Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LIX

Jalen Hurts (Thomson200, Wikimedia Commons)

The 2024 National Football League season officially concluded on Sunday night with the Philadelphia Eagles winning Super Bowl LIX from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. In what turned out to be a rather lopsided contest, the Eagles came through and won decisively 40-22 as a 1.5 point underdog. Yes, the Eagles won by 18 points over the Kansas City Chiefs. However at one time, the Eagles had leads of 34-0 and then 40-6 with eight minutes and one second left in the fourth quarter. It is fair to say that the two Chiefs touchdowns came in garbage time.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was Super Bowl MVP. The native of Houston, Texas, who became the highest paid player in NFL history in April of 2023, showed up big time when the game mattered most. He completed 17 of 22 passes for 221 passing yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. along with 72 rushing yards and another major score. What was stunning is the fact that Hurts actually had 15 more rushing yards than Saquon Barkley, who had an outstanding season this year running the ball.

We also saw greatness from the Eagles defense as Philadelphia won the turnover battle. Two of the Chiefs turnovers were interceptions as linebacker Zack Baun of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and defensive back Cooper DeJean of Sioux Falls, South Dakota both picked off Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. However DeJean’s interception was noteworthy. His 38-yard pick six midway through the second quarter came on his 22nd birthday. DeJean became the first player ever to score a Super Bowl touchdown on his birthday. Ironically, it was also Barkley’s birthday on Sunday too and he did not find the end zone. For the record, the odds of Barkley getting a Super Bowl touchdown was -200, and the odds of DeJean getting a touchdown was +25000.

This was the Eagles’s second Super Bowl win. They previously beat the New England Patriots 41-33 in Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018 in Minnesota.