Jalen Hurts totally outclasses Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Here is the beauty of having a complete team: No one player has to do everything every game.
That is the way it went down Sunday night for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.
He did not get off to the greatest of starts and that can be troublesome when the opposing quarterback is Patrick Mahomes.
It was clear the Chiefs were geared up to contain running back Saquon Barkley and that defensive posture turned out to work — conditionally.
Barkley never broke free on one of his familiar long bursts, and he was held in check, finishing with only 57 yards on 25 rushing attempts.
The Eagles knew Barkley would be a marked man and that another focus on offense might be needed.
“Jalen came out and played big,’’ Barkley said.
“He had an unbelievable game, and we needed him,’’ head coach Nick Sirianni said.
When one door is closed, the best teams open up another one.
A team that evolved into a run-first operation needed to loosen things up with the passing game and Hurts was up to the challenge.
The 26-year-old played magnificently two years ago in his first Super Bowl, but the Eagles could not hold onto a 10-point lead and were defeated by the Chiefs, 38-35, in Glendale, Ariz.
Hurts was not to be denied this time around.
He was by far the better quarterback — he did not have to face his own ravenous defense — and had an easy time of things in a 40-22 demolition of the Chiefs in Super Bowl 2025 inside the Caesars Superdome.
It was not long ago when there were skeptics wondering if Hurts could take a team and lead it to a title.
“I can’t control what these people think,” Hurts said, “but if it takes all the hate and all the scrutiny and all the different opinions for me to be a world champion, keep it coming.”
Hurts benefitted from an offensive line that kept him clean — what else is new? — as he punched the clock by completing 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
He led the Eagles in rushing with 72 yards on 11 attempts and one touchdown, breaking his own NFL record for rushing yards for a quarterback in a Super Bowl.
His defense was overpowering, but it was Hurts who was named the Most Valuable Player.
Just like that, Hurts vaults into rarefied company.
He joins Joe Namath and Joe Montana as the third quarterback to ever win a championship in college and the NFL.
Namath, like Hurts, won a title at Alabama.
Montana won his at Notre Dame.
Hurts joined quite a group, as he is only the fourth quarterback in league history to lose his first Super Bowl and come back to win one as a starter, joining John Elway, Bob Griese and Len Dawson.
“Jalen’s special,’’ Sirianni said. “The criticism just blows my mind.’’
It was just a 7-0 lead for the Eagles when Hurts made his one and only gaffe of the evening.
He was pressured on a blitz by linebacker Nick Bolton and uncorked a throw he should not have made.
Hurts threw into double coverage on Brown, and safety Bryan Cook came away with a lunging interception.
It was the first interception of Hurts in the playoffs this season and his first since before the Week 5 bye week, a stretch of 217 straight passes.
So, it was not going wonderfully for Hurts.
He is an indefatigable competitor, though, and he does not relent.
He ended up tossing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brown late in the second quarter to make it 24-0.
In the third quarter, he scrambled for 16 yards and found Barkley for 22 yards, leading to a Jake Elliott field goal.
In the fourth quarter, Hurts was on the money on a 46-yard deep shot that DeVonta Smith ran under for a touchdown.
“It was just something that kind of came,’’ Hurts said of the long-range passing. “We were just able to execute — being able to find ways to win in multiple ways.’’
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Hurts, as a 24-year old in his third NFL season, stood toe-to-toe with Mahomes in the 2023 Super Bowl.
He completed 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards and accounted for four touchdowns — three rushing and one passing. The Eagles came up short in that game, but Hurts did not.
He signed a five-year contract extension worth $255 million, at the time making him the highest-paid player in the league based on annual salary.
The Eagles gave him the first no-trade clause in franchise history.
And now he is a Super Bowl champion.
