The unexpected Super Bowl LVII

    This year’s Super Bowl LVII was a matchup between two teams that had some incorrect expectations placed on them before the season started, the unexpected Philadelphia Eagles and the doubted Kansas City Chiefs.

         Going into the 2022-2023 season, many fans had predictions of who they thought were going to be the powerhouses during the season and favored to make it to Super Bowl LVII. The Eagles finished the 2021-2022 season with a 9-8 record and were not projected to have a much better season this year. 

After drafting Devonta Smith as a new starting receiver, trading for A.J. Brown, and sticking with Jalen Hurts as the starting quarterback, fans projected the team would do better than the previous season, but not make it all the way to the championship game. Most people projected the National Football Conference would be controlled by the San Francisco 49ers, the Minnesota Vikings or last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams.

After having an unexpected start to the season, NFL fans all over started to raise their eyebrows in curiosity of whether the hot streak was a fluke or if the Eagles were the powerhouse they looked to be. The team finished its season with a 14-3 record and dominated both games in the NFC playoffs, beating the New York City Giants 38-7 and the 49ers 31-7.

In the American Football Conference, there were many concerns about the Chiefs and how the offense would perform after trading Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. Many spectators doubted Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes’s ability to get the job done without his former number-one receiver. 

Even after the team got off to a hot start in the regular season, the Chiefs lost two out of three games to the only two teams projected to go further than them in the playoffs, the Buffalo Bills and last season’s runner-up in the Super Bowl, the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills were led by star quarterback Josh Allen, whom many believe is a better quarterback than Mahomes. 

These two powerhouses met in the playoffs twice in the last two years, and Mahomes walked away victorious in both games, so many fans believed that after the Bills beat the Chiefs in this year’s regular season, they would only have to worry about the Bengals led by star quarterback Joe Burrow.

The Bengals had beaten the Chiefs last year in a regular season game, the AFC championship, and this year in the regular season. Social media was brutal towards the Chiefs, and Mahomes specifically. Since Burrow was 3-0 against Mahomes, fans posted that he was Mahomes’s father and owned the Chiefs. 

Of course, Mahomes and the Chiefs did not take these comments lately. The Cheifs finished the season 14-3 and gained the first-round bye in the playoffs. The Chiefs played an unexpected team in the divisional round that wasn’t projected to make the playoffs, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mahomes got hurt in the first quarter of the game with an ankle injury, but came back at the start of the second half and led the team to a 27-20 victory while limping for the remainder of the game.

The Bengals knocked off the Bills in the divisional round and were set for an AFC championship rematch with the Chiefs in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium. Many NFL fans took to social media and called the Cheifs stadium Burrowhead Stadium and still believed that Burrow would come out on top again. However, Last year’s outcome did not repeat itself, and the Chiefs pulled out the win 23-20.

With all the expectations put on the Eagles and the Chiefs, neither team let it get in the way of their end goal. Super Bowl LVII was set for the unexpected and the doubted. After both teams finished the regular season 14-3, most spectators didn’t know what to expect during the Super Bowl. Most predictions were a high offensive game with a high final score and a close finish, but the projected winner was hard for most to determine with how both teams had been performing.

The Eagles had an impressive start in the first half, leading the Chiefs 24-14 at halftime, but the Chiefs were far from throwing in the towel. The Chiefs came out firing in the second half, scoring on every single drive they had for the rest of the game. The Chiefs took the during the fourth quarter 35-27, but the Eagles fought hard offensively, and Jalen hurts drove the ball down the field, ran the ball in for a touchdown and rushed into the endzone to complete a two-point conversion to tie the game 35-35.

With only 5 minutes and 15 seconds left on the game clock, Mahomes made a spectacular drive toward the endzone while also managing the game clock very well. The Eagles used their last timeout to stop the clock with 1 minute and 54 seconds left and the Chiefs on the 15-yard line. 

With third down and eight yards to go for a first down, Mahomes snapped back into the pocket and tried to throw the ball to JuJu Smith-Schuster in the endzone. The referee called holding against the Eagles cornerback, James Bradberry, resulting in an automatic first down for the Chiefs and little to no way for the Eagles to stop the clock from rolling. 

The Chiefs kneeled the ball to let some time expire and called the team’s final timeout with 11 seconds left in the game. Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker walked out on the field and kicked the ball right between the uprights, giving the Chiefs a 38-35 lead with only eight seconds left for the Eagles to get down the field and score.

After gaining some yardage on the kick return and only six seconds left on the play clock, Jalen Hurts tried to launch a Hail Mary into the endzone but fell short, causing time to expire and the Chiefs to be crowned as Super Bowl Champions. 

This was Patrick Mahomes’s second Superbowl win and second Super Bowl MVP. Mahomes did not have an outstanding game stat-wise. Mahomes threw three touchdowns with only 182 passing yards and 44 rushing yards. 

For his first time playing in the Super Bowl, Hurts had a better overall performance than Mahomes. Hurts threw one touchdown with 304 passing yards and ran for three touchdowns with 70 rushing yards.

The game was a fantastic matchup that no one expected to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see these two teams on the same stage next year if they perform as well as they did this season. Only time will tell.