2025 Super Bowl: What in the world happened to Patrick Mahomes? Examining Chiefs QB’s putrid play vs. Eagles

It’s what we’re all wondering — what in the world happened to Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX against the Eagles defense? In the Mahomes era, the Chiefs had never looked so discombobulated and ineffective. 

Through three quarters of this Super Bowl, Mahomes was 12 of 22 for 148 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions and five sacks. Entering the fourth quarter, he had just six passing first downs. The Chiefs had 23 yards of offense in the first half. Yikes. 

Kansas City’s first failed third-down conversion was a sign of the Eagles being supremely prepared for what Andy Reid and Mahomes would throw at them, and having the talent to execute. This is a vintage Chiefs man-beater that simply did not work on this play, forcing Mahomes out of the pocket and into a risky decision.

Watch that again. Notice how Isaiah Rodgers went over the top of the first potential pick by Travis Kelce and under the second, giving him the fastest and shortest route to his coverage responsibility, Marquise Brown. Gorgeous. 

On the seismic pick-six by Cooper DeJean that really busted this Super Bowl wide open, the Eagles matched Kansas City’s 3×1 look with Cover 4, which allowed Quinyon Mitchell — on the bottom of the screen — to follow DeAndre Hopkins across the field, given the veteran receiver was the only pass catcher on the left side of the Chiefs’ formation at the snap. 

Vitally, the super-flexible DeJean was deployed in a freelance, robber-type role in the middle of the field. After widening toward the boundary, he followed Mahomes’ eyes back toward the numbers for an easy interception, and then his athleticism did the rest on the way to the end zone. 

To many teams, that 3×1 look — that can easily become four receivers flooding one side of the field — is daunting. The Eagles took away any vertical element with the three deep defenders, Mitchell trailed, and ultimately closed, on Hopkins on the deep over that Mahomes attempted to hit, and DeJean’s inherent playmaking skills were accentuated at the second level of the defense on that enormous play. 

Diving into the film this morning, I was expecting to see a cavalcade of complex rushes and coverages from Vic Fangio that perplexed Mahomes and Reid all game long. 

That’s not what I discovered. 

Mahomes had one of his worst games individually, especially early. He moved off first reads before route breaks occurred and had a ball-placement problem throughout Super Bowl LIX.

By no means am I insinuating if Mahomes hits some of those throws or makes more assertive decisions, the Chiefs offense starts to click and it’s a completely different Super Bowl. Those misses certainly didn’t help and allowed the avalanche of ineptitude for the Kansas City offense to mount. 

And the Eagles players deserve immense credit for the way they played and how congealed they were as a complete unit. And sometimes, Philadelphia’s front four genuinely dominated. Like on the strip sack by Milton Williams in the fourth quarter. 

How about this? The Eagles did not blitz Mahomes one time in Super Bowl LIX. Not on even one drop back in this trouncing. Mahomes never got comfortable, and some early misses exacerbated his anxiousness on the biggest stage.  

In garbage time, of course, the Chiefs took some chances downfield. But despite the acquisition of Worthy in the draft, the Chiefs were distinctly a quick-game-centric pass offense all season. Entering this clash with the Eagles, Mahomes’ aDOT of 6.9 yards was tied for the lowest of his professional career — last year was also 6.9 yards — and his 3.3% Big-Time Throw Rate was the lowest he’s managed in any given season to date. 

Despite all his improvisational magic, Mahomes’ 2.78 second time-to-throw average during the 2024 season was also the fastest of his NFL career. 

The Eagles went in understanding that’s how the Chiefs would attempt to move the football up and down the field. Magnificent play from Philadelphia’s run defense kept Kansas City in long down-and-distance situations, thereby putting the incredibly deep pass-rushing unit in an advantageous situation while simultaneously hindering the impact the Chiefs’ short, underneath-based passing could have on the game.

Through the third quarter of Super Bowl LIX, the Chiefs had 20 second and third downs. They needed eight or more yards to move the chains on 14 of them (70%). Starting in Week 1 through the conference championship game, the Chiefs faced such down-and-distance scenarios on just (40.7%) of their second and third downs. Significant difference. The Eagles defense owned first down.

And it was a catalyst in Mahomes having one of his worst NFL performances en route to the Eagles providing arguably the most dominating defensive effort in Super Bowl history.