Super Bowl LIX
The Philadelphia Eagles routed the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025, as Jalen Hurts won MVP and denied Kansas City a three-peat.
Super Bowl LIX was won by the Philadelphia Eagles, who beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on February 9, 2025. It was Philadelphia’s second NFL championship of the Super Bowl era, it ended Kansas City’s bid to become the first franchise to win three straight titles, and it was a defensive beatdown rather than the shootout the matchup promised. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was named Most Valuable Player.
| Fast facts | |
|---|---|
| Champion | Philadelphia Eagles (NFC) |
| Runner-up | Kansas City Chiefs (AFC) |
| Date | February 9, 2025 |
| Venue | Caesars Superdome, New Orleans |
| Result | Eagles 40, Chiefs 22 |
| MVP | Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia) |
| Attendance | 65,719 |
The setup
The game was a rematch of Super Bowl LVII two seasons earlier, which Kansas City had won 38-35. The Chiefs arrived as the AFC’s No. 1 seed at 15-2, chasing a third consecutive Lombardi Trophy behind quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid. The Eagles came in as the NFC’s No. 2 seed at 14-3 under head coach Nick Sirianni.
The piece that reshaped Philadelphia’s roster was the March 2024 signing of running back Saquon Barkley away from the division-rival New York Giants. Barkley rushed for 2,005 yards in the 2024 regular season, the engine of an offense that let Hurts operate within a run-first identity. Just as consequential was the hiring of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, whose unit would define the title game. On the other side, Mahomes and Reid were attempting to extend a dynasty that had already produced three championships in five seasons.
Philadelphia’s path to New Orleans ran through the NFC bracket: a 22-10 Wild Card win over the Green Bay Packers, a 28-22 Divisional win over the Los Angeles Rams, and a 55-23 rout of the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game. Kansas City survived a tighter road, beating the Houston Texans 23-14 and the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in the AFC Championship Game.
How it happened
The result was effectively settled before halftime. Hurts opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and Jake Elliott added a 48-yard field goal early in the second. The game then broke open on defense: rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean intercepted Mahomes and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown, becoming the first player to score a Super Bowl touchdown on his birthday. A Zack Baun interception set up the next possession, and Hurts found A.J. Brown for a 12-yard touchdown. Philadelphia led 24-0 at the break while holding Kansas City to just 23 total yards and one first down across the first two quarters — among the most lopsided halves in Super Bowl history.
The third quarter buried any comeback hope. Elliott hit a 29-yard field goal, and Hurts threw a 46-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith to make it 34-0. Kansas City finally reached the end zone late in the quarter on a 24-yard Mahomes pass to Xavier Worthy, but the two-point try failed. Elliott added field goals of 48 and 50 yards to push the lead to 40-6 before the Chiefs scored two garbage-time touchdowns against Philadelphia’s reserves — a 7-yard pass to DeAndre Hopkins and a 50-yard strike to Worthy, each followed by a successful two-point conversion.
The story of the night was Fangio’s front four. Philadelphia sacked Mahomes six times and generated pressure without blitzing once, letting seven defenders drop into coverage. Mahomes threw two first-half interceptions and finished with the bulk of his yardage after the outcome was decided. Hurts, meanwhile, controlled the game on the ground and through the air, completing 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, adding 72 rushing yards and a 119.7 passer rating. His 72 rushing yards set a Super Bowl record for a quarterback. Barkley, bottled up by a Chiefs front keyed on him, managed 57 yards on 25 carries — proof the title was built on Philadelphia’s defense and passing game, not its marquee back. Worthy led all receivers with 8 catches for 157 yards and two scores, but nearly all of it came in the fourth quarter.
By the numbers
| Game | Date | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wild Card vs. Green Bay Packers | Jan. 12, 2025 | Eagles 22, Packers 10 | Opened the NFC run at home |
| Divisional vs. Los Angeles Rams | Jan. 19, 2025 | Eagles 28, Rams 22 | Survived a one-score game |
| NFC Championship vs. Washington Commanders | Jan. 26, 2025 | Eagles 55, Commanders 23 | Highest-scoring game of the run |
| Super Bowl LIX vs. Kansas City Chiefs | Feb. 9, 2025 | Eagles 40, Chiefs 22 | Hurts named MVP |
Per Wikipedia's Super Bowl LIX record and the Pro-Football-Reference box score, through February 9, 2025.
The record
Honors
- Super Bowl LIX champions — Philadelphia Eagles
- Super Bowl MVP — Jalen Hurts
- Second Super Bowl title in franchise history (also Super Bowl LII)
- First Super Bowl for head coach Nick Sirianni
- Chiefs' three-peat bid denied
Per the NFL's game recap and Wikipedia, as of February 9, 2025.
The arguments
The debate that followed Super Bowl LIX centered less on whether Philadelphia deserved the win than on what it revealed about Kansas City. One camp framed the game as proof that the Chiefs’ dynasty had been exposed: Mahomes was sacked six times and threw two interceptions, and the offense that had won three titles looked helpless against a four-man rush, which supporters of this view argued showed the margins had finally caught up to an aging roster. A competing camp attributed the blowout chiefly to Philadelphia’s roster construction — a dominant defensive line and Fangio’s scheme — and cautioned against reading a dynasty’s decline into a single poor night.
A second argument concerned Barkley. His 57 rushing yards were a season low, which one side cited as evidence that the Eagles’ title was carried by defense and by Hurts rather than by the back who had powered them all year; the other side noted that Kansas City’s defensive focus on Barkley is precisely what opened the play-action throws to Brown and Smith. There was also the perennial MVP debate: some argued the award could have gone to DeJean or the defensive line as a unit, while others pointed to Hurts leading all rushers and posting a 119.7 rating as a clean case for the quarterback.
Why it matters
Super Bowl LIX closed the door on a would-be three-peat and reframed a rivalry that had defined the era, delivering Philadelphia its second championship while handing Kansas City its most decisive Super Bowl defeat of the Mahomes years. Watched by a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers — the most-watched broadcast in American television history at the time — it stood as the definitive argument that a dominant front seven can still dismantle the league’s most celebrated offense, and as the night Jalen Hurts answered a season of scrutiny with the game of his life.
