Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were on the brink of NFL history, aiming for an unprecedented three-peat in Super Bowl 59. Instead, they suffered a crushing 40-22 defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles, exposing key weaknesses on both sides of the ball.
However, Mahomes is vowing to come back stronger next season, while defensive tackle Chris Jones is pushing his teammates to learn from the losses after being spoiled by “always winning.”
Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones Give Pep Talk to Teammates After Super Bowl 59 loss
While the Eagles were exceptionally good on offense, with Jalen Hurts leading both teams in rushing yards, Philadephia’s defense stole the show. The Eagles sacked Patrick Mahomes six times, which is one shy of the Super Bowl record (held by four teams), and the star quarterback put forth one of the worst games of his career.
Mahomes was visibly disappointed following the game, and as he sat with his teammates on the field watching the Eagles lift the Lombardi trophy, he promised to return to the Super Bowl next season.
“We’ll be back here, bro. We’ll be back.”
The Chiefs were looking to become the first team in history to win three consecutive Super Bowl titles but left the job unfinished. It also was their fifth Super Bowl appearance in six years. Jones admitted they got spoiled by their winning ways.
“We can build off of this. These are valuable lessons. When you lose, you learn. You learn a lot. We’ve been so spoiled over the last three years. All we know is winning,” Jones said
@nfl ready to bounce back 💪 #patrickmahomes #kansascity #chiefs #nfl #superbowl #micdup ♬ original sound – NFL
Mahomes, who threw for 257 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions, took responsibility for the Chiefs’ poor performance.
“Both [losses] sucked,” Mahomes said. “There’s no way around it. Anytime you lose a Super Bowl, it is the worst feeling in the world. They’ll stick with you the rest of your career. These will be the two losses that will motivate me to be even better the rest of my career, because you only get so few of these and you have to capitalize on these and they hurt probably more than the wins feel good.”
Mahomes’ box score wasn’t horrible by the end of the game, but after being down five possessions, most of his production came in the form of garbage-time prayers. He was uncharacteristically bad and a key reason why Kansas City was in such a deep hole.
“I threw a pick-six, and I threw a pick that they returned to the five-yard line and they scored immediately after,” Mahomes added. “When you give the team 14 points, especially a really good football team, a Super Bowl football team, then not a lot of good things happen.
“I put us in a bad spot. Even though we put up some stats at the end of the game, those stats didn’t really matter because I’d already kind of lost the momentum for this entire team. I have to be better at not turning it over whenever it’s not going my way, trusting my defense, trusting the rest of my team to get those stops until I can figure out what we need to do as an offense.”
The Chiefs and Mahomes have a ton of work ahead in the offseason. While the front office will look to bolster their offensive line, Mahomes will work hard to jump in PFSN’s QB+ rankings after finishing 10th last year. How much the offense improves could decide whether Super Bowl 59 was a speed bump or a cliff for Kansas City’s dynasty.