NEW ORLEANS — Even before the game was over, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt entered the visitors’ locker room inside the Caesars Superdome alone, his head bowed.
A few minutes later, three prominent members of the Chiefs’ front office — general manager Brett Veach, senior director of player personnel Mike Bradway and director of player personnel Ryne Nutt — followed Hunt with the same blank facial expression.
When it was finally over, when the Chiefs’ reign over the NFL ended Sunday night with an embarrassing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, a 40-22 beatdown in Super Bowl LIX, quarterback Patrick Mahomes walked into the silent locker room and began the difficult task of apologizing to his teammates.
“They played better than us, from start to finish,” Mahomes said of the Eagles. “We didn’t start how we wanted to. Obviously, the turnovers hurt. I take all the blame for that. Those early turnovers swing the momentum of the game. They capitalized on them. … That’s 14 points that I kind of gave them. It’s hard to come back from that.
“I just didn’t play to my standard. I have to be better next time.”
Mahomes and every other veteran player knew Sunday’s game was more than just the finish line of the Chiefs’ 2024 campaign. No, Sunday’s game for the Chiefs was the conclusion of a three-year marathon, their quest to become the NFL’s first three-peat champion in the Super Bowl era.
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None of the Chiefs could’ve anticipated this ending, though, a night when Mahomes, an eight-year veteran with three Super Bowl rings, had the worst postseason game of his career. In fact, unlike any other game this season, many of the Chiefs struggled against a dynamic Eagles team, a major stumble on the NFL’s biggest stage that left them crestfallen.
“They just got after us,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “On top of that, you have turnovers, penalties and playing behind the sticks on offense, dropped passes and not taking advantage of the play call. You don’t lose like that without everything going bad.
“We haven’t played that bad all year.”
The Eagles entered the Superdome on Sunday with the NFL’s top-ranked defense, a unit led by coordinator Vic Fangio, a stellar secondary and a supreme pass rush. Known for thwarting top defenses with his brilliant array of skills, Mahomes never got in rhythm in the first half. Instead, the Eagles defense dominated the line of scrimmage, exploiting the Chiefs’ biggest weakness: their offensive line.
Eagles sack Mahomes on back to back plays!
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📱: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/Uun9bviMwL— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Fangio never blitzed Mahomes on 42 dropbacks. He didn’t need to. The Eagles played zone coverage on all but two dropbacks, the third-highest rate by a defense in a game since 2018 — and held Mahomes to his second-worst performance by expected points added in a game in his career (-19.3), according to Next Gen Stats.
The Eagles’ four-man pass rush generated 16 pressures and sacked Mahomes six times, the most in his career.
“They’re relentless,” left guard Mike Caliendo said. “If you’re not at your best, they’ll get the best of you for sure.”
The Chiefs ran just 10 plays in their first three possessions. Nine of those were passes, many of them falling incomplete because Mahomes either was forced to throw the ball earlier than he wanted or threw the ball inaccurately. In the first quarter, rookie receiver Xavier Worthy sprinted down the sideline twice for a deep pass. But Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, the Eagles’ dynamic rookie cornerbacks, stayed with Worthy enough each time to prevent the deep pass.
The Eagles’ blowout began with a three-play sequence.
In the middle of the second quarter, defensive end Josh Sweat used his quickness to get past Kelce and sack Mahomes for a 4-yard loss. On second down, the Chiefs attempted to protect Mahomes with seven blockers, including Kelce and running back Isiah Pacheco. But Sweat beat Kelce and Pacheco, and rookie defensive end Jalyx Hunt used his speed rush to overwhelm Caliendo and left tackle Joe Thuney. Hunt celebrated his half-sack by mimicking Kelce’s bow-and-arrow celebration.
Mahomes made his biggest mistake of this postseason on the next play. He scrambled to the right and attempted an intermediate pass in the middle of the field for receiver DeAndre Hopkins. He never saw DeJean, who not only intercepted the pass but returned it 38 yards for a touchdown, giving the Eagles a commanding 17-0 lead.
“They just got us behind the sticks,” receiver Marquise Brown said. “We’re usually really good on third down. We weren’t good on third down.”
COOPER DEJEAN PICK TO THE HOUSE!
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📱: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/y4Q4bGTHE2— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Before halftime, the Eagles’ pass rushers did what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ pass rushers did in Super Bowl LV, a game in which the Chiefs were bludgeoned and never scored a touchdown. Mahomes was forced to operate behind a makeshift offensive line in that game. That night, he ran 497 yards before he released the ball, the most pre-throw and pre-sack yards run by any quarterback in any game in the 2020 season, according to Next Gen Stats.
“I mean, both sucked,” said Mahomes, who threw two interceptions in the first half. “Anytime you lose a Super Bowl, it’s the worst feeling in the world. It’ll stick with you the rest of your career. These will be the two losses that will motivate me to be even better for the rest of my career because you only get so (many) of these (opportunities).”
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Throughout this season, the Chiefs’ biggest weakness was at left tackle, the lineman most responsible for protecting Mahomes’ blind side. Rookie Kingsley Suamataia was benched in September, Wanya Morris, a second-year player, lost the job in late November and veteran D.J. Humpries, who joined the team with six games left in the regular season, didn’t finish his first start because of a strained left hamstring. Joe Thuney, the All-Pro left guard, moved to left tackle and provided suitable protection with Caliendo inserted into the lineup.
But against the Eagles’ pass rushers, Thuney and Caliendo were pass-protection liabilities that the Chiefs failed to overcome.
“I just have to play better,” said Caliendo, a second-year player. “This was not up to my standard — or our team’s standard at all. You have to be at your best, and obviously I was not. I just need to learn from it. Failing is just learning. I just need to get better.”
On the Chiefs’ final offensive snap of the first half, Mahomes escaped the pocket and scrambled away from pressure, ready to create a potential highlight. However, Hopkins, one of the league’s most sure-handed receivers, dropped Mahomes’ pass, a reception that would’ve put the Chiefs in field goal range. Chiefs star pass rusher Chris Jones fell to his knees on the sideline in utter disappointment.
At halftime, the Eagles had more points (24) than the Chiefs had yards (23).
“He expressed that he wasn’t playing his best,” linebacker Leo Chenal said of Mahomes’ words during the 29-minute break. “The guys all around him were like, ‘We need to be better for you, too, Patrick.’ He takes accountability, no matter what.
“He was passionate. You could tell in his voice. He’s a competitor and it really hurt him, the way he felt he was playing.”
The Chiefs won 15 regular-season games — including 11 one-score victories — in part because the defense did enough to keep games close, often setting up Mahomes and Kelce for fourth-quarter heroics.
Sunday’s game included just as many mistakes by the Chiefs defense as highlights created by the Eagles offense.
TOUCHDOWN A.J. BROWN #FlyEaglesFly
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📱: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/lsvjIf5fcl— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
The Chiefs’ first blitz came in the middle of the first quarter. Safety Chamarri Conner, positioned as the nickel defender, blitzed on the Eagles’ second-and-11 snap, but running back Saquon Barkley did an effective job blocking him. That allowed quarterback Jalen Hurts to throw a perfect pass near the sideline to receiver Jahan Dotson, which set up the Eagles at the 1-yard line. On the next play, Hurts scored on a 1-yard tush push to take a 7-0 lead.
The Eagles’ second touchdown, a 12-yard pass from Hurts to receiver A.J. Brown on a crossing route just before halftime, included a coverage mistake by Chenal, who said he got too high in zone coverage.
“I’m definitely going to look back on the mistakes I made,” Chenal said. “(Linebacker) Nick (Bolton) was giving good communication with the ‘under-under’ call and I wasn’t there for him at that moment. It definitely stings.”
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After halftime, Worthy was breaking open on a deep over route just as Mahomes was sacked by Sweat. The Chiefs’ next possession ended on a fourth-down incompletion as cornerback Avonte Maddox knocked down Mahomes’ quick pass intended for Hopkins.
“We didn’t coach (well) enough,” coach Andy Reid said. “We’ll learn from this. We spend a lot of time doing this. It’s not a hobby. We spend a lot of hours doing it as players and coaches, so it’s going to hurt. They all hurt when you get to this level, three-peat aside.”
Before Philadelphia began its ensuing drive, the jumbotrons inside the Superdome showed a short hype video of Eagles stars — Hurts, Barkley, Brown, receiver DeVonta Smith and linebacker Zack Baun. The video ended with three words in large, all-caps text: FLY EAGLES FLY.
Most of the fans in the stadium cheered, a symbolic moment of the Chiefs’ supremacy ending.
KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING
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The next play was an emphatic demonstration of that. On a play-action fake, Hurts threw a perfect pass to Smith for a 46-yard touchdown. Eagles 34, Chiefs 0.
“I’m more hurt than surprised,” safety Bryan Cook said. “We could’ve made history. They didn’t show us anything different. It comes down to execution.”
Before entering the locker room after Sunday’s loss, Veach bowed his head while standing near a wall in the bowels of the stadium, looking at his smartphone. When Veach looked up, he pushed his head back far enough that it knocked against the wall multiple times. Veach knows the Chiefs’ upcoming offseason will be similar to what he experienced in 2021 when the team needed to overhaul its offensive line to better protect Mahomes, the franchise’s greatest player.
Before kickoff, the Chiefs thought their locker room would soon be the site of a coronation, what they hoped would be an unforgettable party, a worthy celebration for achieving a historic feat. Instead, Mahomes and everyone else in the Chiefs organization left the locker room in a somber state, a potential once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wasted.
“It’s going to hurt for a while,” Mahomes said.
(Top photo of Patrick Mahomes: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
