The Kansas City Chiefs are world champions once again following their thrilling victory in Super Bowl LVIII.
Here are some quick notes from the win.
1. The Chiefs are in the midst of one of the greatest runs of sustained success in NFL history.
Kansas City secured its third Super Bowl victory in five seasons on Sunday, marking just the fifth time in the Super Bowl Era that a team has won three titles in five years. Kansas City joined the 1974-78 Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1992-95 Dallas Cowboys, the 2001-04 New England Patriots and the 2014-18 Patriots as the only teams to achieve that feat. Additionally, the Chiefs are just the ninth team in league history to repeat as Super Bowl champions, and the first since New England did so 19 years ago.
To make matters all the more impressive, Kansas City overcame a 10-point deficit in all three of its Super Bowl victories. For context, there have only been seven double-digit comebacks in Super Bowl history, and the Chiefs are responsible for three of them. The only other comebacks of 10 points or greater in the history of the Super Bowl were recorded by Washington in 1987 (10 points), New Orleans in 2009 (10 points), New England in 2014 (10 points) and New England in 2016 (25 points).
Lastly, the Chiefs' 77 total victories (including the playoffs) during this five-year run lead the NFL by 14 wins. The Buffalo Bills, with 63 victories in that span, are the next closest-team. Also, according to the Rich Eisen Show, the Chiefs' 14 postseason victories since 2019 are the most for any team during a five-year stretch in league history.
2. This particular postseason run was historically significant due to its difficulty.
The Chiefs are one of only 13 teams to play four postseason games and win the Super Bowl, joining the 1980 Raiders, the 1981 Redskins, the 1997 Broncos, the 2000 Ravens, the 2005 Steelers, the 2006 Colts, the 2007 Giants, the 2010 Packers, the 2011 Giants, the 2012 Ravens, the 2020 Buccaneers and the 2021 Rams.
Among that group, the Chiefs are just the sixth team to defeat both the No. 1 and No. 2 seed in their own conference before going on to beat the No. 1 seed in the opposing conference, joining the 2000 Ravens, the 2005 Steelers, the 2007 Giants, the 2011 Giants and the 2020 Buccaneers.
3. Andy Reid is now the fifth head coach in league history to win 3+ Super Bowls.
Reid further cemented his legacy on Sunday, joining Bill Belichick (6), Chuck Noll (4), Bill Walsh (3) and Joe Gibbs (3) as the only head coaches in NFL history to win at least three Super Bowls.
He is also just the seventh head coach in league history to win back-to-back titles.
4. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was legendary when it mattered most.
Mahomes added to his legend on Sunday, leading the Chiefs back from yet another double-digit deficit to secure his third world championship. He recorded 391 yards of total offense in the game – tallying 325 net passing yards and 66 rushing yards – while amassing 68 percent of that production in the second half and overtime.
In fact, Mahomes led Kansas City to points on each of the Chiefs' final four possessions of the game. Specifically, he led an 11-play, 64-yard series that set up Harrison Butker's game-tying, 29-yard field goal at the end of regulation before engineering a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to win the game in overtime. On that final possession, Mahomes accounted for 69 of the Chiefs' 75 total yards, completing all eight of his passes for 42 yards while rushing for 27 yards on two carries. He converted two third downs and one fourth down on the series, ultimately finding wide receiver Mecole Hardman for the game-winning score.
The 28-year-old Mahomes won his third-career Super Bowl MVP award for his efforts, tying Joe Montana for the second-most in NFL history. Only Tom Brady (5) owns more. Additionally, Mahomes is now in sole possession of the third-most postseason victories (15) for any quarterback in league history, trailing Brady (35) and Montana (16).
5. The Chiefs' defense ended the year with another outstanding performance.
Kansas City was tremendous defensively throughout the regular season – yielding the second-fewest offensive points of any team – but the Chiefs found a way to be even better when it mattered most. Kansas City faced four of the league's top offenses during its postseason run, playing the No. 2 scoring offense (Miami), the No. 3 scoring offense (San Francisco), the No. 4 scoring offense (Baltimore) and the No. 6 scoring offense (Buffalo) in consecutive order. The Chiefs defeated each of them, holding the collective group to an average of 15.8 points-per-game.
The Chiefs were particularly effective in crunch time, too, yielding a grand total of 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime during the postseason.
Overall, Kansas City held opponents under 25 total points in 20 of 21 games this season, marking the most such games for any team in NFL history. As for their postseason run specifically, the Chiefs allowed the seventh-fewest points for any team to play four playoff games in NFL history.
Simply put, this Chiefs' defense will go down as one of the all-time greats.
6. Cornerback Trent McDuffie was nothing short of tremendous all night long.
McDuffie was one of the stars of the night with numerous critical plays. He was targeted seven times in the game – tied for the most of any player – but allowed just two catches for nine yards while tallying three pass-breakups. Six of those targets occurred when McDuffie was covering All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who caught just one pass for nine yards in McDuffie's coverage.
He also recorded two pressures in the game, including one late in the contest that potentially saved the game for Kansas City. Tied late in regulation, the 49ers were facing a 3rd-and-5 in field-goal range just following the two-minute warning, and while Kansas City still had two timeouts left, a conversion would allow San Francisco to bleed precious time away prior to a go-ahead field goal attempt. In the event of a conversion, the Chiefs would get the ball back with – at best – around 30 seconds left in the game.
Instead, McDuffie came flying off the edge on a blitz and blew up quarterback Brock Purdy's throw, forcing a 49ers' field goal and preserving time on the clock. The rest, of course, is history.
McDuffie was part of a Chiefs' secondary that held the trio of Samuel, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle – who combined for 3,254 receiving yards during the regular season – to just 86 combined receiving yards on Sunday.
7. Tight end Travis Kelce made play after play in the second half.
Kelce – like Mahomes – added another chapter to his legendary career on Sunday, catching nine passes for 93 yards. Eight of those receptions and all but one yard occurred during the second half and overtime, as Kelce played an integral role in the Chiefs' comeback.
Five of those receptions picked up a first down, the largest of which occurred on 3rd-and-7 late in regulation. Trailing by three points with just 16 seconds left in the game, an incompletion would force the Chiefs to attempt a 50-yard field goal to extend the contest. That's within kicker Harrison Butker's range, but it's obviously not ideal. Fortunately, Patrick Mahomes found Kelce for a 22-yard gain that set up a chip-shot for Butker, who sent the game to an additional period with a 29-yard kick.
Kelce wrapped up his 11th season in the NFL as the league's all-time postseason receptions leader (165) while trailing only Jerry Rice in receiving yards (1,903) and receiving touchdowns (19). He led all players in each category during the 2023-24 playoffs, catching 32 passes for 355 yards and three scores.
8. Defensive linemen George Karlaftis and Chris Jones combined for 12 pressures.
Karlaftis recorded six pressures, three quarterback hits, a half sack and a fumble recovery as part of an outstanding performance on Sunday. Jones was also consistently disruptive, tallying six pressures and two quarterback hits – the last of which blew up Brock Purdy's third-down pass on the 49ers' lone possession of overtime. San Francisco had to settle for a field goal courtesy of Jones' efforts on the play, and just a few minutes later, Kansas City was in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
The Chiefs pressured Purdy on 48.8 percent of his dropbacks during Sunday's game, and both Karlaftis and Jones served as significant reasons behind that pressure rate.
9. The Chiefs made two enormous plays on special teams that proved to be critical.
It's not an exaggeration to say that the Chiefs' performance on special teams was a major reason behind Kansas City's triumph on Sunday. For starters, cornerback Jaylen Watson's heads-up recovery of 49ers' return man Darrell Luter's muffed punt late in the third quarter directly led to a go-ahead, 16-yard touchdown reception by wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Then, following a 49ers' touchdown on their ensuing possession, linebacker Leo Chenal blocked kicker Jake Moody's extra-point attempt, holding the deficit to just three points rather than four. That single point ended up being a big deal considering that Kansas City kicked a game-tying field goal with mere seconds remaining in regulation a while later.
The Chiefs also played the "field position" game to perfection throughout the night behind punter Tommy Townsend's 50.8-yard average across five punts.
It's all to say that the Super Bowl is often decided by the slimmest of margins, and the Chiefs' ability to "win" the special teams' battle was part of the difference on Sunday.
10. Harrison Butker just completed one of the best seasons by kicker in league history.
Lastly, speaking of special teams, Harrison Butker just wrapped up a truly historic season with an emphatic exclamation point. First, keep in mind that Butker connected on 33-of-35 field goal attempts and all 38 of his extra-point tries during the regular season. He then went on to convert all 11 of his postseason field goal attempts – including two 50-yard kicks – and each of his eight extra-point tries.
That performance featured a 4-for-4 mark on field goal attempts in Super Bowl LVIII, including a 57-yard field goal midway through the third quarter – the longest made kick in Super Bowl history.
Every player and moment mentioned above – plus countless more – led to a second-straight Super Bowl championship for the Chiefs on Sunday, and with a truly historic run now secured, the most exciting development may just be that there's no end in sight.
