Philadelphia Eagles Crush Kansas City Chiefs’ Three-Peat Dream

Forgive any football fan who’s wondering—what was that?

The Philadelphia Eagles really obliterated the Kansas City Chiefs, the two-time defending champs and the slight betting favorite, in Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday night? The Chiefs, the team chasing much publicized history in trying to become the first three-peat Super Bowl champ, played like they forgot to show up?

Philadelphia’s 40-22 triumph over Kansas City—the Chiefs tacked on two late touchdowns to make the point difference barely respectable—was a stunning display of offensive firepower and defensive ferocity. The victory gave Philadelphia its second Super Bowl title in franchise history: Kansas City trailed 24-0 at halftime, and 34-0 late in the third quarter. Star Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had never faced such a deficit in his career, and while he engineered a pair of Super Bowl comebacks the last two seasons, this spread was just too much. Philadelphia made off-season moves, coming into the 2024 campaign, that were just too good. The Eagles left no question that they’re deserving champions.

The most important maneuver was signing running back Saquon Barkley, formerly of the New York Giants, to a free agent contract. In this Super Bowl, Barkley broke the NFL record for most rushing yards in a regular season and postseason. But the Eagles needed no eye-popping performance from their best player on Sunday: he finished the game with just 57 yards, on 25 carries. Kansas City’s gameplan was clear: we’ll load up to stop Saquon, and dare Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts to beat us.