NEW ORLEANS — A extra fragile crew would have folded. It wouldn’t have made it again right here, as a result of it wouldn’t have been capable of climate the collection of storms this Philadelphia Eagles franchise confronted alongside the way in which.
And it wouldn’t have halted historical past on the game’s largest stage.
Actually not like that.
However these Eagles have been totally different — defiant, even. And on Sunday night time in Tremendous Bowl LIX, they have been completely dominant. Their reward is the franchise’s second Tremendous Bowl win, a surprising 40-22 rout of the two-time defending champion Kansas Metropolis Chiefs at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, a powerful victory that avenges a gutting, last-second Tremendous Bowl loss two years in the past to those similar Chiefs and returns town of Brotherly Like to the highest of the soccer world.
This time, the Philly Particular wasn’t wanted.
This time, the Eagles’ protection was so devastating that Patrick Mahomes — already a three-time Tremendous Bowl MVP earlier than the age of 30 — staggered by one of many worst video games of his seven-year NFL profession.
This time, Jalen Hurts left little doubt.
Mahomes, beneath heavy duress all through, was sacked six instances and hit 11 instances. He completed 21-for-32 for 257 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions and a misplaced fumble, although most of Mahomes’ manufacturing got here effectively after the sport had been determined. The Eagles led 34-0 earlier than the Chiefs even crossed midfield.
Hurts, who was named Tremendous Bowl MVP, shined, ending with simply 5 incompletions, 221 passing yards and a Tremendous Bowl speeding report for quarterbacks (72 yards) to go along with three whole touchdowns.
Philly’s triumph additionally concluded one of many biggest seasons ever from a working again: With 57 yards Sunday, the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley surpassed Corridor of Famer Terrell Davis for essentially the most speeding yards in a single season in NFL historical past, together with the playoffs. He completed with 2,504, additional cementing the truth that his offseason signing final March was one of many shrewdest in league historical past.
Most spectacular within the Eagles’ victory, although, was that they routed the mighty Chiefs with no need Barkley to take the sport over. This win was a testomony to the roster normal supervisor Howie Roseman has constructed and the job coach Nick Sirianni has achieved guiding his crew by a tumultuous two-year stretch.
Cooper DeJean’s interception return for a landing gave Philadelphia a 17-0 lead within the second quarter. (Photograph: Gregory Shamus / Getty Photos)
Philadelphia owned the primary half by proudly owning the trenches; Mahomes was hit seven instances, sacked twice and hurried on what appeared like each snap. The Eagles raced to a 24-0 lead after intercepting Mahomes twice; rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean — celebrating his twenty second birthday Sunday — took the primary again for a 38-yard landing, then linebacker Zack Baun’s choose arrange a 12-yard landing throw from Hurts to A.J. Brown.
Philadelphia loved sizable first-half benefits in whole yards (179-23), speeding yards (62-3) and first downs (13-1). Mahomes accomplished simply six passes on 14 makes an attempt for 33 yards; by two quarters, it was the worst EPA per dropback for a quarterback in a Tremendous Bowl since 2000.
It was a uncommon sight at this stage of the playoffs: One of many all-time greats regarded mortal.
Hurts related with wideout DeVonta Smith for a 46-yard landing late within the third quarter, and from there, the decidedly pro-Eagles crowd at Caesars Superdome might begin to scent one other championship.
Philadelphia’s victory ended Kansas Metropolis’s season-long pursuit of historical past: With a win, the Chiefs would have turn out to be the primary crew within the 59-year Tremendous Bowl period to win three in a row. As an alternative, they completed because the ninth back-to-back champs to fall brief. No crew has received three straight NFL championships since Vince Lombardi’s 1965-67 Inexperienced Bay Packers.
a HOME COOKED 6-for-6 particular 🧑🍳@DeVontaSmith_6 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/Bp5EVx3Q8l
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025
It was simply the fourth playoff lack of Mahomes’ seven-year profession.
The Eagles’ second title in eight seasons capped a surprising reversal from the place this crew was a 12 months in the past, reeling from a late-season collapse rife with drama, a coach on the recent seat, two coordinators on the outs, a star participant’s retirement and rumblings of an icy relationship between coach and quarterback.
This title sealed the Eagles’ standing as one of many league’s most resilient groups.
It was simply two years in the past that Jalen Hurts sat in his postgame information convention following the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl LVII loss, sullen however not sulking, repeating the identical phrase time and again.
“You both win otherwise you study,” he saved saying.
Hurts had simply thrown for 304 yards and piled up 4 whole touchdowns, solely to observe Mahomes lead 4 straight second-half-scoring drives and hand the Eagles a gutting, last-second 38-35 loss. Earlier than assembly with reporters that night time in Glendale, Ariz., Hurts tried to apologize to his teammates in a despondent locker room, desirous to shoulder the blame for a important first-half fumble. The quarterback was shortly rebuffed.
“Nah man, we’re all collectively,” they assured him.
At his postgame information convention, Hurts saved leaning on the teachings that may linger. That night time undoubtedly stung. However Hurts knew, even with the wound nonetheless so contemporary, it will make him higher.
“It’s one thing that I do know will inspire me,” Hurts stated. “I been right here (now) … That’s the gorgeous factor about it.”
Two years later Hurts and the Eagles made it again — however not with out first overcoming the hurdles they confronted alongside the way in which. That’s maybe essentially the most spectacular layer to this championship: Loads of groups would’ve fallen aside.
The Eagles by no means did.
“A terrific driving pressure,” Hurts known as that Tremendous Bowl loss. “It lit a flame, lit a fireplace in me.”
Jalen Hurts threw simply 5 incompletions and accounted for 3 touchdowns in his first Tremendous Bowl win. (Photograph: Cooper Neill / Getty Photos)
However first got here the drama and disappointment of 2023; Philadelphia began 10-1 however cratered down the stretch, dropping six of its ultimate seven, together with a 23-point loss to the Bucs within the wild-card spherical. “We didn’t know tips on how to deal with adversity,” tight finish Dallas Goedert admitted this week.
Extra was on the way in which. Each coordinators from final season, Brian Johnson and Sean Desai, have been fired. At the least part of Sirianni’s offensive authority was stripped away; new coordinator Kellen Moore can be “in cost” of the unit, Sirianni admitted after the season. Vic Fangio, probably the greatest defensive minds in league historical past, signed on to coordinate a unit that completed thirtieth in factors allowed final season. Longtime middle Jason Kelce, a spine of the group and six-time All-Professional, retired.
“We’re grateful for that,” the coach stated in New Orleans this week, reflecting on the crew’s beautiful collapse and its aftermath. “As dangerous because it sucked on the time, I do know I’m grateful for that … it formed us into who we’re and it’s an enormous motive why we’re again right here.”
However make no mistake, the warmth on Sirianni was intense, each earlier than the 2024 season and some weeks in.
The 2024 marketing campaign opened with Hurts and Sirianni fielding questions on “a disconnect” of their relationship — it was clear, amid final 12 months’s offensive regression, that the 2 weren’t all the time on the identical web page. A stumbling 2-2 begin did little to ease issues, and Sirianni — regardless of being 36-19 in three-plus seasons in Philadelphia — was beneath fireplace, and in response to varied sportsbooks, among the many 5 or 6 coaches almost definitely to get fired after the season.
Or probably even throughout it.
Then one thing modified. On the insistence of some of the crew’s high offensive linemen, Sirianni and Moore leaned into their prized offseason acquisition, Barkley. “We wished to learn the way we might turn out to be a greater offense,” proper sort out Lane Johnson stated.
The teaching employees listened. Barkley took off. So did the Eagles. Philly ripped off 10 straight wins, claimed the NFC East title and began to resemble a Tremendous Bowl contender. By 12 months’s finish, Barkley had put collectively one of many best seasons in league historical past, changing into the ninth participant ever to eclipse 2,000 speeding yards. His 46 runs of 10-plus yards have been an NFL-best, and he was named the league’s Offensive Participant of the 12 months final week.
Barkley was simply as explosive in playoff wins over the Packers, Rams and Commanders. His three landing runs of 60 yards or extra set a brand new playoff report.
However there was extra to the Eagles’ revival than simply Barkley. Almost each one of many crew’s offseason strikes paid off in an enormous approach. Moore and Fangio remade their items. Behind the league’s finest offensive line, Hurts completed with a profession excessive in completion proportion (68.7) and piled up 32 whole touchdowns, 14 of which got here on the bottom.
Fangio’s protection climbed from twenty sixth in yards allowed to first. Draft picks DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell had stellar rookie seasons within the secondary. Baun, one other offseason addition, was a revelation at linebacker. Defensive sort out Jalen Carter, the anchor of a a lot youthful entrance 4, has grown into probably the greatest game-wreckers within the league.
Carter’s unit dominated Sunday night time. The Chiefs’ shaky offensive line — which had shuffled by lineup modifications all season — had no reply.
It was the newest reminder that Roseman stays one of the best roster builder in soccer. The Eagles have been stacked. On Sunday night time, on the sport’s largest stage, they performed prefer it, spoiling the Chiefs’ pursuit of historical past and knocking the kings of the game off their throne.
Now there’s a brand new champ.
(Prime photograph: Jamie Squire / Getty Photos)