Last year, I had written ‘Mahomes and the Art of Comebacks’. This year, I was itching to write ‘Mahomes and the Art of Greatness’. The only problem. Conviction from day one of the season. Or the lack of it. It never felt like the Mahomes year although he kept winning. Mahomes had a Pick-6 on the opening night of last season against the Lions in a tightly-contested game that the Chiefs had lost. Tonight, Mahomes’ had one on the last night of the season. His first Pick-6 in the playoffs ended his enviable streak of 297 consecutive passes without an interception. Common factor between the two Pick-6s. Defensive Rookies.

Don’t go by the final score tonight – 40-22 makes it look a lot closer than it actually is. At one moment, we were even wondering if the Chiefs would be blanked out. It was the Eagles who gave up (on the Chiefs) and that allowed the Chiefs to get something moving in the final quarter.

2023 buried

At the end of it all, Nick Sirianni was emotional. He said twice, ‘Happy tears, happy tears.”. It was bound to happen. In 2023, Harrison Butker had snatched the Super Bowl with a field goal when just 8 seconds remained on the clock. The Eagles had learned their lesson. Nick Sirianni had. Most certainly, Vic Fangio did. Tonight was all about determination and precision for them.

For Mahomes and the Chiefs, there was an element of Super Bowl complacency. It was becoming way too easy for them in the Super Bowl events. However, three-peat in a highly competitive NFL is never easy. We are talking 2025. We are talking about a season where I felt the NFC was steered by only three teams – Eagles, Commanders and Lions. The Eagles were clearly hungry. And tonight, they were cleverly hungry.
There was one moment early in the game that proved decisive.

When Nick Sirianni took the timeout with one second separating a moment of irrational thinking with mindfulness, The Eagles just started dictating their terms. A 48-yard Field Goal that barely passed through the uprights opened a 10-point lead for the Eagles. Interestingly, the score had moved to 10-0 or should we say 0-10 for the Chiefs – A script that the Fox Sports producer would latch on to.

Sack, Sack, Pick-6

At the cost of sounding repetitive, the Chiefs had engineered comebacks from similar situations in recent memory. In 2020, they overturned a 10-20 story; In 2023, it was 14-24; and in 2024, it was a 0-10.

Just when the clock hit the 8-min mark in the second quarter, Mahomes was in for a nightmare. His worst four-play stretch (that was ended in 3). First play, sacked, second play, sacked and third play, picked. I have never seen Mahomes that rattled. Game over.
I had texted my friend – tonight, be ready to read this – Mahomes sacked, interpreted and picked. It was evident. He had no answers to a resolute Eagles defence. The Eagles offense didn’t really have to do much. Jalen Hurts only needed to do his job and he did – 221 yards, 2 touchdowns and a great conversion rate.

Fangio gets his revenge

Super Bowl 59 was all about the D.I have seen many Super Bowls, but this has to rank as one of the best defensive displays ever by a team. The Eagles D was prime for the primetime. They piled on the turnovers on the Chiefs by disrupting the passing game of Mahomes. They piled on the misery.

In 59 editions of Super Bowl, there have been only 10 occasions when a defensive player won a Super Bowl MVP. Von Miller did it for the Broncos in the 50th edition when he sizzled with six tackles as Denver outsmarted the Panthers 24-10. Josh Sweat was clearly ‘my MVP’ for the night. (Hurts will still be the official one) Six tackles and 2.5 sacks. Wow.

The Vic Fangio playbook was evident. It was sweet revenge for the defensive coordinator who was ‘all at sea’ until tonight against Mahomes. He had his moments against quarterback in the past but the numbers were stacked against him. When Fangio was the HC of the Broncos, he was a tough nut to crack for Reid and Mahomes. Just that the Broncos never had a good offensive roster to make it count.
On the night though, Fangio’s game plan against Travis Kelce was enough to finish off the Chiefs. With Kelce looking pathetic, Mahomes was forced to play downfield and he was constantly under pressure from the Eagles’ defensive line. Playbook perfection.

A record Birthday Boy will remember forever

Cooper DeJean, with his Pick-6, capped what most Americans can only dream of – Pick-6 on a birthday, that of Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, it was the first time an NFL player scored a touchdown on his birthday. In the Fox box, pretty sure, Tom Brady was thinking of his own tough moment in Super Bowl 51 when Robert Alfrod picked him off for the Falcons. That night was different though as Brady recovered and mastered an epic comeback with the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead to hand the Patriots Vince Lombardi Trophy during overtime. When you compare what happened tonight, almost certain to open (or shut) the quarterback GOAT debate. Brady can quietly smile away for the moment and for months and maybe years to come.

Not the night to remember for Andy Reid. He lost to the team he built. In his first NFL job, he took the Eagles to four NFC East titles in the 2000s. He remains one of the greatest not just by numbers, but by pure respect.

Super Bowls are decided by the unsung heroes as much as they are by star power. We’ve seen that before and again tonight, with the likes of Jahan Dotson and Cooper DeJean. That’s what makes Super Bowl what it is.

The Hate machine will keep rolling

The Chiefs are a hated lot in America. Mahomes is often seen as the Djokovic of NFL for his love-hate relationship with the die-hard patrons of the sport. His defence – all of Kansas City. Tonight, that support too has kinda deserted the ‘legend’. Yeah, I chose a single quotation mark for the word legend as tonight is definitely not the day to talk about it. Just a couple of days ago, I was reading up a great piece by James Dator of SB Nation, who looked at the exact reasons why the Chiefs are a hated lot. For me, that column spoke about the way fans and the Chiefs had gotten ahead of themselves. Success can do that to teams.

A moment of greatness to a moment of madness. Sport can be unforgiving. At least we can be forgiving. We’ll see you again next Year, Mahomes. For the moment, you can tune in to The Eagles.