LAS VEGAS — The NFL has a repeat champion for the primary time in 19 years. The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, with a 3rd Tremendous Bowl triumph in 5 seasons, cemented their standing because the league’s modern-day dynasty with a 25-22 extra time win towards the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
This one, the identical because the final two for Kansas Metropolis and its famous person quarterback Patrick Mahomes, got here with a stirring second-half comeback — and, this time, with some extra time heroics.
Jake Moody’s 27-yard area purpose on the primary possession of extra time put the 49ers forward 22-19, however the Chiefs responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive and received it on a 3-yard landing move from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.
It was however the newest must-have drive for Kansas Metropolis, a staff that has constructed a repute behind Mahomes as most harmful when holding the ball final. The Chiefs trailed 19-16 with lower than two minutes left within the fourth quarter after they marched 75 yards in 11 performs and Harrison Butker kicked a 29-yard area purpose. The important thing play on the drive got here on a third-and-7 with 16 seconds left, when Mahomes hit Travis Kelce on a crosser for a 22-yard acquire that set the Chiefs up for the straightforward kick.
It’s the fourth Tremendous Bowl win for the Chiefs franchise and the third for the staff below coach Andy Reid, who joins Invoice Walsh and Joe Gibbs in a tie for third-most all-time. Solely Invoice Belichick (six) and Chuck Noll (4) have extra.
“The quantity three is a giant quantity by way of dynasties,” Kelce stated this week, including that he needed to win this Tremendous Bowl greater than any of the earlier three he’d performed in. Successful three titles in a five-year window places the Chiefs in a unique dialog, one that features a few of the best runs in league historical past.
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Mahomes earned his third Tremendous Bowl MVP going 34-of-46 passing for 333 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, leading to a 99.3 passer ranking. He joins Tom Brady (5) and Joe Montana (three) as the one gamers to win three Tremendous Bowl MVP awards.
The championship additionally elevates Mahomes — a outstanding 15-3 within the playoffs in his six-year profession — into elite firm: he’s now one in all 5 quarterbacks in league historical past to win at the least three Tremendous Bowls, becoming a member of Brady (seven), Montana (4), Terry Bradshaw (4) and Troy Aikman (three). Brady, Aikman and Mahomes, 28, are the one ones to win three earlier than their thirtieth birthdays. Throughout the final two postseasons, Mahomes has gone 7-0, throwing 13 touchdowns and only one interception.
When CBS announcer Jim Nantz talked about on the postgame podium how the Chiefs had been underdogs within the final three video games of this postseason, Mahomes stated, “Simply know that the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs are by no means underdogs. Simply know that.”
Kelce added: “We couldn’t have gotten right here with out having that concentrate on on our again all yr. Now we obtained an opportunity to do it 3 times in a row.”
It’s a devastating defeat for the 49ers, significantly coach Kyle Shanahan, who provides one other chapter of Tremendous Bowl heartache to what’s in any other case been a stellar profession. As Atlanta’s offensive coordinator in 2017, Shanahan was on the mistaken aspect of the most important blown lead in Tremendous Bowl historical past, when the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 third-quarter deficit to stun the Falcons in the one different championship sport to go to extra time. Sunday’s loss is Shanahan’s second as a head coach within the Tremendous Bowl; 4 years in the past, the 49ers blew a 10-point fourth-quarter result in the Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LIV, ultimately dropping 31-20.
San Francisco’s championship drought is now at 29 seasons. After successful 5 Lombardi Trophies inside a 13-year window from 1982 to 1995, the 49ers have misplaced in all three of their journeys to the Tremendous Bowl since (after the 2012, 2019 and 2023 seasons).
Earlier than this yr’s Chiefs, the final Tremendous Bowl champion to efficiently defend its title was the 2004 Patriots. What had develop into routine within the first few a long time of the Tremendous Bowl period — there have been eight repeat winners throughout the primary 39 editions of the sport — turned nonexistent, a byproduct of elevated parity throughout the league and a sign of simply how taxing Tremendous Bowl runs can.
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The title caps a surprising late-season surge from Kansas Metropolis, which slogged via its worst common season since Mahomes turned the starter in 2018. Suffering from an uncharacteristically inconsistent offense, together with a league-worst 44 drops by its receivers, the Chiefs had been simply 9-6 after a loss to the Raiders at house on Christmas Day. It appeared dire sufficient that Kansas Metropolis normal supervisor Brett Veach was left questioning if his staff would even make the postseason.
“You see it yearly,” Veach stated this week, “a staff will get off to a scorching begin and doesn’t make the playoffs.”
However the Chiefs wouldn’t lose once more all yr, ending the common season with a pair of victories earlier than ripping off 4 straight wins within the playoffs. What began in frigid temperatures in Kansas Metropolis, a wild-card win over the Dolphins within the fourth-coldest sport in NFL historical past, continued with two gutsy street wins in Buffalo and Baltimore — the primary true street wins of Mahomes’ playoff profession — and culminated with Sunday’s comeback in Las Vegas.
It’s probably the most inconceivable title of the Chiefs’ present run, not merely as a consequence of their common season struggles however due to the extraordinary highlight that’s trailed the staff for many of the yr. Kelce’s relationship with pop famous person Taylor Swift turned its personal phenomenon, and her appearances at video games throughout the common season and playoffs — she made it to all 4 throughout Kansas Metropolis’s postseason run, together with Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl after a Saturday present in Tokyo — turned one of many largest tales in sports activities.
Requested what he’s realized concerning the crush of superstar over the previous few months, Kelce smiled and provided this within the week main as much as the sport: “That being well-known worldwide is loads completely different than being well-known in Kansas Metropolis.”
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On Sunday, the 49ers managed the primary half by proudly owning the trenches, significantly when the Chiefs had the ball. San Francisco’s punishing defensive position continually had Mahomes scrambling from the pocket, sacking him twice and commonly forcing hurried throws. In flip, the Chiefs’ offense by no means obtained in sync, managing only a late area purpose to chop into San Francisco’s 10-0 lead.
The Chiefs completed with simply 16 first-quarter yards — in contrast with 125 for San Francisco — and couldn’t get Kelce concerned. Kelce caught an early bubble display screen for one yard, his solely goal over the primary half-hour of the sport.
After kicker Moody drilled what was then the longest area purpose in Tremendous Bowl historical past — a 55-yarder within the first quarter — the 49ers scored the sport’s first landing with 4:23 left within the second quarter when wideout Jauan Jennings, off a pitch from Purdy, hit McCaffrey for a 21-yard catch-and-run rating. It was a gutsy and inventive play name from Shanahan and the primary landing move of Jennings’ three-year profession.
San Francisco led 10-3 on the break and had Kansas Metropolis annoyed. CBS cameras caught Kelce bumping into Reid on the sideline throughout a tense alternate.
Their probabilities didn’t look any extra promising after the opening drive of the third quarter when Mahomes threw his first interception of the final two postseasons.
However the sport swung after a vital 49ers’ mistake within the third quarter when returner Darrell Luter Jr. fumbled a punt on San Francisco’s 35-yard line. The Chiefs’ Jaylen Watson recovered, and it took Mahomes all of 1 play to capitalize: he hit receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 16-yard landing a second later.
All of a sudden, after being outplayed all sport lengthy, the Chiefs had been in entrance. Historical past was repeating itself.
Jennings caught the 49ers’ second landing of the night time with 11:22 early within the fourth quarter, however after a blocked additional level, the Chiefs had been in a position to tie the sport on an ensuing area purpose that capped a 12-play, 69-yard drive, earlier than successful it in extra time.
Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt stated throughout the Lombardi Trophy presentation, “One of the crucial thrilling Tremendous Bowls I’ve ever seen.”
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(Picture: Harry How / Getty Photographs)
