The Philadelphia Eagles took down the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in dominant fashion, winning 40-22.
Despite it being a one-sided affair, Super Bowl LIX offered football fans everywhere an exciting game to cap off the season.
Let’s take a look at some of the best storylines from Sunday’s big game.
Jalen Hurts deserves his flowers
From his Super Bowl loss against the Chiefs two years ago to the late-season collapse last year, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has received his fair share of criticism over the past two years.
However, in this Super Bowl, Hurts seemed unfazed by all the talk and led his team to their second-ever championship in franchise history.
Hurts took control of the game not only with his arm but also his legs.
He completed 17 of his 22 pass attempts, throwing for 221 yards and two passing touchdowns. Hurts also ran for 72 yards and added a rushing touchdown. His lone blemish on the stat sheet was an interception he threw late in the first quarter.
After that one mistake, he managed the game well and played a complete game of football.
Whether it was connecting with his receivers downfield or scrambling for first downs, it’s no surprise that Hurts won the Super Bowl MVP.
The cherry on top for Eagles fans was the 46-yard touchdown pass he threw on a rope to wide receiver DeVonta Smith in the third quarter.
This Philadelphia defense is tough
Pitching a shutout through one half of football is tough for any team to do, let alone against Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. This Philadelphia defense showed up and held Kansas City to zero points through the first 30 minutes of play.
While the Chiefs did score 16 in the fourth quarter, it was too little too late.
The Eagles got after Mahomes, making him uncomfortable throughout the entire game. He was sacked six times and fumbled on one of those sacks. He also threw two interceptions, one that Eagles rookie defensive back, Cooper DeJean, returned for a touchdown.
Philadelphia’s defensive end, Josh Sweat, finished with 2.5 sacks with 3 quarterback hits. First-team All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun had 7 tackles and an interception.
Whether it was the Eagles defensive line getting into the Chief’s backfield or the defensive backs locking down the receivers, Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio can be happy with the game he called.
Valley talent showed up
Chiefs rookie wide receiver and Central High School alumni, Xavier Worthy, had an impressive performance in his first Super Bowl appearance.
After a first half that saw the speedy receiver with only one reception, Worthy became a key target for Mahomes to go to.
Worthy finished as the Chiefs leading receiver with 8 receptions for 157 yards and two receiving touchdowns.His 157 yard performance is now the fifth-most receiving yards in a game in the Super Bowl era.
Former Fresno State Bulldog Nikko Remigio couldn’t break away on any kick returns as he had in the Chiefs’ playoff run. Remigio finished with 84 return yards on three kickoff returns.
One-sided but exciting nonetheless
As a fan of football, this game was fun to watch.
The Eagles did something that no team has been able to do to the Chiefs since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
Philadelphia’s offense came into this game as the second-best rushing team in the league, thanks in large part to the Offensive Player of the Year, running back Saquon Barkley. But the Chiefs limited him to just 57 yards and didn’t allow any big runs that Eagles fans were so used to seeing this season.
Instead, Hurts took over with his legs when needed and hit his wide-open receivers.
This helped the Eagles offense dominate the time of possession and wear down the Chiefs defense.
And then there’s the Eagle’s defense that shut down one of the league’s best quarterbacks. Despite the one-sidedness of the game, there were still a couple of highlight plays from the Chiefs including the 50-yard bomb from Mahomes to Worthy.
Mostly good but…
Another Super Bowl covered by Fox means the debut of a new score bug.
This year’s new graphic did in fact disappoint.
From the basic team initials to the play clock being in a weird spot, this new graphic is not something I want to get used to.
And then there was the commentary crew.
After a bad start to his first season being a broadcaster, former NFL quarterback, Tom Brady seemed to get into a groove after the first couple of weeks. But his coverage of the Super Bowl was one of his worst so far.
There were plenty of times when Brady’s analysis seemed drawn out, so much so that he would interrupt his partner Kevin Burkhardt who was trying to call the next play.
Another point I found especially annoying was Brady’s constant referral to his previous wins. While I understand that his job is to provide analysis of the game and draw from personal experiences, I do not understand why he had to go out of his way to remind us of his success in the league.
My best example is his analysis when tight-end Dallas Goedert caught an out route. Brady explained that he used to call it an “Ozzie” route after the great tight end Ozzie Newsome.
What would have been an interesting fact to point out was then ruined by Brady adding on about how much success he had with throwing that route to his tight end Rob Gronkowski.
At many points in this game, I noticed that it sounded too much like “me me me” instead of adding analysis to the game of football.
Overall thoughts
This year’s Super Bowl was very solid.
There was an interesting story line for both teams as one looked to three-peat while the other looked to rewrite their previous Super Bowl loss.
Overall, I’d give Super Bowl LIX a 7 out of 10.
It may not have been as exciting as their matchup from two years ago, but I can say for certain that I enjoyed watching this game.
At the end of the day, anything is better than Super Bowl LIII.