Grading Super Bowl LIX after the Eagles dominate the Chiefs

The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl LIX champions after dominating the Kansas City Chiefs en route to their second Super Bowl in seven years. We have graded every team’s performance throughout the 2024 NFL season, and today will be no different.

It’s hard to give a Super Bowl winning team any grade other than ‘A+’, but this Eagles team is so special, we’re going one better. The Birds were dominant from the get-go and never relented, punishing a Chiefs team that didn’t look like they were anywhere near the same level as Philadelphia on the night.

The Eagles had relied on Saquon Barkley all season for explosive plays, with the former New York Giant breaking long runs throughout the postseason. On Sunday, the Chiefs sold out to stop Saquon, and were mostly successful, so the Eagles leant on Jalen Hurts and the passing game. Once again, Hurts proved his greatness with an MVP-caliber performance.

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The 2023 Eagles had one of the worst defenses in football, and Vic Fangio was stuck in Miami. A year later, and Fangio has turned the Eagles into the best defense in football, suffocating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs all night. The players deserve plenty of credit, but there’s a good argument that Fangio was even more important to the Eagles than Saquon this season.

The Eagles defensive line has been a fundamental part of this team’s success, even if they haven’t been putting up the gaudy sack numbers like previous Philly teams. In Super Bowl LIX, on the biggest stage of all, the defensive front came to play, sacking Mahomes six times, per ESPN. Josh Sweat and Milton Williams led the way, with 2.5 and 2 sacks respectively.

Jalen Hurts steadily picked apart the vaunted Chiefs’ defense, going 17/22 for 221 yards, two touchdowns and a pick through the air, adding a Super Bowl record of 72 yards (and another score) with his legs. A.J. Brown, Devonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, Jahan Dotson and Saquon Barkley all featured in the passing attack in what was a great team performance.

Arguably the biggest moment of the night was Cooper DeJean’s pick-six with seven minutes left in the second-quarter. The rookie corner read Mahomes’ eyes perfectly, jumping a route on a scramble drill and taking it to the house. His score put the Eagles up 17-0, which was 24-0 soon enough, and the game felt out of reach for Kansas City.

For a team hoping to make history by three-peating, the Chiefs dropped a stinker. In some ways, it’s hard to blame them, they were shell-shocked by a more talented roster. Patrick Mahomes struggled for the majority of the game, with his offensive line unable to contain the Eagles’ pass rush.

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Mahomes is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but he will be regretting his performance on Sunday night. Early pressure from the Eagles clearly got in his head and forced him into uncharacteristic mistakes. His interception to Cooper DeJean is a play we don’t see Mahomes making often.

Mahomes’ mistake will stick with him, but at least some portion of the blame has to go to the offensive line, who couldn’t stop the Eagles all night. Joe Thuney is a modern great, but forcing him out to left tackle didn’t work on Sunday, and Jawaan Taylor was beaten time after time. By the second quarter, Mahomes was assuming there would be pressure, even if there wasn’t any.

The Chiefs lost 40-22, but in reality, the gap between the teams was much larger than that. 16 points in garbage time flattered Kansas City. The Eagles pulled most of their starters late in the game, which is suggestive of how one-sided this contest was.

For much of the 2024 season, the Chiefs were able to consistently pick up yards on the ground to keep the sticks moving. On Sunday, they essentially abandoned the run, rushing only 11 times, 4 of which were Mahomes scrambles. The Eagles held the Chiefs’ running backs to 24 yards on the ground, per Pro Football Reference.

There aren’t too many positives to take away from Super Bowl LIX for the Chiefs, who missed out on a chance at greatness. However, it is worth mentioning, they won two Super Bowls in a row and made a third, which is a truly incredible achievement, and worth mentioning even after their defeat. On the night, they were just beaten by a better team.

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