Philadelphia Crushes Kansas City to Win Super Bowl LIV
Stage Set Early when Chiefs Couldn’t Move the Ball!
You can’t win with “position-position-position” if you can’t gain yards and score points! No way to grab an early lead. No way to game-manage your scoreboard position. No way to rally from behind if you dig a small early hole.
Kansas City had managed to avoid that dynamic when facing good defenses in the 2024 regular season, and in recent playoffs. But, Sunday…in Super Bowl LIV…the Philadelphia defense was both elite (second best in the NFL regular season at denying touchdowns on a per drive basis at 18%, then an even better 15% in the NFC playoffs) and well-prepared for what Patrick Mahomes and company brought to the table.
In the first half, the Chiefs could only punt and throw interceptions. KC trailed 24-0 at the break, with a miniscule 23 total yards on 20 plays from scrimmage. Philadelphia moved the ball well AND cashed in 14 cheap points (a pick six and a 14-yard TD drive off another INT)…leading total yardage 179-23 and YPP 4.6 to 1.2.
In the second half…Philadelphia would build it’s lead to 37-0 before an extended garbage time created scoreboard and statistical illusions. That final score of 40-22 doesn’t tell the game story at all. It only tells you what KC could do after the Eagles defense relaxed. This was a pro wrestling squash match most of the evening.
Let’s crunch the final numbers…
(If you’re new to the site, “drive points” are those scored on drives of 60 yards or more, “clutch TD driving distance” is the combined yardage of drives scored on TDs ONLY when it was a one-score game, and “sloppiness” is a rudimentary snapshot of execution that’s 5 times the number of TOs…then add in incomplete passes. In sloppiness, lower is better because you want to avoid sloppiness.)
*Philadelphia (+1) beat Kansas City 40-22, winning yardage 345-275, rushing 135-49, clutch TD driving distance 69-0 (this was only a one-score game for one TD drive), TOs 3-1, and sloppiness 26-11. The Chiefs ended up “winning” many stats because they put up some numbers after the result had long been determined. Kansas City won yards-per-play 5.6 to 4.9 (but Philly ran 70 plays to 49), third downs 27-25%, drive points 14-10, and red zone TD pct 100% (1/1) to 67% (2/3).
Here, the “Drives in Innings” comes in handy. You can see how Philadelphia put up its points to build a lead, with Kansas City only scoring in later, meaningless drives.
Drives in Innings
KC: x-x-x-I-x-I-x----x-D-6-F-8-8 (3/13….23%)
PHI: x-7-I-3-L-x-7----3-7-3-3-D (3/11…27%)
“I” for Interception, “L” for a Lost drive when the offense didn’t get the ball after defensive score or muffed punt. I put that in as a placeholder, but don’t count it as a “failed” drive for the offense. Eagles get an “L” because the Chiefs had the ball twice in a row due to the pick six. “D” stands for a loss on Downs. All the little x’s are punts.
Eagles controlled the point of attack. But, their scoring total was inflated a bit thanks to that pick six, and TD drives of 14 and 46 yards. Basically a grinder that went Over because of some easy points and garbage time. Chiefs could only move the ball when Philly relaxed with a big lead.