The 2024 NFL regular season has come to an end and, to the delight of everyone but Kansas City Chiefs fans, the league has a new Super Bowl champion. The Philadelphia Eagles blew out the Chiefs to hand them their second Super Bowl loss in the Patrick Mahomes era.
The loss stinks but this was a game that the Chiefs never were really in. They couldn't get out of their own way in the first half and were down 24-0 at halftime. It got worse from there and while they avoided the shutout, this one is going to sting for quite some time.
Patrick Mahomes
While no one can take away from the fact that Patrick Mahomes is a three-time Super Bowl champion, people will point to this game when it comes to debating where Mahomes sits on the all-time list. He's officially not going to be crowned the G.O.A.T. considering that he's now been blown out in two Super Bowls.
This loss wasn't all on Mahomes but he didn't do his part. The two picks he threw were atrocious and those gifted Philadelphia 14 points. It was not a performance to remember and people will jump to point to this game when discussing Mahomes' legacy years down the road.
Andy Reid
There's no doubt that Andy Reid is a Hall of Fame coach and will go down as one of the greatest coaches in the NFL but this was a bad game for him. The Chiefs were outcoached, plain and simple. Even at halftime when it felt like "Okay, let's see what adjustments are made," the team came out and continued not to play to the level that we knew they could play at.
That ultimately falls on Reid. Whatever he told the team at halftime obviously didn't stick and it was clear as day that he was outcoached in this one.
The Chiefs' Offensive Line
The last time the Chiefs got blown out in a Super Bowl it was a result of their offensive line doing terribly. We saw that exact same scenario play out four years ago and the Chiefs then went on to fix the o-line in the best possible way by drafting Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith and making sure this unit got better.
If that ends up happening here, that'd be the best-case scenario from this loss. Teams can't win if they don't have at least an above-average offensive line and the Chiefs need to learn from this (again) and fine-tune the offensive line.
DeAndre Hopkins
While a comeback seemed unlikely even in the second quarter, there was a moment that made it truly seem like luck wasn't on Kansas City's side. That was when Mahomes heaved a third-down pass to DeAndre Hopkins, who was open. Unfortunately, Hopkins dropped the pass and the Chiefs had to punt.
It was such a frustrating moment that even Chris Jones freaked out on the sidelines because he couldn't believe that Hopkins didn't come up with the catch. Fortunately Hopkins did add a touchdown later on, while making a very impressive catch while falling out of bounds, but it was too little too late for the Chiefs at that point.
Doing what the Chiefs have done is hard but this game is going to be referred to when it comes to this dynasty and that's a real shame.