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 additional 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 additional time heroics.
Jake Moody’s 27-yard discipline aim on the primary possession of additional 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 crew 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 once they marched 75 yards in 11 performs and Harrison Butker kicked a 29-yard discipline aim. 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 achieve that set the Chiefs up for the simple kick.
It’s the fourth Tremendous Bowl win for the Chiefs franchise and the third for the crew 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 an enormous quantity when it comes to 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 distinct dialog, one that features a few of the biggest 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 exceptional 15-3 within the playoffs in his six-year profession — into elite firm: he’s now certainly one of 5 quarterbacks in league historical past to win at the very 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 have 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 focus on on our again all yr. Now we obtained an opportunity to do it thrice 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 incorrect 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 additional 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, finally 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 — grew to become 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 by means of its worst common season since Mahomes grew to become the starter in 2018. Affected by an uncharacteristically inconsistent offense, together with a league-worst 44 drops by its receivers, the Chiefs have been simply 9-6 after a loss to the Raiders at residence on Christmas Day. It regarded dire sufficient that Kansas Metropolis basic supervisor Brett Veach was left questioning if his crew would even make the postseason.
“You see it yearly,” Veach stated this week, “a crew 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 essentially the most inconceivable title of the Chiefs’ present run, not merely attributable to their common season struggles however due to the extraordinary highlight that’s trailed the crew for a lot of the yr. Kelce’s relationship with pop famous person Taylor Swift grew to become 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 — grew to become one of many largest tales in sports activities.
Requested what he’s discovered in regards to 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 so much totally 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 line of defense continually had Mahomes scrambling from the pocket, sacking him twice and recurrently forcing hurried throws. In flip, the Chiefs’ offense by no means obtained in sync, managing only a late discipline aim 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 for one yard, his solely goal over the primary half-hour of the sport.
After kicker Moody drilled what was then the longest discipline aim 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 artistic 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 trade.
Their possibilities 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 important 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.
Out of the blue, after being outplayed all sport lengthy, the Chiefs have been in entrance. Historical past was repeating itself.
Jennings caught the 49ers’ second landing of the evening with 11:22 early within the fourth quarter, however after a blocked additional level, the Chiefs have been in a position to tie the sport on an ensuing discipline aim that capped a 12-play, 69-yard drive, earlier than successful it in additional time.
Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt stated throughout the Lombardi Trophy presentation, “One of the vital thrilling Tremendous Bowls I’ve ever seen.”
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(Picture: Harry How / Getty Photographs)