The Philadelphia Eagles, led by superstar quarterback Jalen Hurts and a ferocious defense, soared to a shocking 40-22 victory in the 2025 Super Bowl, denying the slightly favored Kansas City Chiefs an unprecedented third-straight NFL championship.
All the acclaim for the Philadelphia Eagles’ second-ever Super Bowl title will likely go towards head coach Nick Sirianni, his coaching staff and the team’s higher-profile players like Hurts, Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown. However, the Eagles would not have won as easily if not for the pure dominance of their offensive and defensive lines. The significant impact these big athletic men had on the game highlights the critical role they play in an NFL team’s success—yet they often go unrecognized. This is an oversight that needs to change moving forward.
Entering the game in New Orleans, many fans and experts predicted another close encounter given the talent level, playoff experience and winning pedigree on both of these squads. This year offered a chance for the Eagles to get payback for the Chiefs defeating them 38-35 in the Super Bowl three years ago. They did that and then some, giving the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes arguably their worst loss since they came up short to Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2019 Super Bowl.
The newly-crowned NFL champions’ route to victory came not on the backs of Barkley as they have done all season, but by seeing their bigger and stronger offensive and defensive lines impose their will on the Chiefs.
“This is the ultimate team game,” Sirianni said in his post-game interview. “These guys did not want to let each other down. Football is the best team sport as you need effort from everybody.”
In football, everything starts at the line of scrimmage. If the big guys do their job well, it makes everything easier and less stressful for the rest of the offense or defense. All season long, the men up-front for the Eagles have been opening up holes for NFL single-season rushing yards record holder Barkley and making sure Hurts does not take too many bone-crushing sacks.
The Eagles’ starting offensive line, a longtime strength of this team, was the tallest and heaviest in Super Bowl history. It gave the victors one enormous advantage in this contest. The likes of center Cam Jurgens, right guard Mekhi Becton and left tackle Jordan Mailata protected Hurts all game long, giving the electric dual-threat talent enough time to pass to open receivers or scramble up the field for big gains.
Hurts opened up the scoring via a ‘tush push’, in which his massive offensive line helped push him into the end zone from one yard out. Yes, the ‘tush push’ may be borderline unfair as it’s hard to see how the opposing team can stop something resembling a dog pile or rugby scrum. Nevertheless, one cannot dispute just how effective it is, especially in short-yardage or goalline situations.
Philadelphia’s quarterback seemed to be in total command and never looked frazzled. On the other hand, his counterpart Mahomes was uncharacteristically jittery from the jump, resulting in many rushed passes that either fell incomplete or into the hands of eager Eagles defenders. This is because Kansas City’s offensive line struggled the entire game attempting to block hungry Eagles pass-rushers Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and Jalen Carter from devouring Mahomes.
“I couldn’t do any of these things without guys around me,” Hurts said post-game. “We had a special group with some nice new pieces we added this year… Defense wins championships… We were able to do what we do.”
When Mahomes threw his first of two interceptions, which Eagles rookie Cooper DeJean returned for a pick six with seven minutes left in the second quarter, he had pressure in his face. That was a common theme in this game and one of the signs that it was not the Chiefs’ night. Not only was it DeJean’s first career NFL interception, but it came in the Super Bowl on his birthday nonetheless! What a moment for this ascending defensive back, one of many underrated contributors to the Eagles’ domination.
That major defensive play set the tone for the rest of the game as the Eagles never looked back, hanging 40 points on the Chiefs’ well-coached defense and keeping them scoreless until the late third quarter en route to a blowout victory. The Chiefs, not accustomed to losing, will have to look back at what went wrong. Meanwhile for the Eagles, this night had been a long time in the making, rewarding several years of relentless hard work as the team finally returned to this stage and emerged with a victorious outcome.
The Eagles’ victory tonight perfectly meshed old and new school NFL thoughts with physicality and dominance at the line of scrimmage setting up explosive plays on offense and defense. As a result, the tush push is not going away anytime soon, much to the chagrin of its numerous dislikers such as NFL defensive players who are fed up with not being able to prevent its success.
