NFL Playoff Takeaways: Super Bowl

Photo from USA Today

Defense wins championships.

This isn’t a new development.

In fact, it’s one of the things you’ll hear the most as a football fan.

And yet, every year, we seem to forget that and only talk about quarterbacks, until the obvious smacks us in the face on Super Bowl Sunday, where the winning plays are made by the defense every single year.

Let’s dive into Super Bowl 59.

Eagles defeat Chiefs 40-22

Philadelphia Eagles

I turned 30 years old on Saturday, and I’ve watched many Super Bowls.

I remember when the 2000 Ravens didn’t let Kerry Collins and the New York Giants cross midfield.

I remember when the 2013 Seahawks completely dominated the record breaking Denver Broncos.

This Eagles defensive performance is right up there at that level.

The Eagles defensive front had Patrick Mahomes in hell, and they never blitzed.

They rushed four all night, got to Mahomes, and blanketed his receivers so that he didn’t have any available options.

It was an absolute masterclass.

All they needed after that was for Jalen Hurts to simply be good enough, and he was better than that. He actively outplayed Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl (even though I don’t think he should have been MVP, but we’ll get to that later).

Nick Sirianni, a coach many don’t even like, flat out outcoached Andy Reid.

Every Super Bowl victory is sweet, but one like this where there is no doubt who the better team was has to simply feel so much sweeter.

Kansas City Chiefs

I picked the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl.

Not because they were the better team. I thought the Eagles were far better.

But I have watched the Chiefs win games against teams I felt were clearly better than them over and over again, so I figured it’d be the same this time around.

Others picked the Chiefs because it was simple.

Their coach and quarterback were better, so they were the better team.

That’s what the NFL is these days to a lot of people. It’s only about the coach and the quarterback.

However, the coach and the quarterback are what lost the Chiefs the Super Bowl.

Let’s start with Andy Reid and the play calling.

The Eagles rushed four and basically dared the Chiefs to run the ball in the first half. They were prepared to play the pass, and not let Mahomes beat them.

The Chiefs ran the ball three times in the entire first half.

The Eagles dared them to run, and the Chiefs still simply said no.

And while the pass game wasn’t working great, it was still just 10-0. By no means was this game out of hand.

But Mahomes, who was under duress all game long, forced throws on two of three drives. One led to a pick six, and the other led to an interception setting up an easy touchdown.

Just like that, it was 24-0 before halftime, and the game was over.

Speaking of Mahomes, this is not the first time he’s played poorly in Super Bowls.

He was awful in 2020 against the 49ers until the final 7 minutes which helped them comeback and win, and he wasn’t great the entire first half against the Niners last year either.

In fact, it’s very reasonable to say that if the 49ers and Kyle Shanahan did a better job with game management, Mahomes would be sitting at 1-4 in Super Bowl appearances right now.

It may be time to put the “he is built for this” moniker to rest.

And that is not the only thing that needs to go away.

Final Takeaway of the Season

I genuinely hope that this is the season that pulls people away from strictly discussing quarterbacks in the NFL.

Defenses were great this year. Run games were great this year.

Saquon Barkley became the first running back ever to rush for 2,500 total yards in the regular season and playoffs. He was never a true MVP candidate. That was quarterback Josh Allen.

Brock Bowers set three rookie records for a tight end this year. He was never a true offensive rookie of the year candidate. That was quarterback Jayden Daniels.

The Eagles defense had multiple guys put in MVP worthy performances in that Super Bowl, and it went to Jalen Hurts. The quarterback.

Joe Burrow was the poster child for the belief that you need a quarterback who can succeed in chaos, and his reward was a 9-8 season that had the Bengals miss the playoffs entirely.

I’ve never doubted that quarterback is the most important position in football. It is. It’d be foolish to think otherwise.

But it is not the only position in football, and this Eagles team showed more than ever that it is a total team effort, all the way from the front office down.

So maybe, just maybe, we can go into the 2025-2026 season with a little bit more nuance when making predictions, and not just focusing solely on quarterbacks alone.

Ah, who am I kidding?

We’re going to have Washington Commanders 2026 Super Bowl predictions because of Jayden Daniels alone.