Every year the entire NFL season comes down to the Super Bowl, one of the biggest events in the world. This year's contest pitted the Kansas City Chiefs vs the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles came in as one-and-a-half-point favorites and just about two-thirds of the money spent was spent on the Eagles winning.
Despite this, the Chiefs emerged victorious winning by a game-winning field goal. Both teams scored over 30 points which hasn’t happened since the Patriots and the Eagles did it in 2018 and only the fourth time in Super Bowl history. On top of that, this is the second-highest-scoring Super Bowl of all time only behind the 1995 Super Bowl between the 49ers and the Chargers.
The game went relatively smoothly and had all the makings of an instant classic. The game was high scoring, both quarterbacks looked electric with multiple exciting plays including a number of long touchdowns. Jalen Hurts had the game of his life silencing doubters across the nation. Hurts had an unreal statline of 27 of 38 for 304 yards 1 passing touchdown and another 3 on the ground. He even converted a 2-point conversion to tie the game in the waning minutes.
Even though the game was filled with fireworks, the most memorable moment of the game was the questionable holding call against Eagles cornerback James Bradberry. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tossed the ball away into the back of the endzone targeting JuJu Smith-Schuster, the referees flagged James Bradberry for tugging on Smith-Schuster’s jersey which left fans across the league outraged. Lots of people questioned the legitimacy of the penalty and others were wondering why the referees were letting the players be physical all game to suddenly call a rather weak holding call.
In my personal opinion, there was a hold, after the replay was shown you can clearly see Bradberry’s glove pulling Smith-Schuster’s jersey, despite that I don’t think a hold should have been called. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the first read but think about it this way. Why throw a flag when the ball was nowhere near catchable and it had zero effect on the outcome of the play? Roger Goodell has been very vocal about not wanting the referees to control games but this is a perfect example of what is happening being contradictory to that statement. That penalty gave the Chiefs a new set of downs effectively icing the game and removing the Eagles’ chance to get the football back. If the hold directly affected the play and it was impossible to miss then by all-means call it, but that wasn’t the case.
Moving away from the controversy, this game was an absolute classic. Patrick Mahomes, even with one leg managed to put together another incredible performance. I already mentioned the truly unreal performance that Jalen Hurts had. This game didn’t have one dull moment. A.J.
Brown had an absolutely incredible catch on a deep ball that put the Eagles back in the lead early. Nick Bolton ran back a Jalen Hurts fumble where it appears no one even touched him. Overall the Super Bowl was one to remember and will be looked back on favorably for likely decades to come.