Patrick Mahomes has proved why he is the NFL's Most Valuable Player, shrugging off an ankle injury to lead Kansas City Chiefs to a dramatic 38-35 win over Philadelphia Eagles to claim their second Super Bowl in four years.
Kansas City's hopes of returning home with the Lombardi Trophy looked bleak late in the opening half, when Mahomes appeared to re-injure the right ankle that had been a major worry coming into the game.
Grimacing in pain after a tackle, Mahomes hobbled off the field and slammed his helmet to the turf, as the Chiefs headed into halftime trailing 24-14.
But when the teams returned after the break, a resilient Mahomes produced a heroic effort, tossing two fourth-quarter touchdowns and engineering a final drive to set up Harrison Butker's 27-yard gamewinning field goal with eight seconds to play.
Kadarius Toney caught a touchdown pass and set up another score with a long punt return, as Kansas City became just the second team in Super Bowl history to rally from a deficit of 10 or more points.
Travis Kelce and Skyy Moore caught touchdown passes, Isiah Pacheco ran for a score and Nick Bolton returned a fumble for a touchdown for the Chiefs.
The Super Bowl title is the third for Kansas City, who also won Super Bowl IV (1969) and Super Bowl LIV (2019).
Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts tied a Super Bowl record with three rushing scores and also passed for one touchdown. Hurts was 27-of-38 passing for 304 yards and rushed for 70, while teaming up with Mahomes as the first pair of Black starting quarterbacks in Super Bowl history.
Kansas City moved 66 yards on 12 plays for the winning field goal, receiving help from a third-down defensive holding penalty on Philadelphia's James Bradberry. Another key play was a 26-yard scramble by Mahomes on his injured right ankle.
AJ Brown caught six passes for 96 yards and one touchdown, and DeVonta Smith had seven receptions for 100 yards for the Eagles.
Teams that trailed by 10 or more points at halftime in the Super Bowl are now 2-26. New England Patriots were the first team to accomplish it, when they recovered from a 25-point hole to beat Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Kansas City took their first lead of the contest at 28-27, when Mahomes completed a five-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Toney with 12:04 left in the game. That also marked the first time Philadelphia had trailed the entire postseason.
The Chiefs then forced a three-and-out and cashed in big, when Toney set a Super Bowl record with a 65-yard punt return. He fielded the ball at his 30-yard line and started left, before reversing to the right with a wall of teammates blocking.
He was stopped at the Eagles' five. Three plays later, Mahomes had another wide-open target in Moore, who caught the four-yard scoring pass to give Kansas City an eight-point lead with 9:22 remaining.
Philadelphia quickly responded, as Hurts connected with Smith on a 45-yard pass to the Chiefs two. Hurts scored on a quarterback sneak on the next play and then ran in the two-point conversion to tie it at 35 with 5:15 remaining.
Mahomes re-injured his right ankle when tackled with 1:33 left in the first half, but he didn't seem bothered by it, when the Chiefs opened the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard drive. Pacheco capped the drive with a one-yard run with 9:30 left in the third quarter to pull Kansas City within 24-21.
Philadelphia responded with a 17-play, 60-yard drive that took 7:45. Jake Elliott finished it by booting a 33-yard field goal to give the Eagles a six-point lead with 1:45 left in the period.
Hurts rushed for two touchdowns and threw for one in the first half to give Philadelphia a 24-14 advantage.
Reuters
