Livescore
NEW ORLEANS — Jalen Hurts danced his way through the locker room, a cigar between his teeth and a beer can in his right hand.
He sprayed a shirtless Saquon Barkley until the can held nothing left to spray, one last handoff from the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback to his star running back as they celebrated a 40-22 Super Bowl LIX victory over the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The Eagles were half an hour deep into their celebration by the time Hurts treated Barkley to the shower to which he’d already repeatedly treated himself. Team owner Jeffrey Lurie had already danced with the Lombardi Trophy across from wide receiver A.J. Brown; general manager Howie Roseman had already raised his hands in the air as he stepped with his secondary.
Edge rusher Nolan Smith had already lamented the end of the liquor supply in a cardboard box full of packing peanuts, while defensive tackle Jalen Carter lorded over the celebration standing atop his locker.
Oakley Champagne goggles and metallic Super Bowl LIX chains canvassed the neon-lit cavern.
The celebration was fitting, not only because it felt like a taste of redemption two seasons after the Chiefs hit a field goal with 8 seconds to play in regulation to escape 38-35 against this same franchise. The celebration was fitting also because players and coaches celebrated beside teammates from other positions and other career lengths, coaches and executives sprinkled in the mix. This was a deeply integrated celebration for a deeply integrated team.
The Eagles had won by trumpeting their connection and “togetherness.” They now celebrated that same win with blurred lines between the contributors who produced an astonishingly complete victory.
That this roster was capable of beating the Chiefs should not have surprised: Philadelphia’s talent pool was deeper than Kansas City’s this season.
But as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes strode into the Superdome on Sunday afternoon in a perhaps-not-coincidentally midnight green suit that made him look ready to live rent-free on the other sideline, the Eagles had reason to beware.
Even at halftime, up 24-0, the Eagles implored each other to keep a collective foot on the pedal. The Chiefs’ three-peat bid would have been an NFL first; but a dramatic Chiefs comeback win has become almost expected for a team that claimed 11 of its 15 regular-season wins by one score or less.
“The talk was, ‘Just stay locked in, stay poised — this is Pat Mahomes we’re dealing with,’” Brown described their halftime messaging. “Be ready. Be ready for him to answer, and just keep going.”
The Eagles were ready. The Chiefs were not.
Stopping Mahomes a surer route to victory than stopping Saquon
If the Chiefs’ top gameplan was to contain Barkley, they largely succeeded.
The back who averaged 5.8 yards per carry in his 2,000-yard rushing season managed just 2.3 a pop on the biggest stage; at halftime, he had gained just 34 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches.
The problem with Kansas City’s plan: The Eagles did not build a team that relied on Barkley’s traditional production to win. Philadelphia built a powerhouse with a defense that made Mahomes look mortal and an offense that bullied opponents all season long with morphing recipes by the week.
Long before Barkley amassed the 97 yards from scrimmage with which he’d ultimately celebrate his 26th birthday, the Eagles had delivered a clinic on complementary football.
In the first quarter, Hurts found August trade acquisition Jahan Dotson for a 27-yard gain a yard short of the goal line, the pass aided by Barkley’s blitz pickup. When Dotson didn’t make it through, the Eagles reminded the Chiefs of the inevitable: Could the first Super Bowl score come any way other than a Tush Push?
Philadelphia’s defense rewarded its offense with a three-and-out, but on the next drive Hurts was hit on a deep target for Brown that Chiefs safety Bryan Cook instead leapt for and grabbed. Would Kansas City turn a nearly two-score game into a tie? Philadelphia’s defense instead came through with another three-and-out, the Eagles soon extending their lead to 10 points.
Where some teams would subconsciously lighten their pressure with such cushion, Philadelphia dialed up still more intensity on a day in which they needed just four rushers to torment Mahomes. The Chiefs quarterback was sacked twice and then intercepted while throwing on the run on third-and-16. Rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean, who like Barkley was celebrating his birthday, followed his blockers’ paths to the end zone for a pick 6.
Offseason acquisition Zack Baun would catch a diving interception of Mahomes before halftime, the second of three total takeaways from a defense that reset the quarterback’s career record with six sacks.
Philadelphia never let the Chiefs come within two scores after halftime, Kansas City center Creed Humphrey saying after the game Philadelphia didn’t surprise the Chiefs so much as they were “playing harder.”
As the game escaped, Hurts did too to the tune of 293 yards from scrimmage, three touchdowns and a 119.7 passer rating. The Eagles won without a touchdown from Barkley, whose jubilant celebrations did not reflect the role he did or didn’t play.
“Oh, man, she looks prettier in person,” Barkley said of the Lombardi Trophy. “It’s better in person than it is in Madden, I’ll tell you that playing as a kid, it’s everything you dream of.”
The Eagles’ plan to contain Mahomes paved the road to victory more effectively than the Chiefs’ to contain Barkley. Philadelphia pressured Mahomes on 38.1% of dropbacks despite never blitzing, per Next Gen Stats, giving the once midnight-green-suited quarterback reason instead to see red.
The ghosts of Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s four-man pressures will haunt Mahomes.
“Vic gives us the call, we don’t question it and he puts us in the positions to make the plays,” said edge rusher Josh Sweat, whose six total pressures included 2.5 sacks and four pressures on first and second downs, per Next Gen Stats. “I don’t know how he does it. We just run it, and we bring in our technique and we get it done.”
Eagles built a franchise that unseated Brady-Belichick, Mahomes-Reid
After the locker room lights turned back on at 10:59 p.m. local time, the music pausing occasionally for breaths before yet again resurfacing for vibes, Lurie addressed a handful of reporters in the hallway between the locker room and team bathrooms.
His quarterback had just taken a moment to sit in the hallway with the Lombardi Trophy. Lurie wasn’t surprised that the same Hurts who had outplayed Mahomes in the Super Bowl loss now outplayed Mahomes in a win.
Lurie was delighted that the strategy he and Roseman had committed to worked, Philadelphia winning its second Super Bowl in eight years with different head coaches, quarterbacks and defensive approaches.
“He’s the best GM in football and he’s always thinking what could improve the team, 365 days a year,” Lurie said of his roster architect who found key contributors in the draft and in free agency, from Australian rugby and from the special-team squad of the very city in which they now hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. “He’s not risk averse. He’s aggressive. That’s what I want.
“A future Hall of Fame GM.”
The assertion wasn’t just about the two Super Bowl wins, and three Super Bowl appearances, that have followed in the decade since Roseman was briefly unseated from his football stewardship. This was also about a franchise that has now thwarted two dynastic teams on the biggest stage: Philadelphia’s 2017 season Lombardi came by beating quarterback-coach duo Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, while this one took down Mahomes and Andy Reid.
Reid himself had contributed to the Chiefs’ undoing, the line-of-scrimmage philosophies he taught Roseman during their 13 years working together in Philadelphia ultimately coming back to win the physicality battle against a former offensive lineman’s team. The Eagles don’t downplay how clearer run lanes and pocket protection elevate their offense, nor do they undersell how a frenetic (four-man) defensive front disrupts quarterback timing and routes alike.
“It always felt like if our O-line could be better than their D-line and our D-line could be better than their O-line,” Roseman said days earlier, “we had a chance to win a lot of games.”
Sunday, the Eagles won the game that mattered most to them of all.
They did so with jubilance and exhilaration, a cast of players like Brown ready to avenge the Super Bowl loss that Lurie said still angers them celebrating alongside newer additions like Barkley whose prior teams hadn’t come close to this pinnacle.
In a shower of Champagne and beer, confetti and Lombardi poses, they tipped their Super Bowl LIX champion hats to one another, knowing the win took more than just one of them — their multitalented, Whack-a-Mole group ultimately proving the perfect recipe to unseat the less-versatile Chiefs.
For the night, that was enough.
“We can’t rewrite history or do anything about the past,” Brown said, “but we can make it even.
“Make sure that green confetti was falling at the end.”
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