Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the world, spent Super Bowl Sunday being ground into a fine paste by the Eagles' pass rush, and then for good measure, jarred and preserved. Pressured on 38 percent of his snaps, Mahomes was hit 11 times, sacked six times, forced into a pair of picks, and fumbled the ball away once. In one of the more stunning stats in NFL history, the Eagles did all that without blitzing a single time. That trickles down—because they never had to send help, Philadelphia was able to stay in Cover 4 all game long, cutting off deep balls and quickly smothering anything underneath. "In order to make a team blitz, you have to be able to beat what they're showing." Mahomes said. "And that's what we didn't do."
That's how you get a no-doubter blowout that felt like the margin was at least three times greater than the 40-22 final score might indicate. And while Jalen Hurts was a worthy MVP, if voters were allowed they'd surely have awarded it to the Eagles' front four, for dominating from the snap and dictating the game script—one where Mahomes was uncharacteristically either running for his life or getting his ass beaten concave.
Sometimes, when games are decided in the trenches, it can be hard to pinpoint what swung things. That's not the case here; it's straightforward. The offensive line was always pending as the Chiefs' Achilles' heel. With stars to pay elsewhere, protection was where they were forced to cut costs, starting inexperienced linemen and moving effective guard Joe Thuney out to tackle. They were, from the coin toss, overmatched by Philadelphia's fast, hungry rushers. Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks, Milton Williams added a pair, and Jalyx Hunt and Jordan Davis each got on the board. “Take a look around, we got a lot of dogs out here,” Davis said.
Vic Fangio, though he coordinated a fearsome defense all year, didn't even need to get particularly creative Sunday to keep the Chiefs on their heels. He called just one play with a nontraditional pressure—LB Zack Baun—but still only on a four-man rush, meaning it didn't count as a blitz. It's truly as simple as it looked: the Eagles' front consistently overpowered their counterparts. "When you win on a four-man rush and you can just cycle guys through, and they are still winning, you don't have to blitz." Baun said.
It was, by some measures, the most dominant defensive performance in Super Bowl history. It was by most measures the worst game of Mahomes's career. The NFL is a copycat league, and while a roster like Philadelphia's requires years to put together, it's not hard to guess what lessons might be taken from this walkover. Look for the AFC's other contenders to focus on their pass rush. And expect the Chiefs to invest in protection. Too late for Mahomes this year, though.
