With Super Bowl LIX now officially in the books it is time to do what most people in sports do, pick who gained the most and who lost the most. The Philadelphia Eagles dismantled the back to back champs in the Kansas City Chiefs in a dominant 40-22 victory, disrupting the potential 3-Peat and to many football fans, saving the NFL. From Tush Pushes to Pick Sixes, the Eagles dominated from the moment the game started.
Jalen Hurts played an almost clean game with 3 total touchdowns and one interception, but also added a ton with his legs, reminding us what makes him such a talented QB. Though Hurts was fantastic, it was the Philadelphia Defense that stole the show.
The Eagles’ Defense was unstoppable in as they sacked Patrick Mahomes an impressive 6 times, while forcing 3 turnovers. 2 interceptions, one that lead to a pic six, and another that set the birds up in the red zone. The last one being a forced fumble on Mahomes in the third quarter that essentially wrapped up any chance the Chiefs had to make the game interesting.
Now for the second time in NFL history, the Philadelphia Eagles are the Super Bowl champs and with that it is time we go over who gained the most from this outcome. Now most “winners” will be from the Eagles, but not all of them. This is in no particular order just the individuals I believed won this past Sunday.
I mean this one is a no brainer. After many critics felt that he was the “weak link” of this team, Jalen reminded everyone of how collective, poised, and dominant he can be. He may not have the stats to win regular season MVP, but in the two Super Bowls he’s played in he has been incredible. In the two Super Bowls he’s played in, he has a passer rating of 109. 4, with 525 yards passing, with 3 touchdowns to one interception. That’s just with his arm.
He has also rushed for a total of 142 yards in two games with 4 rushing touchdowns. For a combined 7 touchdowns to 2 turnovers, Jalen has cemented himself as a Philadelphia legend right next to Nick Foles, the only other person to win the big game for the Eagles. Jalen is the calming factor that keeps all the noise in Philly to be just that, noise.
Don’t worry, I’ll get to the New York Giants in a second, but I felt this should be all about Saquon and what he’s accomplished this season. After having arguably the greatest season a running back has ever had, he solidifies his spot in history with a Lombardi trophy and a ring. Saquon in the 20 games he played, rushed 436 times for a total of 2504 yards with 20 touchdowns.
Averaging a touchdown a game while rushing for that many yards it’s no surprise that he won the Offensive Player of the Year Award. Not only that, but he finished third in the regular season MVP voting. Saquon had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history and beers should fear him in the coming days. Oh and winning a Super Bowl on your birthday is pretty damn sweet.
Talk about a WIN. After an awkward first press conference in his opening season back in 2021, Nick Sirianni has been the most complicated coach in football. He’s either a great coach or the reason there is so much disfunction on the team. After the collapse of last season, Sirianni was most likely coaching for his job going into this season. Sirianni was huge in getting this team prepared for Super Bowl LIX.
Though there is always noise around Philadelphia, it felt like it was down to a minimum. The offense and defense under his leadership dramatically improved compared to last year and the staff he has around him. Sirianni is now the second coach in Eagles’s history to bring them a championship and in dominant fashion I might add. A great Gatorade bath for a dare I say great NFL coach.
The Eagles have now hurt and helped Tom Brady’s resume. Hurt as in beating him for what would have been his own 3-Peat, but also helped by making sure Patrick Mahomes wasn’t able to get his own. Many believe the argument of the GOAT is down to a two man race. After last Sunday’s game, I think we can all agree it is again a one man race. Tom is the GOAT and these GOAT talks between him and Mahomes are sure to quiet down for some time. You could even hear it in the way he was talking while broadcasting with FOX.
When Tom Brady is in the same arena as Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, Mahomes is 0-2, whether it’s playing or broadcasting, Tom and his GOAT status remain undefeated.
The Eagles never blitzed Mahomes on Sunday, and they still got 6 sacks and pressured him 38% on dropbacks. That is an insane display of dominance. Vic Fangio was 0-8 going into this game against Mahomes, this time he got his long awaited revenge as his defense disrupted everything and anything the Chiefs could try and muster up. 3 total turnovers and a 4th down stop were the main reason the Eagles dominated the way they did.
Rookie corner Cooper Dejean played a major part of that defense as he made the huge play of picking off Patrick Mahomes and running back for a score to make it a 17 point game going into halftime. Another Eagles player getting to celebrate a birthday with a Super Bowl ring.
Josh Sweat was also a dominant force on the Eagles defensive line as he wreaked havoc on Mahomes and the Chiefs’s offensive line. Finishing the day with 2.5 sacks, Mahomes was in a panic all game in a large part to Sweats performance. The entire Eagles’s defense was essentially unstoppable and had their way with Kansas City. They say defense wins championships… they confirmed that Sunday.
Now I won’t go and say the Super Bowl Halftime Show was the best of all time, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t leave it’s mark. Kendrick Lamar has been the hottest Hip Hop artist for the last year with his newest albums and diss tracks to Canadian artist Drake so when he was announced everyone wondered:
“Is he gonna do it? Is he gonna call out Drake during?”
The answer to that question is an emphatic YES. Not only did he call out Drake during his performance, he looked it right in the camera when he did it. Deliberately and unapologetically as all of the Superdome yelled “A MINOR.” To top it off, SZA was phenomenal in her performance and at one point, was the best part of the halftime show. Not to mention “Uncle Sam…uel Jackson” and Serena Williams crip walking to Not Like Us is filthy work.
Every game there is a winner and sadly there are losers… unless it’s soccer, but we aren’t talking about that for another year until the World Cup is in the good ol’ US of A. Here are the people that got stained the worst. There is a lot to get to here.
This one goes without saying. Though it is a team sport, at the end of the day the person that gets blamed is the QB. And for right reason this time around, Patrick Mahomes played arguably his worst game as an NFL starter. If I told you before the game that going into halftime Patrick Mahomes was going to be 6/14 with 2 interceptions for a whopping 33 yards, you would’ve thought I was crazy. The matter of fact is Mahomes was horrendous. Whether it was from Fangio’s perfect defensive scheme, or something off the field, Mahomes was off from start to finish. A huge stain on his GOAT argument for years to come.
This falls similarly with Mahomes with GOAT talk. Andy Reid is an all time head coach and before this Sunday I felt he was right there with Belichick as the greatest coach in NFL history. After this game, he unfortunately has to take a step back. As a head coach, you are responsible for getting your players ready to play and to execute. On the cusp of a 3-Peat the Chiefs were flat. They looked slower than the Eagles, sloppier than the Eagles, and were the lesser of the two teams. That’s on the head coach. Sorry Big Red, this one is gonna sting.
John Mara and Joe Schoen must have been having nightmares for months now. It’s one thing to trade away your best player, but it’s another thing to trade him away to a divisional rival. It’s an even bigger thing when that said best player proceeds to have arguably the greatest rushing season in history and caps it off with a Super Bowl win. It’s okay, at least they stuck with Daniel Jones and that worked out great. Wait, what do you mean they sent him to Minnesota? At least you’re the second pick in the draft, no pressure…
Much like Andy Reid, coaching is a huge part of the game of football. Steve Spagnuolo had his work cut out for him when it came to trying to stop the Eagles’ offense. Although they were quite successful with keeping Saquon Barkley contained, that cannot be said about containing Jalen Hurts. Over 70 rushing yards from Hurts and essentially 0 pass rush made it easy for Hurts to find open receivers. This game isn’t entirely on the defense, but when the defense had no answer to the Eagle’s pass protection.
Travis Kelce all season has been pretty pedestrian. It is hard to believe that after the 19 games he played in this season, Travis Kelce had under 1000 yards receiving and just 4 touchdowns. Though Kelce is Mahomes’ security blanket, Travis is getting closer and closer to retirement and the potential fairytale ending of winning the Super Bowl to then propose to celebrity megastar Taylor Swift feels a long way away. Speaking of Taylor…
Taylor isn’t the biggest loser by any means, in fact she’s probably at the bottom of the list. She’s still a billionaire and arguably the biggest star on the planet. But when you date one of the greatest tight ends to ever play and he lays a stinker, and you get turned into a meme, you usually aren’t on the winning side of things.
Yikes. Feels like Drake has been on one of the worst losing streaks in hip hop history. Losing a beef is one thing, but for one who beat you to then continuously clown you for a year, to then win four Grammys, perform in the Super Bowl, and clown you on the biggest stage of the year, WHILE YOU’RE SUING HIM? Yeah that’s a wrap. Gg’s Drake, take a sabbatical and maybe get back in the studio.
Look conspiracy theories can be fun, some times. Sure if felt like the Chiefs were getting favorable calls when they needed them most. The Chiefs are the league villain and seeing them succeed or score after a penalty can be irritating to watch. At the end of the day the Eagles proved that the better team won and the ongoing thought that the NFL wanted the Chiefs to win can finally be put to bed.
This one is out of love. I don’t agree with a lot of what Chiefs superfan and co-host of Fox’s First Things First, but I do enjoy the show he has built with Chris Brousard and Kevin Wildes. If you talk big, you gotta live up to talk, especially when your team get thwacked. After talking about how this team is the greatest team in NFL history and the most dominant dynasty of all time, it is to many twitter users delight that he was made to eat some humble pie on First Things First. Love the show.
I was waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy off on this one. On last week’s Taps and Takes (found here on Rants Network) I felt that the Chief’s were on a collision course for history. What I failed to realize was that collision course was the Eagles crashing into their blindside. My prediction of 23-20 Chiefs is laughable in hindsight, but is that gonna stop me from getting all of my bracket wrong for March Madness? No Way! (I’m cooked fam).
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