Patrick Mahomes didn’t have any answers for the Eagles on Super Bowl Sunday, but Nick Wright held out hope for as long as he could. The longtime Chiefs fan had his fingers crossed for that elusive three-peat, it seems. He even believed at halftime that the team was going to pull off one of the greatest comebacks ever from a 24-0 deficit—perhaps even better than Tom Brady’s 28-3 comeback against the Falcons.
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Wright talked about that experience from game day during a sit-down interview with Dan Patrick. When the Chiefs fell behind 24-0, his mind immediately went back to Mahomes‘ first playoff start, when Kansas City was blitzed early and trailed the Texans 24-0.
That day, they roared back with 41 unanswered points and won 51-31 before rolling through the Titans and 49ers to capture their first Super Bowl title since 1969. With that history in mind, Wright kept believing—even as the odds stacked higher against them.
The Super Bowl halftime show ran a little longer than usual, giving Wright even more time to envision a comeback win.
“One of the downsides, Dan, to a long halftime is you have enough time to walk around, and I had a, gosh darn it, I think addicts call it a ‘Moment of Clarity’. And I was like, ‘This whole thing started down 24-0. The first Super Bowl they ever won, down 24-0, and then go on a run. And now down 24-0, with Mr. 28-3 in the booth to pull off the three-peat!'” Wright told Patrick in a burst of excitement.
Wright then went on to say that if the Chiefs had pulled off the comeback, it would have been even more impressive than Tom Brady’s 28-3 rally. He had even started piecing together his monologue for his Monday show, First Things First.
“I spent most of the halftime formulating my Monday argument as to why a 24-0 comeback is so much better than a 28-3 comeback and turns out I won’t need that argument.”
It was an ugly game for Mahomes and the Chiefs. They ended up losing 40-22, but at one point it was as bad as 40-6. Patrick asked Wright to describe why the game was so bad, as if he was talking about it to someone who hadn’t watched. He listed two reasons.
For starters, when a team can rush four guys on defense and create pressure, it poses problems for the opposing offense. The Eagles blitzed zero times on Sunday, yet still pressured Mahomes a staggering 38% of the time. Wright outlined that when a team only has to rush four, they can drop seven to guard five receivers.
It’s just a numbers game—one that Philadelphia found themselves on the right side of. Not by luck, but through a relentless defensive front.
Secondly, Wright simply laid out that the moment got the best of the Chiefs and Mahomes. For the first time all year, may we add. The three-peat was on the horizon all season long, but when it mattered most and the light shined brightest, they got burned.
It was something we all could see from our couches on Sunday. At a certain point, the Chiefs looked as though they had no answers. All of the critiques we had placed on them all season were floating to the surface. The offensive line issues, the lack of a dominant receiver, Travis Kelce’s regression, the over-reliance on the defense, and the one-score victories. It all came to a head at the worst possible time.
However, as Wright said, every quarterback has had a terrible game in the playoffs. Even the greats. What defines a generational quarterback is how they respond to that performance in the coming years. Right now, doubt in the Chiefs has never been higher. It’s time for Mahomes to prove why he’s one of the greats.
