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Habari Entertainment Home - Sports - Revenge Tour or Reputation Era? Eagles and Chiefs Go Head-to-Head in 59th Super Bowl

Revenge Tour or Reputation Era? Eagles and Chiefs Go Head-to-Head in 59th Super Bowl

With the Pro Bowl in the rearview mirror, America sets its sights on the big game.

On Sunday, February 9th, the Philadelphia Eagles will take on the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

If this sounds oddly familiar, that’s because it is! Back in 2023, on February 12th, the Eagles and Chiefs faced off against one another on the biggest stage once again in the desert valley of Arizona. The game was an all-time classic, coming down to the wire, but the Chiefs narrowly escaped with the victory, 38-35.

Chiefs star Quarterback Patrick Mahomes went 21-27 passing with 182 yards and three touchdowns, while the opposing quarterback Jalen Hurts went 27-38 with 304 yards and a touchdown.

These quarterbacks will face each other again this year and are both coming off arguably the weakest seasons of their careers. Hurts in the 2024 regular season threw for 2,903 yards while gathering 32 total touchdowns through the air and on the ground. On the other hand, Mahomes threw for 3,928 yards, gathered 26 passing touchdowns, and rushed in two. While Mahomes’ stats certainly are still appealing, this is the only season of his career as a starter where he didn’t cross 4,000 yards passing; the same can be said for Hurts as this is his only season as a starter where he hasn’t crossed 3,000 yards passing.

While good quarterback play is crucial in a game as big as the Super Bowl, one of these teams will be looking elsewhere to help solve their Super Bowl-winning equation.

That’s because the Eagles will have the NFL’s leading rusher in their backfield Sunday to help try to foil the Chiefs’ journey to a three-peat. The rusher in question is none other than Saquon Barkley, who just a year ago played on division rival the New York Giants. Barkley, in his first season in Philadelphia, has been absolutely unstoppable, rushing for 2,005 yards and punching in 13 touchdowns.

It’s not very often that you see a running back of Barkley’s caliber who can change the game in such a big way, but opposing teams have had no answers. In the NFC Championship game, Barkley found the endzone on his first-ever rushing attempt, taking 60 yards in the blink of an eye.

The real decision-maker will lie solely with both teams’ defenses, which are primed to take out both opponents’ biggest weapons.

The Kansas City Chiefs defense thrived on stopping the run game in 2024, ranking eighth best in the league in rushing yards given up with 1731. The Eagle’s defense, on the other hand, while thriving in both categories, was much better when trying to stop the passing game, giving up only 3,266 yards through the air, which put them second-best in the league.

Like everything else in this Super Bowl, these stats complete the very similar pattern seen in 2023 as well. If. If that’s any indication of how this game will play out, then Eagle fans will be in for another heartbreaking loss come Sunday.

Only time will tell whether the Eagles’ new Swiss army knife, Saquon Barkley, will be able to carve their path to a Super Bowl revenge tour or whether Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs will cement their reputation era and become the first NFL team ever to three-peat.