The NFL season has been full of ups and downs, from the Lions going 15-2 to Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix’s electric rookie seasons, to the Chiefs having one of the most controversial seasons in recent NFL history. Now that the playoffs have given us our two conference champions, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, they are going to New Orleans on February 9th to decide who hoists the Lombardi Trophy.
The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to make history by being the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row. Teams like the Patriots have been able to pull off two in a row but the elusive “3-peat” seemed impossible. However, something was different about the Kansas City Chiefs this season; many of their wins came down to last-second mistakes by their opponents.
The Baltimore Ravens threw a touchdown to either tie or win the game depending on whether or not they would go for an extra point or the 2-point conversion. But upon further review, the referees said that Isiah Likley’s toe just fell out of bounds, wiping the touchdown off the board and eventually leading to the Chief’s victory. The end of this game was controversial as is, but it would be far from the last controversial end to a Chiefs game this season. Week 2 saw the Bengals break up a key fourth down that would’ve allowed the Bengals to knee the clock out, but a late flag was thrown for defensive pass interference which put Kansas City in field goal range and allowed them to run the clock down before kicking a game-winning field goal. Week 9 saw the Broncos nearly beat the now 8-0 Kansas City Chiefs with a game-winning 35-yard field goal, but the Chiefs would block the kick, once again escaping with a victory.
Throughout all of this and the rest of the season, the Chiefs offense looked terrible with Patrick Mahomes throwing 9 interceptions through 7 weeks which was unlike him as the best quarterback in the league. Wide Receiver was also a very problematic position for the Chiefs as Hollywood Brown suffered a shoulder injury during the preseason and would not come back until the very end of the regular season. The Chiefs star, and controversial, wide receiver Rashee Rice was carted off in week three after Mahomes accidentally fell into the receiver’s leg. The Chiefs offense would not score 30 points until the AFC championship game on the 26th of January. Their offense would rank in the exact middle of the league with only 324.5 yards per game.
The Philadelphia Eagles, their opponent in the Superbowl, would have a much different season. In the off-season, they signed New York Giants star RB Saquon Barkley. Saquon was incredible in New York despite the team’s complete failure to build around him. However, the Giants would not come to terms with a new deal for Barkley after they paid QB Daniel Jones 160 million dollars.
The Eagles had a rough end to the 2023-24 season after starting 10-1; they would proceed to lose five of their last 6 games before losing in the wildcard round to the Tampa Bay Bucs. The future of the Eagles was up in the air with head coach Nick Sirianni fully on the hot seat to start this season. The beginning of the season was rough for the Eagles despite their record being very good. But something switched after the November 10th game against the Dallas Cowboys- Saquon Barkley began decimating opposing defenses. Every game it felt like Saquon would have a massive touchdown run and would begin sealing games for the Eagles as they would go on a ten-game winning streak. Saquon Barkley would break multiple records in his season, both for the team and in general NFL history. He would finish the season with over 2,000 rushing yards and he would’ve broken the record easily had he not rested in week 18. He would also break franchise records for most rushing yards in a season and single-game rushing records.
Now both of these teams will meet in New Orleans in a Super Bowl matchup that no one is looking forward to. You have to understand that sports fans hate a few things generally: division rivals, Eagles fans, and Patrick Mahomes. This was supposed to be the year that finally the Chiefs would struggle and fall to one of the other AFC juggernauts. Buffalo, Baltimore, and Cincinnati were all favorites to finally take the AFC from Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Unfortunately, the Bengals started too slow to start the season dooming them to missing the playoffs entirely. Baltimore also had a slow start but recovered much quicker. The way the playoff seeding fell helped Kansas City by only making them face one of either Buffalo or Baltimore. The Chiefs would steamroll over the Houston Texans in the divisional before finally playing the Buffalo Bills for the AFC championship game. Like every matchup between Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, it was a back-and-forth shootout. In the third quarter, there was a pivotal 4th and inches for the Buffalo Bills as they were up 22-2., If they got it and scored it would greatly increase the chance of winning and if they failed to convert, it would almost guarantee a loss. Josh Allen would snap the ball and go for a QB sneak where the QB keeps the ball and dives into the pile with the offensive line trying to push him to try and gain a yard or 2. This call would be a game changer no matter who got it; the world held with bated breath as the referees reviewed the play before eventually calling… that Allen was short of the line for a first down and the ball would be going back to the Chiefs.
This is an extremely controversial call. If you asked my brother he would be adamant that Josh Allen did get the first down. If you asked me, however, there was not enough evidence to definitively prove whether or not Allen did get the first down. The main problem that fans have with these calls is that every single time there is a game-changing moment that comes down to the referee’s decision, it will always go the Chiefs way. No matter how much evidence there is to go against the Chiefs, the referees will still call it their way.
Instead of getting an underdog Super Bowl matchup with teams that either haven’t won a championship or haven’t won in years like the Bills or Commanders, it’s the status quo Super Bowl matchup we just saw two years ago. It will be a great matchup between two amazing teams but no matter who wins, the rest of America will lose.
