The Kansas City Chiefs will take their shot at history on Sunday as they face off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
Here are some quick notes heading into game day.
1. Here's a look at the final injury report for both teams.
The Chiefs remain the healthiest they've been all season, which is all you can hope for heading into a game of this magnitude. Wide receiver Skyy Moore, who has been practicing but remains on Injured Reserve, was the only player who was limited in any fashion during the week.
As for Philadelphia, veteran defensive end Brandon Graham is listed as "Questionable" for Sunday due to an elbow injury. Graham suffered the injury in late November and hasn't played since.
Another player to watch will be wide receiver DeVonta Smith, who doesn't carry an injury designation into Sunday's game but was limited in practice all week due to a hamstring injury.
2. The Chiefs' top priority has to be slowing down Eagles' tailback Saquon Barkley.
This is about as obvious a point as it gets, but it really is the crux of Super Bowl LIX. Barkley, who won Offensive Player of the Year honors on Thursday, was the engine behind the Eagles' march to this game. He became just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000+ yards during the regular season, and in the Eagles' three playoff games, his 442 rushing yards are already the seventh-most all-time.
Specifically, it's been Barkley's explosiveness that's made him so effective. His 46 runs of double-digit yardage led all players, and 42% of his rushing totals this season occurred on runs of 15+ yards. That's certainly been the case lately, too, as Barkley has ripped off three touchdowns runs of 60+ yards during the postseason.
Barkley has been nothing short of incredible for Philadelphia, and while most teams use the passing game to pick up chunk plays, he's managed to do that with his legs. It's why the Eagles posted the No. 29 passing offense in the NFL this season – they simply didn't need to throw the ball. It's also a big reason why Philadelphia led the league in average time of possession at over 32 minutes-per-game.
It's all to say the Chiefs have to contain Barkley on Sunday, and the good news is Kansas City was mostly excellent against opposing running backs this season. In fact, the Chiefs didn't yield a single 100-yard performance to a tailback this year, making them one of only three teams across the NFL that can say that.
They maintained that streak despite playing against some of the top running backs in the league, too. Here's a look at how four of the NFL's leading rushers fared against Kansas City as opposed to the rest of the league:
No. 2: Derrick Henry (Baltimore) – 46 yards vs. Kansas City | 117.2 yards vs. everyone else
No. 3 Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) – 31 yards vs. Kansas City | 89.1 yards vs. everyone else
No. 8 Chuba Hubbard (Carolina) – 58 yards vs. Kansas City | 81.2 yards vs. everyone else
No. 10 Bucky Irving (Tampa Bay) – 24 yards vs. Kansas City | 68.6 yards vs. everyone else
Additionally, the Chiefs have excelled at preventing explosive runs which, as mentioned above, have been Barkley's bread and butter. Kansas City allowed just eight runs of 20+ yards this season, the fifth-fewest in the NFL, and since the 2022 season, the Chiefs have yielded just 22 such runs – the third-fewest in the league.
So, Barkley is an excellent player who is going to make some plays on Sunday, but the Chiefs' ability to at least mitigate his impact – especially as it relates to explosive runs – will be the primary key to slowing down Philadelphia's offense.
3. Kansas City has racked up 10 sacks across its two playoff games this year.
The Chiefs' pass-rush has been effective so far this postseason, and if Kansas City can slow down Barkley, another big game rushing the quarterback could be the difference in the end.
Kansas City pressured Texans' quarterback C.J. Stroud at a 54% rate (which included eight sacks) before doing so against Bills' quarterback Josh Allen at a 43% clip (and two sacks) in the AFC Championship Game. That 43% pressure rate on Allen was the highest he faced in a single game since Week 2.
This is relevant because Eagles' quarterback Jalen Hurts has been significantly more effective during Philadelphia's playoff run when kept clean as opposed to when under pressure. Here's a look at a few of those splits as compiled by Next Gen Stats:
Kept Clean: 80.9% completion percentage | 7.8 passing yards-per-attempt | 120.5 passer rating
Under Pressure: 45.5% completion percentage | 6.3 yards-per-attempt | 66.1 passer rating
Hurts has also been sacked 11 times during the Eagles' postseason run, and if the Chiefs are to contain Philadelphia's high-powered offense, the combination of containing Barkley and creating pressure on Hurts will likely be the formula.
4. Philadelphia yielded the fewest offensive points of any team in the NFL this year.
The Eagles' defense has been terrific this season and ranks near the top of the league in several categories, including offensive points allowed (No. 1), net yards-per-game allowed (No. 1), passing yards allowed-per-game (No. 1), plays of 20+ yards allowed (No. 1) and third down defense (No. 3).
It's a unit led by Defensive Coordinator and former Denver Broncos Head Coach Vic Fangio, who is known for a scheme that tests the opponent's patience and willingness to slowly move down the field. For example, the average scoring drive against Philadelphia required 8.7 plays, which ranked eighth in the NFL.
Fortunately for Kansas City, the Chiefs have mastered that exact style of offense. The Chiefs actually led the NFL in average number of plays-per-scoring drive at 9.53 this year, and in order to score on this talented Eagles' defense, Kansas City will need to be at its best when it comes to discipline, ball security and red zone touchdown efficiency.
As mentioned above, the Eagles led the NFL in average time of possession this season (32:23) while the Chiefs ranked sixth in that category (30:56). Additionally, Kansas City led the league in 10-play drives this year with 45, while Philadelphia ranked second with 44.
Both of these teams excel at ball control, and it's quite possible each team only has seven or eight possessions due to their collective style of play. That reality makes the Chiefs' offensive efficiency against Fangio's defense all the more critical every time Kansas City possesses the ball, and for what it's worth, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has seemingly always risen to the occasion against great defenses such as this one.
Here's where the Chiefs' opponents ranked in both total and scoring defense in their three Super Bowl wins under Mahomes:
Super Bowl LIV: San Francisco had the No. 2 total defense and the No. 9 scoring defense
Super Bowl LVII: Philadelphia owned the No. 2 total defense and the No. 8 scoring defense
Super Bowl LVIII: San Francisco had the No. 8 total defense and the No. 3 scoring defense
Mahomes is also 8-2 vs. No. 1 scoring defenses and 21-3 vs. top-five scoring defenses in his career as a starter. He'll now have an opportunity to add to those impressive numbers on Sunday.
5. The Eagles are +10 in terms of turnover margin during the postseason.
A major component of the Eagles' success defensively this year has been their ability to take the football away. Philadelphia was +11 in terms of turnover margin for the year, and the Eagles' 104 takeaway points ranked third among all teams. Philadelphia also amassed 27 drives that began in opponent territory this season, which trailed only Buffalo for the team lead.
It all makes for a pretty simple formula: the Eagles test their opponent's patience defensively, they often cause a mistake, and then the Philadelphia offense runs the ball with tremendous efficiency. That recipe worked all year long, and the Eagles have somehow even turned it up a notch during the playoffs.
Philadelphia is +10 in terms of turnover margin during its postseason run, forcing 10 takeaways without committing a single one. The Eagles then turned those takeaways into 41 points, which marks approximately 40% of their point total during the playoffs. Against the Commanders specifically, for example, the Eagles racked up a whopping 28 points off takeaways alone.
That tendency to take the football away forms a lethal combination with the Eagles' running game offensively, and just as the Chiefs need to contain Barkley's impact on Sunday, they also have to protect the football.
The good news for the Chiefs is they've committed just one giveaway in their last nine games. Kansas City lost a fumble in the AFC Championship Game, but prior to that, the Chiefs' eight-game streak without a giveaway set an NFL record.
Ball security is a major reason the Chiefs are in this moment, and they'll need to maintain that trend on Sunday if Kansas City is to win.
So, it all comes down to this. The Chiefs began talking about their pursuit of a third-straight title, something that's never been done before, while the confetti was still raining down at Super Bowl LVIII. This mission has been a calendar year in the making, and it wasn't easy to get back to this point.
Kansas City had the shortest offseason of any team in the NFL for a second-straight year. The Chiefs faced a first-place schedule once again, and in order to secure the first-round bye, they had to win 15 of their 17 games. Kansas City won in every shape and fashion, from the "block off" against Denver to the three different kickers who connected on walk-off field goals in 2024. The Chiefs also trailed in the fourth quarter in seven different games this year, and in all but one of them, Kansas City came back to win.
The Chiefs had to beat a talented Houston Texans team and the Buffalo Bills, the only team that beat Mahomes in the regular season, led by the league MVP in quarterback Josh Allen.
This has been a truly unforgettable season in so many ways, and now with the prize finally in sight, the Chiefs are four quarters away from their ultimate goal.
