The Philadelphia Eagles weren’t flawless on Sunday. Yet, they walked away with a win against the Chiefs. Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley powered their way into the end zone on touchdown runs. Meanwhile, Andrew Mukuba made a huge play late in the fourth quarter, intercepting Patrick Mahomes when it mattered most. Thanks to their opportunistic and stingy defense, the Eagles sealed a tight 20-17 victory. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.

After the game, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni kept his remarks grounded. “Our job, especially early in the season, is find a way to win. Take pride in winning any way you possibly can. Work to get better throughout the week, and repeat,” Sirianni said. He emphasized the grind of building consistency. He added, “I think when you come off a season like we came off last year, the expectation is that you’re going to pick up where you left off. There are steps to this.”

Interestingly, the Eagles just don’t seem to trip over these challenges. Right now, they’ve won seven games in a row. Their record stands at an impressive 17-1 over the last 18 matchups. What’s more, they’ve beaten the Chiefs three times in a row since that Super Bowl loss three seasons back. Sirianni also made sure to point out that the team is ready for whatever’s next, not just focused on the Chiefs.

“So you can see, you know, some of the things, I won’t get into that either. I don’t want to give any other teams a clue to what they were doing, but, you know, and we’re prepared for all those things, and the guys are prepared for all those things, but I think it always comes down to those guys up front and Jalen. We’ve had a lot of success with that play, and, you know, we’ll continue to use it to our advantage,” Nick Sirianni explained after the game.

Still, the numbers weren’t eye-popping. Hurts threw for just 101 yards. Barkley managed only 88 rushing yards. However, the defense stepped up, limiting the Chiefs to 294 total yards. They even stopped them once on fourth down and came away with the only turnover at a key moment.

Hurts summed it up well: “Take pride in winning, one, and take pride in what is required of you, two,” he said. “The team defensively played lights-out. Offensively, we played well when we needed to. And we just need to continue to build.”

Lastly, this was only the 11th time a Super Bowl rematch happened in the regular season. The team that won the Super Bowl now leads with eight wins in those games. Hurts showed respect for the challenge: “That’s a really good team. We have a ton of respect for them,” he said. “You have to come in with a sense of focus. Stay patient with yourself. Stay patient with your team. And as a team, we showed up when we needed to the most.”

Jalen Hurts joins exclusive company in dominance over Patrick Mahomes

Ever since Patrick Mahomes took over as the Chiefs’ starting QB in 2018, he’s racked up wins like no other. In fact, Mahomes leads the league with 88 regular-season victories during his reign. No other quarterback even comes close, with the next best trailing by at least ten wins.

However, things didn’t click for Mahomes on Sunday. In a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl showdown, the Chiefs offense sputtered. They managed just 187 passing yards in a frustrating 20-17 loss to the Eagles. It was a rare off-day for the usually unstoppable Mahomes-led attack. The once highly anticipated clash between the league’s top guns fell flat, leaving Chiefs fans in rage.

Interestingly, this wasn’t just any loss for Mahomes. It was his fifth meeting against Jalen Hurts. Mahomes took the first two matchups, but Hurts turned the tide. Now, Hurts has beaten Mahomes three straight times. That puts him in elite company.

In fact, only Joe Burrow has matched that feat. Burrow beat Mahomes three times across the 2021 and 2022 seasons, including the AFC Championship Game. Not only that, with Sunday’s win, Hurts joined Burrow and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to defeat Mahomes three total times.

And there’s more. This marked the first time the Chiefs began a season 0-2 in the Mahomes era. Plus, it was the first time Mahomes lost three games in a row in his career. So now, all eyes turn to how Mahomes and the Chiefs will respond in Week 3.