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Seeing it with my own two eyes, seated in the stadium’s lower bowl among a flock of Eagle fans, what jumped out was how comprehensive this whupping was. Philly’s defensive line won their matchups across the board, pushing Chiefs’ blockers into Mahomes’ lap as soon as the ball was snapped. The Eagles’ offensive line, meanwhile, gave Jalen Hurts pockets as clean as his Kangol, allowing their QB to get hit three times to Mahomes’ 11. Philadelphia’s linebackers were always in the right place, whether it was making KC completely give up on their run game—none of the Chiefs’ running backs could muster a run longer than eight yards—or Zack Baun picking off Mahomes deep in his own territory. The secondary balled out too, in true fairy tale fashion. Like, what do you mean that was Cooper DeJean’s first NFL interception? And he housed it, against the best quarterback of his generation, in the Super Bowl, on his birthday? Or that DeJean’s jersey number (33), plus the other birthday boy’s number (Saquon Barkley, 26) equals 59, the number of the Super Bowl they just won. Spooky.
When you’re witnessing a beatdown on the biggest possible stage, it reaches a point where you truly can’t believe what’s happening. At some point the Eagles would take their foot off the gas and the Chiefs would catch up, right? Every time they had an opportunity—okay, this is the drive where KC finally gets something going—a penalty would derail the operation, or a sack would put them behind the chains, or both.
I let out a bit of an incredulous chuckle when, already trailing by two dozen points, Reid elected to punt on the Chiefs’ first drive of the second half instead of going for it on fourth down. The two-time defending champs are just going to give up? I felt like Selina Mayer nervously laughing and asking her staff what is happening. That punt led to the Eagles getting three points on their ensuing possession, and when the Chiefs got the ball back and inevitably stalled out, they did go for it on fourth down, drawing up an unimaginative pass that Avonte Maddox swatted away.
The very next play was also the evening’s most beautiful, an arcing throw from Hurts that dropped perfectly to DeVonta Smith in the end zone. That was the moment everyone realized the Chiefs were not only in the Twilight Zone, but they still had more than a quarter left to play, unable to turn the TV off just yet. Hilarious.
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