NEW ORLEANS — Defense can still win championships in the NFL. Especially the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense.
Philadelphia cruised to a dominant 40-22 win in Super Bowl 59 thanks to one of the best defensive performances in title game history — which came against one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. And while the whole unit played well, Philadelphia’s defensive line in particular left its mark Sunday.
The Eagles’ pass rush thoroughly harassed Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, sacking him a whopping six times — the most he has ever been sacked in a game in his career. In addition to the times he was actually taken to the ground, twice while the rush was bearing down on him he was intercepted. And on one of the sacks, he was stripped for another turnover.
“Defense wins championships,” Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts said. “We saw how they played today. We saw the difference they made in the game. They gave us opportunities, gave us short fields. And we’re able to do what we do.”
Multiple Philadelphia defenders got in on the party — outside linebacker Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks, defensive end Milton Williams had two, and defensive tackle Jordan Davis had one. Sweat had a case to have been MVP, as he led his team in both sacks and pressures.
The Chiefs’ offensive line had issues everywhere. Davis and fellow Eagles tackle Jalen Carter consistently collapsed the middle of the pocket, allowing their edge rushers to take advantage of single coverage on the outside.
Exactly how forceful was the Philly defensive line? Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio blitzed Mahomes a grand total of zero times on his 42 dropbacks, per NFL Next Gen Stats. And the Eagles still pressured Mahomes 16 times even though they never sent an extra rusher.
By the end of the first half, when the score was 24-0, Mahomes had been pressured at a higher rate (47.1%) than his completion percentage (42.9%).
The lack of blitzing had a domino effect, as Philadelphia was able to keep its secondary in zone coverage for most of the night. Not only did that allow the Eagles to take away most big plays over the top; the zone also prevented Mahomes from taking advantage of man coverage for scrambling opportunities.
“This year we’ve been able to get home with our four-man rush … and we were able to get home with it today, as well,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “We do what we think we need to do to win, not what anybody else thinks we got to do. This was the way we felt we needed to go about it.”
The result was a pitiful offensive performance by Kansas City and one of the worst games of Mahomes’ career.
The 22 points the Chiefs scored Sunday were their fewest all postseason and their fewest in a Super Bowl since they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 and scored only nine. (And those 22 points are a little inflated, as 16 of them came in the fourth quarter with the game well out of hand.)
“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 moment of the game, and they capitalized on them.”
The formula Philly used to win — heavy pressure with its front four — was similar to the one the Buccaneers used in Super Bowl 55, which featured another subpar performance from Mahomes. But the Eagles’ defensive line is not the kind of unit that can be easily re-created.
Williams, Carter, Davis and defensive end Nolan Smith Jr. were all drafted by Philadelphia in the previous four NFL drafts. With the Eagles investing heavy resources in their offense — spending big money at quarterback, receiver and offensive line in free agency and contract extensions — hitting on those draft picks was crucial to Philadelphia’s success Sunday. (The secondary, by the way, also featured rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, the latter of whom had a pick-six.)
Kansas City and Mahomes, which have often felt inevitable the last three seasons, finally met their match in the Eagles. For all the talk leading into the game about how the Chiefs could be the greatest dynasty of all time or how Mahomes was making a case as the GOAT, all of that — and Kansas City’s quest for a three-peat — ended because of something relatively simple: the four players Philadelphia sent at the quarterback.
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