Super Bowl LIX will go down as one of the most lopsided affairs to take place on the grandest of stages.
Despite the hype, star power, and recent big game success looming above the heads of the players making up the roster of the Kansas City Chiefs, it was the Philadelphia Eagles that cruised to a 40-22 victory, shutting down what would have been the first three-peat in Super Bowl history.
And the field was tilted far greater than the final score indicated.
Star quarterback Patrick Mahomes had Eagles defensive linemen in his face all night, head coach Andy Reid seemed out of place, while veteran tight end Travis Kelce certainly looked his age. By the end of the night, the script was flipped, and it was a thrashing from Philadelphia in a rematch of the 2023 Super Bowl, which saw Kansas narrowly defeat the Eagles 38-35.
More importantly, the viewing audience of over 195 countries was given the opportunity to hear various Eagles players and members of the coaching staff thank and praise their Lord and Savior post-game on the international broadcast.
Much like their first Superbowl matchup in 2023, Mahomes and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts kept their faith front and center in the week leading up to the early-February spectacle.
“I think my faith has always been a part of me,” Hurts told former NFL running back-turned-faith reporter Matt Forte. “I always wanted to root myself in that and keep Him in the center of my life in everything that I do. So, you know, through the highs and the lows, He’s greater than all of them. That’s something that I can always acknowledge, and in the fail clutches of circumstance I can always lean on and remember. So, that’s something that we all should probably take note of and take lesson of.”
Hurts completed 17 of 22 passes on the day for 221 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. The 26-year-old also rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown, bringing his totals to 293 yards and three touchdowns on the day. That performance granted him Super Bowl MVP honors, in which he broke his own Super Bowl record (70 yards, 2023) for most rushing yards by a quarterback.
Hurts was pulled aside by FOX Sports’ Erin Andrews just moments after the final whistle sounded. He spoke about the accomplishment candidly, making sure to praise his Lord mere minutes after victory.
“God is good, He is greater than all the highs and lows,” Hurts shared. “Personally, myself, I’ve been able to use every experience and learn from it: the good and the bad. Using it as fuel to pursue my own greatness. And I think I couldn’t do any of these things without the guys around me. We have a special group this year. We have been able to learn from the past. We got some nice new pieces and were able to get over the hump.”
“God is good, He is greater than all the highs and lows.”
One such piece was the NFL’s leading rusher from 2024-25, Saquon Barkley. He arrived disgruntled from mismanagement in New York but turned that frustration into a record-setting season—his first in Philadelphia green.
Barkley became the first player to ever record 2,500 rushing yards in a single season (including playoffs). He finished with 2,504 yards on the ground, beating Terrell Davis’ record of 2,476 from 1998.
“It’s cool,” Barkley said of his accomplishment post-game. “To be honest, the most important thing was winning the Super Bowl. Because if we didn’t win today, all those accolades and all those yards wouldn’t mean anything. So, it’s cool. I don’t want to downplay it because I couldn’t do it without the boys up front, and I know how much that means to them. For me, thankful, couldn’t do it without God, but I like that Lombardi Trophy a little bit more.”
Leading the way for the faith-fuelled Eagles was head coach Nick Siriani, who helped Philadelphia to a league-best mark on defense (first place in yards allowed and passing yards allowed on the season). His troops recorded six sacks in the game, forced three turnovers—including a pick-six by rookie Cooper DeJean—and held Kansas off the board entirely through three quarters of the game.
“God’s blessed us very much,” Siriani told FOX Sports’ Tom Rinaldi shortly after being showered with yellow Gatorade. “He gave us all the talents to be able to get here. So, first and foremost, thanks to Him. This is the ultimate team game. You can’t be great without the greatness of others. And we had a great performance by everybody: offense, defense, special teams, our coaching staff, these great players. We didn’t really ever care about how anyone thought about how we won, or their opinions, we just wanted to win. That’s why we listened to (Bobby Brown’s) My Prerogative a little bit after some wins. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus.”
With a boatload of returning talent and a youthful corps to boot, Philadelphia will enter the 2025-26 NFL season as the team to beat.
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