NEW ORLEANS — There was a three-play sequence in the second quarter of Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night that not only summarized the way things went for quarterback Patrick Mahomes but also the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Philadelphia Eagles had taken a 10-0 lead and the NFL’s two-time reigning champs were on the ropes when Mahomes was sacked by Josh Sweat. On the next play, Sweat bottled him up again. And on the ensuing play, the two-time NFL MVP was under such duress that Mahomes threw an interception that Cooper DeJean returned 38 yards for a score.
Six sacks. Three turnovers. And not an ounce of Mahomes magic.
By the time he was done dragging himself off the Superdome turf, and the Eagles were able to run the last seconds off the clock, three-time Super Bowl MVP Mahomes and the Chiefs were sent home with a humbling — humiliating, even — 40-22 defeat.
“They played better than us from start to finish,” Mahomes said. “We didn’t start how we wanted to. The turnovers hurt. I take all the blame for that. Those turnovers swing the momentum of the game, and they capitalized on them. They scored on one and got a touchdown immediately after another. That’s 14 points I gave them. It’s hard to come back from that in the Super Bowl.
“I didn’t play to my standard, and I have to be better next time.”
The six sacks were the most Mahomes had endured since LSU took him to the ground that many times in the 2015 Texas Bowl, when he was still at Texas Tech. The pick-6 was his first in the NFL playoffs and ended a streak of 297 consecutive passes without an interception. Another pick and a lost fumble represented the second-most turnovers in a game in his NFL career.
It all added up to one of Mahomes’ most disappointing performances, too.
“He’s a human being, man. I guess the world got to see that,” Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said.
The Chiefs were trying to make history as the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls, and the 29-year-old Mahomes and five of his closest teammates — including tight end Travis Kelce and defensive lineman Chris Jones — were aiming for a fourth ring in six seasons.
Rather than playing with poise and precision as they did in two Super Bowl triumphs over the San Francisco 49ers or their win over the Eagles two years ago in the big game, the Chiefs looked like they did against the Tampa Bay Buccaners on Feb. 7, 2021.
That was the night the Bucs blitzed Mahomes into oblivion in a 31-9 Super Bowl loss.
“These will be the two losses that motivate me the rest of my career,” Mahomes said.
The Eagles didn’t even need to blitz him to create pressure Sunday night.
The Chiefs managed just one first down over the first 30 minutes, and it came on their first offensive play, an 11-yard pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster after they had forced the Eagles to punt. The rest of the half? They gained just 14 more yards.
“Their defensive line did a nice job,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, in perhaps the understatement of the night.
The result was a 24-0 deficit that seemed insurmountable as Kendrick Lamar began his halftime show. In fact, things were going so bad for Kansas City that even Kelce’s girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, was getting booed by the pro-Eagles crowd.
Mahomes wasn’t entirely to blame. The Chiefs’ offensive line was dominated by the Philadelphia defensive front, which not only sacked him three times in the first half but put so much pressure on him that it played a big part in both of the interceptions; the second one by Zack Baun late in the half led to another Eagles touchdown.
In truth, the Chiefs struggled all season to protect Mahomes’ blind side. They tried rookie Kingsley Suamataia at left tackle before Reid benched him for second-year pro Wanya Morris, who struggled so much himself that he was inactive for the Super Bowl. They ultimately moved All-Pro guard Joe Thuney outside and put Mike Caliendo in his place.
That lineup seemed to work late in the regular season, when the Chiefs clinched the No. 1 seed with a Christmas rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 17th week. It also gave Mahomes the time he needed to pick apart the Houston Texans and the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs at Arrowhead Stadium.
That group couldn’t stop Sweat, Jalen Carter and the rest of Philadelphia’s defensive front on Super Bowl Sunday.
“It’s going to hurt for a while,” Mahomes admitted, “but how can you respond from it?”