Super Bowl matchup set: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs

Super Bowl LIX will feature the Philadelphia Eagles, led by former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts, and the Kansas City Chiefs, which hope to win three titles in a row, which has never been done.

Here’s how both teams arrived to Super Bowl, which will be Sunday, February 9, in New Orleans:

NFC Championship Game – Philadelphia beats Washington

Philadelphia’s star running back Saquon Barkley dashed 60 yards for a touchdown on Philadelphia’s first play and finished with 118 yards and three scores, Jalen Hurts rushed for three TDs and the Eagles soared into the Super Bowl with a 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Hurts and the Eagles are in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons, and this time Barkley is along for the ride. They will play former Eagles coach Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons.

“I came to Philly to be part of games like this,” Barkley said. “And there’s nothing better than a game where you can advance to the Super Bowl.”

The 55 points are the most any team has scored in a conference championship game since the 1970 merger.

Hurts, wearing a brace on his left knee, also threw for 246 yards and a touchdown pass and the Eagles had a towel-waving crowd in a frenzy for the NFC championship game at Lincoln Financial Field.

“I don’t want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him. He’s a winner,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “Again, he deals with so much criticism which just blows my mind because of the questions I have to answer. I don’t look too much into that. The questions I have to answer it’s just like, man, this guy wins. He’s won his entire life.”

A.J. Brown caught six passes for 96 yards and a touchdown — and faked tossing the NFC championship trophy off a platform — and an Eagles team at just 2-2 headed into the bye week scored a season high in points to usher the franchise into their fifth Super Bowl.

The Eagles won their only Super Bowl in the 2017 season and Nick Foles, the QB in that game against New England, was the honorary captain.

The Eagles cut to other stars from that game in attendance on the big screen and now — two years after Eagles lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl — the franchise has a chance at winning their second one.

Much as he has all season, Barkley led the way for the Eagles.

Including the playoffs, Barkley extended an NFL record Sunday with his seventh rushing touchdown of 60-plus yards in a season.

“When he does it early, it doesn’t really matter who gets the party started, just for us to gain some momentum as an offense and gain a rhythm, (we) keep going,” Hurts said.

Hurts, who hurt his knee when he was sacked last week by the Rams, had his best game yet in a postseason where the Eagles played all three games at home. He closed the first half with a tush push 1-yard touchdown and threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Brown to send the Eagles into halftime with a 27-15 lead.

“I guess he let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today,” Hurts said of Sirianni’s offense.

Hurts secured the Super Bowl berth with a tush push touchdown in the fourth quarter — after a humorous moment when an official said he’d award the Eagles a touchdown if Washington didn’t stop jumping offside — and his ninth career postseason rushing score gave them a 41-23 lead.

Small amounts of green confetti started to fly from the upper deck at that point at the countdown was officially on for the Super Bowl.

AFC Championship Game – Kansas City beats Buffalo

Everything looked familiar at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night: Patrick Mahomes hoisting the AFC championship trophy as confetti rained down, Andy Reid hugging Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, and Travis Kelce kissing Taylor Swift, grabbing the mic and imploring fans to once more party the night away.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champions had earned a chance at an unprecedented three-peat.

And once again, they had brushed aside the Buffalo Bills on the way.

This time, it was Mahomes’ arm and his legs — 245 yards passing and a touchdown, two more scores rushing — and some key stops by the Kansas City defense that preserved a 32-29 victory over the Bills in the AFC championship game.

“It’s just so hard to get to the Super Bowl and I don’t take it for granted, and to do it again at Arrowhead Stadium was special,” Mahomes said. “You get that trophy on that stage and you look around here and there’s not an empty seat — it’s special.”

It’s the fourth time since January 2021 that the Chiefs have ended the Bills’ season in the playoffs. And like all the rest, it came after a heavyweight fight between two of the top teams in the AFC, one that was tied 29-all after Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen found Curtis Samuel in the back of the end zone to set up a little more drama in the conference championship game.

Mahomes was simply unflappable, though. He completed four consecutive passes on the ensuing possession, setting up Harrison Butker’s go-ahead field goal with 3:33 left, and put the Bills in another do-or-die situation in Kansas City.

“I’ve always said it: It’s not about one guy. It’s not about a couple guys. It’s about the whole entire team,” Mahomes said. “When we needed the defense to get stops, they got stops. Offense, we made plays. That’s why we’re so special.”

Kareem Hunt had a touchdown run and Xavier Worthy had six catches for 85 yards and a score for Kansas City, which became just the fourth franchise to reach at least three consecutive Super Bowls with its ninth consecutive playoff victory.

“Every one of these is so special,” said Clark Hunt, whose father Lamar’s name adorns the AFC championship trophy. “What a game today. Travis, Patrick and their teammates always find a way to get it done. That was true this whole year. And it’s a credit to coach Reid and his amazing staff. Now we get to do something that’s never been done before.”

Mahomes and Kareem Hunt ran for scores and Worthy had a touchdown reception as the teams traded the lead. Cook reached the end zone for Buffalo, and a spectacular touchdown catch by Mack Hollins just before halftime kept the Bills in the game.

It remained a game of inches in the second half: Cook barely reached across the goal line for a touchdown, the Chiefs stopped Allen inches shy of the marker on fourth down, Mahomes bulldozed into the end zone for a score, and the Bills answered with a 70-yard drive in which their MVP-candidate quarterback hit Samuel on fourth-and-goal to tie the game at 29-all.

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