Larry Henry Jr
The Philadelphia Eagles saved their most dominant performance for the NFL’s biggest stage.
Nick Sirianni’s men won Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night after exacting revenge on the two-time reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in New Orleans. Quarterback Jalen Hurts totaled 293 yards and three touchdowns on 28 total touches en route to winning the Super Bowl MVP award.
Two years after losing 38-35 to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, the Eagles had the last laugh against Kansas City, ending their recent quest to become the first NFL team to win a three-peat. After watching his team suffer a demoralizing end of the season in 2024, Sirianni admitted that those failures helped shape the current squad for success this year.
“I look back on last year and how last year ended and I’m grateful,” Sirianni told reporters Monday, whilst wearing A.J. Brown’s high school jersey. “As crazy as this sounds, I’m grateful how last year ended because it shaped us to [who] we are today [with] the adversity of the beginning of the year and the adversity through the season, through injuries, through ups and downs, through everything.
“I think that when you embrace adversity, it does something to you, right,” he added. “It does something to you personally, right? Each and every individual on that football team, the adversity does something to you, and it does something to you as a football team as well. So, our guys, I think that could be the biggest attribute. They worked their butts off to connect.”
Most of the time to win the Super Bowl, you need to play a perfect game, especially when you are playing against a Hall of Fame head coach and an eventual Hall of Fame quarterback. Well, the Eagles did exactly that. They made smart plays offensively, spreading the ball around to many willing hands. Albeit Hurts committed his first turnover of the playoffs, he rebounded with several big time plays, including a 46-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith to truly ice the Eagles victory.
Vic Fangio’s defense played exactly as advertised. The Eagles were all over Patrick Mahomes, intercepting him twice, once by Cooper Dejean for a pick-six. The Eagles defense also sacked Mahomes six times in the game, with pass rusher Josh Sweat leading the way with 2.5 sacks of his own.
Eagles defenders revealed they didn’t sway from their normal game plan to stop the Chiefs and also praised Fangio’s coaching abilities for getting them prepared.
“We didn’t change the game plan or anything,” said Sweat. “We just rush and cover together, and whoever made the play made it.
“[Defensive coordinator] Vic [Fangio] just made the calls, and we executed,” he added. “He always puts us in the right position to make the plays, and it worked out.”
Running back Saquon Barkley was expected to be a focal point of the game, but overall he was quiet for his own standards. Barkley finished 97 total yards on 31 touches, breaking Terrell Davis’ full season rushing record by concluding his campaign with 2,504 rushing yards.
The NFL Offensive Player of the Year’s 2024 season will certainly go down as one of the best ever in league history, especially given the fact Barkley did it in Year No. 1 with a new franchise. Although Barkley enjoyed breaking Davis’ record in the game, he revealed winning the Super Bowl brings a bit more excitement.
“It’s cool,” Barkley said. “To be honest, the most important thing was winning the Super Bowl, because if we didn’t win the Super Bowl today, all those accolades and all those yards wouldn’t mean anything. So, it’s cool. I don’t want to downplay it because I couldn’t do it without the boys up front and I know how much that means to them. For me, I’m thankful. Couldn’t do it without God. But I like that Lombardi Trophy a little bit more.”
For Hurts, Sunday’s victory capped off his fourth season as the Eagles starting quarterback. From taking over the starting job at the end of the 2020 season to quickly blossoming into one of the league’s best dual-threat QB’s, Hurts has continued to be consistent in Sirianni’s offense while also being a leader on and off the field.
Hurts did on Sunday exactly what he did in his first Super Bowl appearance, controlling the offense, calling his own runs, and limiting the mistakes. Now he has a Lombardi Trophy and MVP award to savor, which finally puts him into that exclusive category alongside Mahomes, Tom Brady, and many other gunslingers.
“The offense was able to score points and take advantage of opportunities, just enough to put points on the board, and the defense, the defense played their ass off,” Hurts said. “They played how they played all year. I truly believe offense wins games and defense wins championships.”
“Things come right on time. The last time around, it wasn’t our time, it wasn’t my time,” Hurts added. “Sometimes, you have to accept that you have to wait your turn….As great as the performance was, it wasn’t enough to win. Going through those emotions and processing those things, that experience, lit a great flame in me and enhanced my desire to win.”
This Eagles team will go down in history as not only one of the best in franchise history, but one of the best in recent NFL history. They overcame some major hurdles in the early going before rolling off one of the best regular season records in recent time and delivering an undefeated playoff record (4-0, three wins at Lincoln Financial Field).
Now after a long and grueling campaign, the Eagles, their coaches, and their front office can finally put their feet up and celebrate, and let’s be fully honest, they deserve it.
You can follow Larry Henry on Twitter (@lhenry019) and e-mail him at [email protected].
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