Skip to main content

SCOREBOARD

Unexpected Chiefs loss is just what the NFL needed

Published

New Orleans – For all the good things this era of the Kansas City Chiefs has delivered to the National Football League, there was one quality that the league could have done without.

Predictability.

That’s why the Philadelphia Eagles’ shocking 40-22 victory over the Chiefs in the 59th Super Bowl game is just what the NFL needed.

Another Chiefs win, even in dramatic fashion, might have felt a tad stale. Instead, we get a result that was so unexpected.

Not so much unexpected in that the Eagles won, but rather in how they thoroughly dominated a team that had lost just one meaningful game in a calendar year.

Instead of this Super Bowl being a repeat of the Chiefs thrilling 38-35 win over Philadelphia two years ago, as many anticipated, we got a game that was over by halftime.

That is saying something, given that the Chiefs have been known as a team ultra-prepared for every situation with an instinct to play their best in the moments that matter most.

But they put up one of the most embarrassing first-half performances in Super Bowl history against the Eagles Sunday night, at least on the offensive side of the football.

In falling behind by a 24-0 score at halftime, Kansas City’s first seven possessions went punt, punt, punt, interception, punt, interception, punt.

Patrick Mahomes completed six of 14 passes for 23 yards while throwing a pair of interceptions, one for a pick six by Philadelphia corner Cooper DeJean. On the ground, Kansas City had three rushes for just three yards total before halftime.

The Chiefs defence may not have been lights-out against the Eagles, but this was a loss that falls almost entirely on the Chiefs offence and its inability to sustain any kind of momentum until late in the third quarter.

Against an Eagles defence that is tough against the run, the Super Bowl figured to be another game in which the Chiefs would be counting on some Mahomes Magic with the ball in his hand. Instead, Mahomes became a sitting duck for a Philly pass rush that overwhelmed the Chiefs at the line of scrimmage and was in his face all night.

That highlighted two areas where the Chiefs seemed vulnerable and where the Eagles made them pay – offensive line and receiver. Those weaknesses became liabilities they couldn't overcome against the Eagles.

The Eagles crushed the Chiefs’ pocket without having to blitz, bringing pressure from the edge and interior of their defensive line. They managed to do what the most every other Chiefs opponent had failed at – disrupting at the line of scrimmage with four and five-man pressures, interfering with Mahomes ability to make plays the football.

With less time to throw, Kansas City’s receivers struggled to get open and Mahomes was often off his mark when they did.

For consecutive seasons, Mahomes has dealt with a group of receivers who have underachieved either through performance or lost time due to injuries. While he’s been able to use his talents to overcome that reality so many times, on Sunday night he could not do so.

Rookie Xavier Worthy led the Chiefs with eight catches for 157 yards two touchdowns, one of the best receiver stat lines in Super Bowl history. All but one catch for one yard came after halftime.

The Eagles, meanwhile, managed to dominate the Chiefs without an outstanding day from running back Saquon Barkley who was held to 57 yards on 25 carries and another 40 through the air on six catches.

The real star along the ground for the Eagles was quarterback Jalen Hurts, who had 72 yards rushing, all of it perfectly timed to punish the Chiefs defence when it failed to adequately account for him.

The ramifications of a Chiefs’ loss in such dramatic fashion are many.

For one, losing in a game where the offensive line couldn’t protect and receivers couldn’t get open should set the agenda for what the Chiefs need to address this off-season.

And as for what it does for Mahomes and his legacy?

On one hand, Mahomes is 29 and may have many more Super Bowl appearances ahead of him to the point that this one becomes a distant memory. A decent stat line that includes 257 yards passing and three touchdowns may be a mirage, but history may be kinder to him because of it.

But Mahomes and the Chiefs now have a Super Bowl raspberry on their resume, something the Patriots or other great dynasty teams don’t have.

Their loss to Tampa Bay four years ago wasn’t pretty. But this was a game in which they  were never really a threat, with the 24-0 halftime score getting to 40-6 midway through the fourth quarter before two late garbage-time touchdowns.

There have only been three Super Bowl blowout games in the past quarter century – the Buccaneers 48-21 over the Raiders at the end of the 2002 season, Seattle’s 43-8 win over Denver to conclude the 2013 season, and the Eagles dismantling the Chiefs on Sunday.

That’s it.

The Chiefs are the dynasty team that got turned on its head, as unlikely a team as there is to have played its worse game of the year in the one that mattered most.