Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to attend America’s biggest game, while Taylor Swift was among the many celebrities at the Superdome, cheering on her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Kansas City tight end.
Yet he and the Chiefs were never in the game. They earned just one first down in the first half and that was on their very first play.
The Eagles opened the scoring on their second possession with Hurts scoring on the ‘tush push’ play which they have mastered and no team has found answer to.
Jake Elliott kicked a field goal on the Eagles’ next possession before their defence took charge, sacking Mahomes on successive plays and on the next, Cooper DeJean returned an interception for a 38-yard touchdown.
Mahomes had gone 298 pass attempts without throwing an interception, and he threw another just six plays later. It was right in front of his own end zone and resulted in a touchdown for AJ Brown.
The Eagles added another field goal after half-time, before Hurts launched the ball down the middle for DeVonta Smith to claim a score fitting for the Super Bowl stage.
No team has ever been shutout in a Super Bowl, but the Chiefs avoided that ignominy with Mahomes throwing touchdown passes to Xavier Worthy and DeAndre Hopkins either side of two more field goals by Elliott in the fourth quarter.
Mahomes threw a huge touchdown pass to Worthy at the death but this proved one game too far for the Chiefs, who have at least gone further than any previous back-to-back champion in pursuit of a Super Bowl three-peat.
“Credit to the Eagles they played better than us from start to finish,” said Mahomes.
“Obviously the turnovers hurt – I’ve just got to take all the blame for that. Those early turnovers swing the momentum of the game and they capitalised on them.
“It was kind of 14 points that I gave them and it’s hard to come back from that at the Super Bowl.
“I just didn’t play to my standard and I have to be better next time.”
