Chiefs nip Eagles in Super Bowl thriller
Patrick Mahomes shook off an ankle injury, turned back into a magician and pulled out another comeback on the biggest stage to help the Kansas City Chiefs win their second Super Bowl in four years. Mahomes threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and scrambled 26 yards on the go-ahead drive before Harrison Butker kicked a 27-yard field goal with 8 seconds left to give the Chiefs a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. Mahomes and Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts excelled in the first Super Bowl match-up featuring two Black starting QBs.  But Mahomes, the two-time NFL MVP, turned it up in the second half after re-aggravating a sprained right ankle. Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who couldn’t win the big game in Philadelphia, beat his former team to earn his second ring with Mahomes and the Chiefs. With the score tied at 35-35, the Eagles tried to let the Chiefs score a touchdown with under two minutes left so they could get the ball back. But Jerick McKinnon slid at the 2, forcing the Eagles to use their last timeout. After Mahomes took a knee twice, Butker nailed his kick, sending thousands of red-clad Chiefs fans into a frenzy. The Chiefs won their second Super Bowl following the 2019 season, 50 years after the first one. It took just three years to get another Lombardi. Chiefs fans were outnumbered in the stadium, but they did their part to silence the boisterous Philly fans with the tomahawk chop chant. Down 24-14 with a limping Mahomes, the Chiefs followed up Rihanna’s electrifying halftime performance with a sensational offensive outburst. Mahomes, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the divisional round, hurt it again on a 3-yard scramble late in the second quarter. He limped off the field but showed no ill effects on Kansas City’s next possession. Mahomes slipped – several players lost their footing on the natural grass surface – in the pocket yet somehow regained his balance and scrambled 14 yards to the Eagles 4, setting up Isiah Pacheco’s 1-yard TD run that cut the deficit to 24-21. After Jake Elliott’s 33-yard field goal extended Philadelphia’s lead to 27-21, the Chiefs struck again. Mahomes tossed a 5-yard TD pass to a wide-open Kardarius Toney to give Kansas City its first lead, 28-27, early in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs tightened up their defence, forcing Philly to punt. Then Toney returned a line-drive kick 65 yards to the Eagles 5 for the longest punt return in Super Bowl history. On third down from the 4, Mahomes connected with Skyy Moore to extend their lead to 35-27. Moore also was wide open on the play. But the Eagles wouldn’t go away. Hurts hit DeVonta Smith for a 46-yard gain to the Chiefs and ran in for his third score of the game. He also ran in for the 2-point conversion to tie it at 35-35 with 5:15 to go. As “Fly! Eagles! Fly!” reverberated throughout the stadium, Mahomes and the Chiefs went back to work. The 27-year-old Mahomes became the third player to win his second NFL MVP award before age 28. He also became the youngest QB to start three Super Bowls. Then, Mahomes became the first player to win the Super Bowl the same season he was MVP after nine straight players lost. Just five years after winning the first Super Bowl in franchise history, the Eagles came close with a new coach – Nick Sirianni – and new quarterback, Hurts. Hurts set a Super Bowl record with 70 yards rushing and tied a record with three rushing scores. The Eagles marched 75 yards down the field with Hurts scoring from the 1 for a 7-0 lead, and controlled the ball for almost 22 minutes in the first half. Hurts, who missed two games late in the season with a shoulder injury, had no trouble throwing a perfect deep ball to AJ Brown, giving the Eagles a 14-7 lead with a 45-yard connection on the first play of the second quarter. But Hurts then made a rare mistake on the next drive when he fumbled without being hit while scrambling away from pressure. Nick Bolton picked it up and raced 36 yards for a score that made it 14-14. Hurts had just eight turnovers this season, six picks and two fumbles. Undeterred, Hurts kept running. He took off for 14 yards on the first play after the fumble. On fourth-and-5 from Chiefs 44, Hurts ran 28 yards. He finished off the drive with a 4-yard TD run to put Philadelphia ahead 21-14. Elliott kicked a 35-yard field goal to send the Eagles into halftime leading 24-14. Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce on an 18-yard TD pass in the right corner to tie it at 7-7 in the first quarter. The Chiefs’ All-Pro tight end and Eagles All-Pro centre Jason Kelce became the first set of brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl. Their mom, Donna Kelce, wore a half-red, half-green jersey with No. 87 on the front for Travis and No. 62 on the back for Jason. She sat in a suite between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills defensive back who suffered cardiac arrest in a regular season game. The first Super Bowl involving both No. 1 seeds since the Eagles beat the New England Patriots in February 2018 lived up to its hype. It was the third-highest scoring Super Bowl and the Eagles scored the most points by a losing team. Plenty of celebrities were Philadelphia fans, including actors Bradley Cooper and Kevin Hart, who wore the late Eagles legend Reggie White's No. 92 jersey. Former Beatle Paul McCartney and the all-time NBA top scorer LeBron James also were in the crowd of 67,827. (AP)