Fueled by a harassing defense, Philadelphia denied a Kansas City coronation in Super Bowl 59, dethroning the Chiefs in a rout that delivered the Eagles their second championship in seven seasons by a score of 40-22.
Kansas City had won three Super Bowl titles in the last five years, including the last two, and it was trying to become the first team in the NFL’s Super Bowl era to win back-to-back-to-back titles. Led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, whose résumé sparked debates about whether he or Tom Brady was the best quarterback in NFL history, the Chiefs had won 17 consecutive one-score games and appeared infallible in the clutch.
Philadelphia, however, never allowed this Super Bowl — a rematch from two years earlier — to ever get close, muting Mahomes’ effectiveness from the opening drive.
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In front of a sold-out Superdome crowd in New Orleans, the Eagles’ top-rated defense used its unrelenting pass rush to intercept Mahomes twice before halftime — including an interception birthday boy Cooper DeJean returned for a touchdown — and hold Kansas City scoreless until the final minute of the third quarter. By then, Philadelphia already led 34-0, the biggest deficit Mahomes had ever faced in his decorated career.
Kansas City had overcome 10-point deficits to win each of its previous three championships under Mahomes and coach Andy Reid, but no team had ever overcome this big a hole to win a Super Bowl before.
Mahomes was sacked a season-high six times and was never allowed enough time to engineer the kind of play-extending magic that had become his signature as he pushed Kansas City to an unprecedented fifth Super Bowl in six seasons. Mahomes had just 33 yards at halftime but finished with 257 yards and three touchdowns.
Most striking was how Philadelphia cruised to victory while rarely needing its star running back, Saquon Barkley, to deliver the kind of big plays that had helped the Eagles advance to the Super Bowl in the first place. Barkley surpassed Denver’s Terrell Davis in the second quarter for the most rushing yards in a single season, playoffs included, with 2,478, but he finished with 57 yards on 25 carries, his second-lowest rushing total of the season. Philadelphia’s oft-criticized passing game turned a one-sided game into a blowout.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts found receiver A.J. Brown for a 12-yard touchdown in the second quarter for a 24-0 Eagles lead, and then his 46-yard pass to DeVonta Smith late in the third quarter sealed the victory by extending the lead to 34 points. Hurts completed 17 of his 22 passes for 221 yards, including two touchdowns and one interception. He also rushed for 72 yards and the game’s opening touchdown.
The Chiefs narrowed the final margin when Mahomes threw for two touchdowns in the game’s final three minutes, but by then the game was so out of reach that Eagles coach Nick Sirianni had already been doused with a celebratory Gatorade bath by his players. The celebration could officially get underway when Philadelphia recovered an onside kick with 1:48 to play.
The Eagles’ victory represented a resurgence for a franchise that, since it won its first Super Bowl title in 2018, had fired its coach and endured a humiliating end to the 2023 season. When the Eagles started 2-2, Sirianni was questioned about his hold on the locker room, and when he yelled at Eagles fans in mid-October, he was questioned about his composure; he later apologized. But after Philadelphia’s Week 5 bye, it finished the season 16-1, including Sunday’s runaway victory.
