Kareem Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs is tackled by Milton Williams and Josh Sweat of the … [+]
In the year of the running back, Saquon Barkley set the single-season NFL rushing mark, including the postseason, with 2,504 yards.
But on the other side, the Chiefs completely abandoned the run during their 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
They passed the ball almost three times more than they ran it, attempting 32 passes and just 11 rushes.
Obviously, once a team faces a huge deficit, it doesn’t have the time to run the ball, which is a more time-consuming play. And obviously to get more rushing attempts, a team has to convert third downs, which the Chiefs did not do once in the first half.
“Well, we got down,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “So we threw the ball probably more than we wanted, going into the game.”
The Chiefs still ran the ball only three times in the first half, and the second and third rushes came on back-to-back plays, starting at the 7:03 mark of the second quarter.
It was a curious strategy, considering the Eagles were 10th vs. the run, allowing 104.2 yards per game during the regular season but first vs. the pass, allowing just 278.4 passing yards.
A consequence of passing so frequently is that the Eagles were able to pin their ears back and exploit Joe Thuney, who is a more natural left guard than left tackle but was the best of the Chiefs’ options after rookie Kingsley Suamataia and second-year lineman Wanya Morris struggled earlier in the season.
While blitzing just a couple of times, the Eagles’ relentless pass rush sacked Patrick Mahomes six times and hit him five other times.
The pressure also forced him into two poor decisions, resulting in two first-half interceptions, including a pick-six.
“There’s times when guys aren’t open where I need to throw the ball away,” Mahomes said, “or check it down and let other guys make plays happen.”
The Chiefs passed the ball 14 times in the first half but ran it just three times.
They tried more no-huddle offense in the second half but to no avail.
Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco got the start, but neither he nor Kareem Hunt were effective. Hunt had nine rushing yards, and Pacheco had seven.
Pacheco, a Vineland, N.J., native who grew up rooting for the Eagles, ran for 76 of the Chiefs’ 158 rushing yards in Super Bowl LVII against the Eagles. But the Chiefs used him sparingly in Super Bowl LIX.
Following Pacheco’s leg injury in Week Two, Hunt was a great redemption story, returning to the Chiefs on a one-year, $1.2 million contract after his release from the team in 2018.
Hunt, who texted Reid to express his interest in rejoining the team, ended up leading the Chiefs with 728 rushing yards during the regular season despite starting just eight games.
But in a sign of how ineffective the running game was, Mahomes was the leading rusher in Super Bowl LIX with 25 yards, and the team had 49 total rushing yards.
On the other side, the one thing the Chiefs did well was to stop the NFL’s leading rusher, Barkley.
Shockingly, the Eagles put up 40 points despite Barkley just having 57 rushing yards and averaging a feeble 2.7 yards per carry.
The Eagles still managed to get revenge for their 38-35 loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII and also thwart history.
The Chiefs not only would have been the first three-peat of the Super Bowl era, but also in any major sport since the the Los Angeles Lakers did it in from 1999-2000 to 2001- 2002.
“It was never about the three-peat,” Chiefs center Creed Humphrey said. “It was about living in the moment.”
Mahomes, who turns 30 in September, also would have been the first quarterback with four Super Bowl titles before his 30th birthday.
Instead the Chiefs lost to Reid’s former Eagles team.
“Today was a rough day,” Reid said. “They got the best of us.”
