Amid the malfunctions, the smarter team wins
Chiefs beat Eagles, but both were better than the playing surface at the Super Bowl.
The 57th Super Bowl was played on tapioca turf. It illustrated the difficulty of making a legal catch in the replay era. It featured long stretches of benign officiating neglect until the final and most important drive, when the Chiefs would have faced 4th and eight if not for a defensive holding call that required forensic investigation.
And it ended with Jalen Hurts, the best player on the field, marooned on the sideline, opposite the one where Patrick Mahomes had sat helplessly until halftime.
It was too weird and controversial to be a classic, but it was fun and it was uncertain, and that’s all you can ask. In the end, the Chiefs drained the hope from the green jerseys in the seats the same way they sucked the final minutes from the clock. They won, 38-35, their second championship in four years, and Philadelphians will be asking how the Chiefs did it, or how the Eagles didn’t, until the blocking sleds are unpacked in training camp.
The Eagles were favored because they seemed superior at most positions. Those who favored the Chiefs based it on superiority by quarterback and coach. Yet Hurts rushed for three touchdowns and threw for over 300 yards and appeared to be demonstrating that he, not Mahomes, should have held the league’s MVP trophy on Thursday night.
Then Mahomes reassumed command, getting a score on every Chiefs’ possession in the second half and running on his reinjured and numbed ankle for 26 yards to the Eagles’ 17. It was similar to his clenched-teeth dash at the end of the AFC Championship, which was augmented by a late-hit penalty and led to Harrison Butker’s winning field goal.
This time the killing penalty came three plays later. Juju Smith-Schuster ran inside and then broke outside, and cornerback James Bradberry put his left arm around Smith-Schuster’s waist and grabbed his right arm, not egregiously at all. Smith-Schuster did not seem impeded, and Mahomes’ pass flew well over his head. But Bradberry was flagged for holding, and he later admitted he had indeed “tugged” on Smith-Schuster’s jersey and was just hoping for a little mercy.
The Eagles had only two time outs left because coach Nick Sirianni had called one to avert a delay of game penalty. That meant Butker could seize the lead with :08 left. Hurts had time for only one hopeless play. The Chiefs had begun that drive with 5:15 left, and were able to extinguish the clock because Jerick McKinnon stopped short of the end zone. It is hoped that kneejerk critics of Reid’s clock management over the years were sober enough to notice.
This was a complete reversal from a first half in which the Eagles had possession for 21:54. Mahomes was like a kid with his nose pressed against the window, hoping someone would oblige him with a football. But Kansas City only trailed 24-14 at halftime because linebacker Nick Bolton had knocked the ball out of Hurts’ hands and then scooped it and scored.
That was the only turnover of the game, but it underlined a reality that has been forgotten. When you can’t win a game comprehensively, you first have to make sure not to lose it.
The Chiefs did not allow Mahomes to get sacked, not once, by a team that sacked 70 quarterbacks in 17 regular season games. They let the Eagles tackle them behind the line of scrimmage only once, and Mahomes was only hit five times while passing. In the fourth quarter, the conglomerate of center Creed Humphrey, guards Joe Thuney and Trey Smith, and tackles Orlando Brown and Andrew Wylie was the best personnel group on the field. None were first-round draft choices yet they moved the Eagles around like rental furniture. Of course, there is only one first-round starter on that Kansas City offense, and he is the quarterback.
One can’t measure how the pass rushers were hampered by the inexcusably slick field, particularly in the area of the logos, but it was a problem for both teams and a deep embarrassment for the league. If footing isn’t a priority, then give Green Bay the February Super Bowl it desires.
Evenly-matched games often tilt on special teams. Kadarius Toney , late of the Giants, took a punt after the Eagles had gone 3-and-out on three passes. The punt coverers overloaded the left side of the field in pursuit of Toney, who swung right, found a line of white uniforms, and did not stop running until punter Arryn Siposs forced him down on the Eagles’ five. The 65-yard punt return was the longest in Super Bowl history; the subsequent touchdown put the Chiefs ahead 35-27.
Mahomes lobbed easy touchdowns to Toney and rookie Skyy Moore when both went in motion and then reversed field to open areas. Both times, the Eagles defender was slow to catch up.
But then the Chiefs’ defense found ways to lose contact with Devonta Smith and A.J. Brown, and Hurts kept noticing. On the final drive of the first half Hurts connected with Smith for 35 yards, to the Kansas City 13. That catch was ruled an incompletion by a replay autopsy that was worthy of “Quincy M.E.” Apparently you need proof-of-ownership papers these days, plus a certificate of authenticity, to convince the officials of any completion that involves duress. That reversal likely denied the Eagles a touchdown that would have created a 28-14 intermission lead. A field goal made it 24-14.
Another Philadelphia malfunction was the decision of Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen to shelve the league’s best running game at winning time. Hurts ran for 70 yards, but the three actual running backs lugged the ball 17 times for 45 yards. In the second half the Eagles ran 10 times for 28 yards. Contrast it with Kansas City’s overall discipline (three penalties, opposed to Philly’s six) and its virtuosity. The Chiefs did not stop running when they got behind, and they recognized they would have few downfield opportunities and lived with that reality. They did not have a play that went longer than 26 yards (Mahomes’ fourth-quarter run) and a pass play that exceeded 22 yards.
Remember when people said they would miss Tyreek Hill, now with Miami? Those people were right. The Chiefs did miss him. The Patriots missed Troy Brown, Antowain Smith, Deion Branch, Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Lawrence Maroney. They, too, won anyway.
Those who said the Eagles would fumble a tight situation because they simply hadn’t had many? They were also right.
And, sometimes, a scouting department can win you a Super Bowl. One of the Chiefs’ main drive extenders was rookie Isiah Pacheco of Rutgers, a seventh-round draft choice. He picked up 5.1 yards per carry on his 15 tries, and was knocked out of the game after two of them. He ran with escalating ferocity, had four runs on the final rive, picked up a first down with a 10-yarder. He also got the touchdown that cut the lead to 24-21 early in the third quarter, and supplied hope.
Pacheco was stuck in a losing cycle at Rutgers, but he was familiar with bumps. In 2016 he lost a brother to a stabbing. In 2017 he lost a sister to a shooting, at the hands of the father of her son. Three days after Celeste was killed, Isiah ran for 222 yards as Vineland (N.J.) High beat Egg Harbor. He was known as “Pop,” after a particularly loud hit he delivered to a quarterback.
Cassidy Kaminski was the area scout who endured those Rutgers games and convinced the Chiefs to take Pacheco, 12 slots from the end of the 2022 draft. Kaminski is a story, too. He was working at a gas station in DePere, Wis., the next town over from Green Bay, and when he noticed Packers’ general manager John Dorsey stopping by, he told him he wanted to be an NFL scout. That happened more than once, and Dorsey kept in touch. The Packers eventually hired Kaminski, who was still there when they won their last Super Bowl, after the 2010 season.
On this particular scouting report, Kaminski wrote, “I would not bet against this young man.” With Reid in the control center, Mahomes at 27, Bolton in his second year, and Pacheco, Moore and three other rookies in the midst of this one, the Chiefs will take all the money you want to lose.