Patrick Mahomes has led the Kansas City Chiefs to their third Super Bowl appearance in four years. | The Guardian
More than 50 million adults in the United States are expected to bet $16 billion on Super LVII, according to survey results released by the American Gaming Association, setting a record. But while the Philadelphia Eagles still hold the line as 1.5-point favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs, the majority of betters are wrong.
At first, it might appear as if the Eagles should be even stronger favorites than the spread suggests. They finished top 10 in passing yards and top five in rushing yards, averaging more than 147 yards per game. In addition, the Eagles’ combination of a stellar offense and a stingy defense allowed them to soar to third in points for and eighth in points against, placing them at a third-best +133 point differential in the regular season. All this amounted to a first-time 8-0 start and a record-high 14 wins during the regular season.
Nevertheless, as all football enthusiasts know, the postseason is a different animal. Anything can happen on game day. With the NFL top-gun quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the other side of the ball, the Chiefs have a far better chance at bringing home a third Lombardi Trophy.
Mahomes, who will be starting in his third Super Bowl in four years, is no newcomer to the big game. In fact, now that the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady has retired, he has the most Super Bowl appearances of any active starting quarterback.
He is coming off a stellar season with a career-high 67.1% pass completion and a league-leading 5,250 passing yards and 41 passing touchdowns, enough to earn him a second First Team All-Pro nod and make him the clear favorite for what would be his second NFL MVP honor.
Mahomes led the Chiefs to the No.1 scoring offense this season despite the odds. For the first time in his career, Mahomes was without his longtime favorite wide receiver target, four-time first-team All-Pro Tyreek Hill, who left for Miami in a trade last March.
In addition, Mahomes has had to battle an injury throughout most of the playoffs, after suffering a high ankle sprain in the first quarter of the divisional round game against the Jaguars, which sidelined him for the rest of the half. Nevertheless, he played through the pain to help his team hold off the Jaguars in the second half and outgunned rival Joe Burrow in the championship game.
Mahomes said his ankle is “definitely better” ahead of Super Bowl weekend, according to CBS Sports.
With a healthy body, the league’s best asset is set to make a splash in comparison to Eagles’ quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is in only his second postseason appearance and has won four times fewer postseason games than Mahomes.
Just as Mahomes learned earlier in his career when facing Brady, who ended his career 2-0 against Mahomes in the postseason, experience matters. Mahomes reflected on his growth even since last year’s conference championship during the NFL’s Super Bowl interviews on Tuesday.
“I think when you’ve been in some big games now a couple of years in a row, you’ve learned from your mistakes,” Mahomes said in an interview after the victory over the Bengals.
He also has the experience of losing a Super Bowl, which he sees as motivation for this year’s big game.
“The win is amazing. It’s one of the best moments of your entire life. You take away all the positives from that,” Mahomes said Monday at the Super Bowl’s opening night. “But that loss, that stings. That motivates you for years. What it’s done for me is it’s motivated me to be back in this game again. I want to make sure that I can have that winning feeling and not that losing one because that losing feeling is one you’ll never forget.”
Mahomes will be the X-factor in whether he encounters the losing feeling again this year, but with his experience and the Chiefs’ success, his team is in the perfect position for an upset.
