clinched the No 1 seed with a victory over Pittsburgh on Christmas Day. It also gave Mahomes the time he needed to pick apart Houston and Buffalo in the playoffs.

It couldn't stop Sweat, Jalen Carter and the rest of the Eagles defensive front in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

"It's going to hurt for a while," Mahomes admitted, "but it's how you respond to it."

Agencies via Xinhua