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NEW ORLEANS: The Philadelphia Eagles obliterated the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid to become the first NFL team to win three consecutive Super Bowls with a blowout 40-22 win in New Orleans on Sunday.
The Eagles defense was simply immense, smothering the Chief’s creative maestro Patrick Mahomes, and on offense their own quarterback Jalen Hurts led the way, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another as Philadelphia brutally avenged their 2023 loss to the Chiefs at Super Bowl 57.
Eagles dazzling running back Saquon Barkley grabbed 31 first-half rushing yards to break the all-time NFL record for most rushing yards in a regular season plus playoffs, to add icing to the Eagles’ championship cake.
Sunday’s thumping victory delivered a second Super Bowl win for the Eagles franchise whose other title win was in 2018.
It was a commanding performance throughout by the Eagles who totally dominated the championship match in front of a crowd that included US President Donald Trump and pop superstar Taylor Swift.
It marked the first time a sitting president had attended a Super Bowl and Trump watched the first half before leaving.
The Eagles set the tone for the contest by opening the scoring in the first quarter with their signature play – a goal line move they call the “brotherly shove” – with Hurts plowing into the end zone behind his powerful offensive line as his teammates forced him forward.
Eagles’ rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean picked off a poor pass from Mahomes in the second quarter to score Philadelphia’s second touchdown and Hurts then found A.J. Brown with a 12-yard pass to go into halftime 24-0 ahead.
Mahomes struggled mightily in the first half, throwing two interceptions while being sacked three times and completing just 6-of-14 passing attempts.
Things went from bad to worse in the second half for the Chiefs when Hurts found DeVonta Smith with a 46-yard pass for a fourth touchdown and take a 34-0 lead.
The Chiefs finally got on the scoreboard late in the third quarter through Xavier Worthy, but the game was sliding away at breakneck pace.
A DeAndre Hopkins touchdown, and a second for Worthy added some respectability to the score, but it was cosmetic, and would have come as little consolation to the battered Chiefs whose tilt at history was devastatingly denied.
Nobody had predicted the one-sided nature of the game – not Trump, not Swift, not Argentine World Cup winner Lionel Messi, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z or Beatle Paul McCartney who were all in the crowd – but the Eagles defense was awesome throughout, never giving the Chiefs a chance.
It was nothing short of a blowout to end a week when football took on a Mardi Gras flavor with New Orleans hosting the game for a record-tying 11th time.