Chiefs No More

The Eagles went to Kansas City and beat a desperate Chiefs team on Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t easy or pretty, but that was one heck of a win. KC drops to 0-2 for the first time since 2014. The Eagles are now 2-0. There are still a lot of issues to address, but this team is playing winning football, as Nick Sirianni might say. They aren’t turning the ball over and they are making clutch plays in all three phases of the game.

The Eagles have now beaten the Chiefs three years in a row.

2023 – 21-17
2024 – 40-22
2025 – 20-17

The common denominator in all three wins…good defense. Last year the Chiefs were shutout in the first half. On Sunday the Eagles really shut them down in the second half. The Eagles were able to pressure and bother Patrick Mahomes in both games. The Eagles sacked Mahomes twice on Sunday and were credited with 10 QB hits. That made him uncomfortable in the pocket and he finished just 16 of 29. Even some of his completions were off target.

With a leaky OL and limited weapons, the Chiefs needed Mahomes to play like a superstar. He didn’t do that. He did run well in the first half and gave the Eagles some fits with his scrambles. He was 5-60 in the first half, but finished 7-66 for the game. The Eagles adjusted their defense and took away his running lanes.

The Chiefs could have won the game if they made a few more plays and cleaned up some mistakes. But that’s part of the point. They used to be the team that did those things. They found a way to win when they shouldn’t. That version of the Chiefs isn’t around right now. They are good enough to keep things close and to compete, but the magic that made them special seems to be gone. Maybe they’ll get some of that back when their WRs get healthy. Still, this team just feels different.

This game made you appreciate Vic Fangio even more than you already did. He shut down KC with good coverage and a strong pass rush back in February. This time around he let his defense do more attacking. We saw Zack Baun and Jihad Campbell both blitz. We saw Drew Mukuba blitz and get part of a sack. There might have been others as well. Fangio gave Mahomes different looks and that strategy worked brilliantly.

Speaking of Mukuba, he had a huge impact on the game. He had 6 tackles, half a sack, a TFL and a game-changing INT.

ANDREW MUKUBA END ZONE INT

PHIvsKC on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/BQSMeTozCT

— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2025

What a game. Not bad for a rookie. Or a veteran. Mukuba is a playmaker. He has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and he’s got great awareness. There were a couple of plays in the early games where guys didn’t seem to see the ball or know how to play it. Mukuba grabbed that sucker and took off running. The Eagles scored a TD after that and took control of the game.

Mukuba made a huge tackle on a third down that set up a fourth down, which the Eagles stuffed. He did miss a tackle on Mahomes in the open field. He’ll hear about that.

While the defense was great in KC, the Eagles offense was not. They finished the game with 216 yards, with 122 of those coming on the ground. The passing attack is struggling right now. Only one completion went for 10 or more yards. There were some plays when Jalen Hurts had a ton of time and no one to thorw to. There were other plays when KC blitzed and Hurts got the ball off for a short completion. He finished 15-22 for 101 yards. AJ and DeVonta combined to go 9-80. That’s a step in the right direction, but still not good enough.

There will be a lot of focus on Kevin Patullo this week. I think we have to give the Chiefs a lot of credit here. Their secondary covered much, much better than Week 1. And their homefield advantage made a difference. The Eagles repeatedly snapped the ball right before the clock went to 0. It sure seemed like all the noise affected the Eagles operation.

While Hurts wasn’t shredding the Chiefs defense, the Tush Push did give them fits. The Eagles used it effectively to score the key TD and then to close out the game. The Eagles got away with false starts on a couple of those plays and Eagles-haters are all over social media pointing out those plays. Enjoy the Tush Push this season. The NFL will do whatever it takes to get that play out of the game next season.

Hurts didn’t run much outside of the Tush Push. Saquon Barkley and the conventional run game was pretty good. He finished 22-88. AJ Dillon was 3-19.

We have to give Jake Elliott a lot of credit for his performance. He hit FGs from 51 and 58 yards. That last one would have been good from at least 65, if not further. His struggles from last year are gone.

The Eagles have a really tough schedule. Getting off to a 2-0 start could make a big difference. They aren’t playing consistently good football right now, but are finding ways to win. Give them time to round into shape and get to the level they need to. Remember that they started 2-2 last year and didn’t look great in Game 5 when they beat the Browns 20-16. You don’t want to peak in September.

Hurts and the offense will explode at some point. And the defense can continue to get better.

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