The Super Bowl rematch turned out to be a completely different ballgame. This time, the Chiefs contained Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, and the Eagles’ receivers failed to score a touchdown.
The Birds won anyway. Vic Fangio’s defense forged a 20-17 victory Sunday in Kansas City, although Steve Spagnuolo’s defense was nearly as effective for the Chiefs. The difference: a clutch fourth-quarter interception of Patrick Mahomes by rookie Drew Mukuba at the Eagles 1-yard line that bounced off Travis Kelce first. From there, the Eagles drove 10 plays for the decisive touchdown — on a Tush Push, of course.
“Everybody talks about last year, but really, it’s about playing the game this year we need to play,” defensive tackle Jordan Davis said. “Coming off last week’s win, we knew we had to do something even greater.”
It was good enough. Thanks to that defensive effort, the Eagles beat Andy Reid’s team for the third straight time. Next up: a rematch at the Linc with the Los Angeles Rams, who gave the Birds a fight in a January snowstorm.
— Jim Swan, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.
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The Chiefs have lost three straight games for the first time since Patrick Mahomes became the starter for Andy Reid at the end of the 2017 season. Marcus Hayes writes that “The Kingdom,” as the Chiefs have come to be known, has fallen, and the Eagles are still the NFL’s best team.
Jalen Carter kept his spit to himself in this game, and the Eagles’ defensive linemen got their juices flowing. Jeff McLane gave the D-line his highest marks in his grades for the game.
Our old friend Tom Brady handled the commentary on the game for Fox, just like he did in the Super Bowl. Here’s how Brady performed on the broadcast.
You can find more coverage of Sunday’s game here.
A second straight National League East championship is a foregone conclusion for the Phillies, who provided more positive news on Sunday: Shortstop Trea Turner appears to be ahead of schedule in his recovery from a strained right hamstring. The MVP candidate did not travel with the team to Los Angeles, but with another productive week of treatment, he could return from the injured list in the final week of the regular season.
The Phillies had a chance to pop the corks at Citizens Bank Park, but the Kansas City Royals did not cooperate. (Neither, for a change, did the Mets, who had lost eight straight before beating the Rangers on Sunday.) Aaron Nola had another rough outing in a 10-3 loss to Kansas City, but the Phillies will get to celebrate soon enough.
“We wish that we could’ve done it here, absolutely,” said Kyle Schwarber, who hit his 52nd homer on Sunday. “But we’ve got a lot of baseball left. We’ve got to keep playing good and playing our style, and it’ll happen.”
Next: Ranger Suárez (12-6, 2.77 ERA) is set to start the series opener in Los Angeles tonight at 10:10 against Dodgers righty Emmet Sheehan (6-3, 3.32).
With Sam Ersson and Dan Vladař set to be their goaltending combination, the Flyers moved on from Ivan Fedotov, trading the 28-year-old Russian to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2026 sixth-round draft pick. They also gained some salary-cap space in the deal.
The Flyers split a pair of games with the New York Rangers in the rookie series, including a 5-2 loss on Saturday night in Allentown. Jackie Spiegel has her takeaways from the action.
Penn State maintained the No. 2 ranking behind Ohio State in the Associated Press college football poll, but the opening of the Big Ten schedule is approaching. After a week off, the Nittany Lions will host No. 6 Oregon on Sept. 27.
The Lions overpowered Villanova of the FCS, 52-6, on Saturday as the defense held the Wildcats to 69 yards of offense in the first half.
The Temple Owls simply got humbled in a 42-3 thumping by Oklahoma at the Linc. “Sometimes you get some bad habits because you’re getting away with some things,” Temple coach K.C. Keeler said. “Any bad habits we had, we got exposed.”
Sports snapshot
On this date
Sept. 15, 1993: John Kruk had two hits and raised his batting average to .317 in a 6-3 Phillies victory against the Mets at Shea Stadium. Curt Schilling scattered 10 hits in seven innings to earn the win.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Olivia Reiner, Jeff Neiburg, Jeff McLane, Marcus Hayes, Jackie Spiegel, Gabriela Carroll, Scott Lauber, Greg Finberg, Ryan Mack, and Owen Hewitt.
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