The Philadelphia Eagles are having a terrific first half at the Super Bowl and seem to have the momentum on their side as superstar Patrick Mahomes from opponent Kansas City Chiefs is injured before the break. But then he returns brilliantly and leads the Chiefs to triumph.
The Kansas City Chiefs won the spectacular 57th Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles and clinched the most important title in American football for the third time in their history. The team around star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was named the Super Bowl’s most valuable player for the second time in his career, won a dramatic and high-class game 38:35 after a hard fight in Glendale, Arizona. At the break, the Chiefs were still ten points behind at 14:24. The Eagles, led by strong quarterback Jalen Hurts, are now one of only two teams to give up such a lead at halftime in a Super Bowl. “At the end of the day we are Kansas City,” Mahomes said on US television. “I want to thank everyone.”
Mahomes was named Main Round Most Valuable Player last week, becoming the first pro since 1999 to win both the Super Bowl and the MVP title in a single season. The 27-year-old has already won two Super Bowls and two MVP titles in his six years in the NFL. He ended the game with three touchdown passes. It was also the second Super Bowl win for Chiefs coach Andy Reid. The Eagles had won the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the only time so far in 2018. Hurt’s historically strong performance of three touchdowns from his own runs and a touchdown pass was worth nothing in the end.
Even before Rihanna caused jubilation with her first live show after seven years without a public concert on parts of the stage that were partly floating in the air, both teams thrilled the audience. The Eagles and Chiefs each scored a touchdown on their first attacking series. That hadn’t happened in a Super Bowl for 25 years. The fans and celebrities around LeBron James, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney got their money’s worth early on and then throughout the game.
Hurts, 24, started the game with a short run for the Eagles, while for the Chiefs Travis Kelce was the recipient of a long throw from Mahomes. The Eagles controlled the ball and clock and took advantage of the Chiefs’ decision to forfeit first possession despite winning the coin toss. The consequence: Mahomes and his attackers only had the football for a good 8 of the first 24 minutes and had to watch from the sidelines for a long time. They saw a brilliantly caught pass from AJ Brown for 45 yards and put the Eagles back in the lead.
A Chiefs field goal hit the post was another setback for the Chiefs fans, who were clearly inferior in terms of acoustics. However, Kansas City supporters were able to celebrate a ball loss from Eagles quarterback Hurts, which Nick Bolton used for a touchdown. Before the break, another run from Hurts gave the Eagles a touchdown and a field goal to go ten points clear at halftime. There was a lot to be said for the Eagles to win. 29 times out of 30 times a team with a double-digit lead at the end of a Super Bowl break ended up winning.
By this point, Hurts had already put an exclamation point on his own chapter in a Super Bowl full of historic firsts. He and Mahomes are the first black quarterback duo in a Super Bowl and also the youngest together. There has also never been a brother duel before: Travis Kelce from the Chiefs and Jason Kelce from the Eagles changed that in Arizona. With two wins in the world’s most important football game, Travis Kelce, the younger of the two brothers, now has “ultimate braggart rights,” as his older brother announced earlier this week. “I love this boy, this is the best season of my career,” said Travis Kelce.
Despite the Eagles taking a big lead at the break, the game remained exciting – because the Chiefs came out of the dressing room with a whole new level of momentum. The three first attacking series after Rihanna’s show all ended with a touchdown for the team playing in white – the Eagles had only scored another field goal at this point and were suddenly 27:35 behind. After the equalizer and Hurts’ third touchdown run, Harrison Butker made the decision with a converted field goal.
