Super Bowl LVII: Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 Philadelphia Eagles – as it happened (2024)

Chiefs 7-14 Eagles, 14:25, 2nd quarter

Elliott’s kick is in the end zone. Chiefs will start at their 25. Pacheco gets the first carry and he gets pushed back two yards.

Hurts finds Brown in the end zone! That’s how you start a quarter! 45-yard touchdown catch. The extra point is good! The Eagles double up on the Chiefs!

How is the Ezra Miller Flash movie – just featured in Super Bowl ads here in the US – the only DC project that survived cancellation? It’s not an original thought, I know, but man it’s a nagging one.

Chiefs 7-7 Eagles, end of the 1st quarter

Hurts finds Goedert for a four-yard gain to the Philadelphia 48. On the next play, Hurts finds A.J. Brown for seven yards that will put the Eagles on the KC 45 and take us to the end of the first quarter.

Chiefs 7-7 Eagles, 1:08, 1st quarter

Okay, now this game officially becomes amusing if the Chiefs lose by three points are less. I feel bad for kickers, I really do. The Eagles start at their own 32. Hurts runs for a five-yard gain. 2nd and 5, Kansas City’s defense swarms and holds Hurts to a single yard. 3rd and 4. There are flags, offsides on the defense. That’s a five-yard penalty that gives the Eagles a first down.

That was a great game. Speaking from the New England perspective, it was a very good day to be rooting against Peyton Manning.

1st and 10. Mahomes throws incomplete. 2nd and 10. Mahomes finds Jerick McKinnon for a seven-yard gain. On third down, Mahomes throws incomplete. A fourth-down decision looms. Head coach Andy Reid decides to settle for a field goal, which bounces off the post!

Butker’s 42-yard attempt ends with a mighty doink. Still a tied game.

Chiefs 7-7 Eagles, 3:48, 1st quarter

Mahomes runs for six yards on first down. 2nd and 4, Pacheco goes up the middle for a two yard gain. On the play, Ndamukong Suh gets called for illegal use of hands, meaning that it’s an automatic first down for Kansas City. On the next play, Mahomes finds a silly open Kelce again, this time for a 22-yard gain that takes the Chiefs to the Philadelphia 31.

Chiefs 7-7 Eagles, 5:00, 1st quarter

Gainwell picks up a yard. 2nd and 9. Hurts finds Smith for a five-yard gain, but it’s 3rd and 14 thanks to the killer early penalty. Hurts can’t find anywhere to go on third down, so here comes the punt unit. Arryn Siposs’s punt gets returned to the Chiefs 34 by Kadarius Toney.

Chiefs 7-7 Eagles, 6:44, 1st quarter

Harrison Butker’s kick also goes into the end zone. Another touchback. When are we going to see our first punt is the question now.

On the first play of this drive, the Eagles get hit with offensive pass interference that will push them back 10 yards.

Nicky Bandini on the rooting interest question:

There’s a curious (kinda fun) split in the stadium, with mostly Chiefs fans occupying the east side of the stadium and mostly Eagles fans the west. There’s pockets for both teams everywhere but it was really noticeable, from where our press section are behind the south end zone, how all the noise was coming from away to our left while the stand to our right was almost silent. Already noticing the reverse now on this Kansas City drive!

Pacheco takes off for a 24-yard gain and the Chiefs, in a blink, are already at the Philadelphia 20. We might be in for a high-scoring game here. On the next play, Pacheco picks up an additional two yards. On the very next play, Mahomes finds Kelce. One successful PAT later and we’re already tied up. Whew!

Chiefs 0-7 Eagles, 9:33, 1st quarter

Elliott’s kickoff goes into the end zone, so the Chiefs too will be starting at their own 25. Isiah Pacheco rushes for a three-yard gain on first down. Next up, Mahomes throws to his favorite receiver (that would be Travis Kelce) for a 20 yard gain! The Chiefs are almost at midfield already.

The first quarterback sneak of the Super Bowl and certainly not the last.

Email from Mark Hooper:

Lady Gaga sang This Land is Your Land at her Superbowl performance in 2017 - telling given who the President was then

I forgot that, but it makes sense that Lady Gaga would be the one to dust that off.

OK, now that’s a touchdown. Hurts goes with the old-fashioned quarterback sneak to get into the end zone and Jake Elliott’s extra-point attempt is good. Philadelphia instantly takes a seven-point lead.

Philly have been so good using rugby-like tactics to get over the line all season. Here’s a little more on the subject:

Chiefs 0-0 Eagles, 10:22, 1st quarter

Eagles going lightning fast. Boston Scott gets the ball on the next play, gets it to the Kansas City 2. On the next play, Scott gets taken for a loss. They can still pick up a first down here which they do. At first, the Eagles think they have a touchdown after a Kenneth Gainwell carry but it’s called just short after a review.

Chiefs 0-0 Eagles, 12:02, 1st quarter

Hurts finds Dallas Goedert for a 13-yard gain. Impressive opening drive. On the next play, Hurts finds Smith to get to the Kansas City 11.

Chiefs 0-0 Eagles, 12:33, 1st quarter

Hurts throws incomplete to A.J. Brown on first down. On 2nd and 10, Jalen Hurts takes off for an 11-yard gain to the Kansas City 47.

Chiefs 0-0 Eagles, 13:44, 1st quarter

Miles Sanders loses a yard on his first carry. 2nd and 11. Hurts passes to DeVonta Smith for a six yard gain. 3rd and 5, Smith picks up 12 yards for the first first down of the game.

Chiefs 0-0 Eagles, 15:00, 1st quarter

The Eagles will start on their own 25-yard line after a touchback. We have real football!

Why are we talking about the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation before the game has even started? They’ll be time for that later. Can we just play?

Nicky Bandini checks in on the awkwardness of name-checking the late Pat Tillman during the coin toss following all sorts of military pomp and circ*mstance:

I feel like I can’t make this point any better than Mike has:

Coin toss

The Chiefs call “tails.” The coin lands on tails and Kansas City wisely defers. The Philadelphia Eagles will get the ball first!

Email from David Singerman:

Great song but when are we going to open the Super Bowl with Battle Hymn of the Republic followed by This Land is Your Land? That seems like a synthesis of religion and socialism that could bring the country together.

David

Virginia

I would kill to have the anti-private property verse of This Land Is Your Land sung at a Super Bowl, but I don’t see it happening.

The coin toss is next! And then we will have real football! Hang in there, we’re almost at the beginning!

National anthem

Good for the NFL for having ASL signers for every musical performance. Finally we have Chris Stapleton, who doesn’t do too much with The Star Spangled Banner, which is usually the best approach unless you’re the late Whitney Houston. Very laidback. 7/10.

First, we have Babyface performing America the Beautiful, which is objectively a better song than The Star Spangled Banner. Babyface sings it like a lullaby at first and then an extremely obvious pre-recorded backing track kicks in. Great start, an iffy finish. 6/10.

We’re almost at the national anthem, which will be performed by Chris Stapleton. A wise choice: country enough for country fans, rootsy enough that he’s well-liked by non-country fans.

The Philadelphia Eagles take the field to a mixed reaction, but there are definitely more cheers here than boos. We’ll see if this is a factor when the game proper starts (kickoff is theoretically in ten minutes, but you know how TV start times go).