It’s hard to believe, but when the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs play Sunday in Kansas City, it’ll be the fifth time these teams have met in the past five seasons. That makes the Chiefs join NFC East rivals Dallas, Washington and New York as the only teams to play the Eagles at least once a year since the start of 2021.
The Eagles and Chiefs have only played 12 times dating back to 1972, which means almost half of all Eagles-Chiefs games in NFL history have taken place over the last four years.
On Sunday, temps are expected to be in the low 90s at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs went 10-0 last season including two postseason wins. The Chiefs haven’t lost at home since Dec. 25, 2023, a 20-14 loss to the AFC West Raiders. The Eagles went to Kansas City that year and escaped with a 21-17 win. (More on that later.)
Eagles-Chiefs have made for some classics lately, including two Super Bowl matchups in a three-year span, and Sunday’s game has all the makings of another.
Let’s take a trip down Eagles-Chiefs memory lane, shall we?
Super revenge
After losing to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, a 38-35 thriller that there’s no need to rehash, the Eagles exacted revenge in the biggest way possible.
They absolutely thrashed the Chiefs just about seven months ago in Super Bowl LIX, a 40-22 triumph that delivered the Eagles their second Lombardi Trophy.
The standout plays are countless – from rookie DB Cooper DeJean’s pick-six, to DeVonta Smith’s famous “dagger” touchdown, to any of the six sacks the Eagles defense picked up on Patrick Mahomes as they embarrassed the three-time Super Bowl champion.
The game, billed as a clash of elites, was lopsided from the start, as the Eagles took an early 10-0 lead and then started their ascent to a blowout when DeJean returned a Mahomes pick 38 yards for a touchdown. Eagles fans don't seem to get tired of watching this:
At that point, Mahomes looked like a shot fighter, and even a very resilient Chiefs team that had come from behind in so many games that year just didn’t have any answers for Vic Fangio’s front-four rush.
Smith’s 34-yard TD catch in the third extended the lead to 34-0, and Jake Elliott’s 50-yard field goal in the fourth made it 40-6. The game was never in doubt for the Eagles, and the final score only looked somewhat close because Mahomes hit Xavier Worthy for a garbage-time 50-yard TD pass against Eagles backups, as the starters were on the sideline preparing to celebrate a title.
Road warriors
During the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes era, the Chiefs have gone through stretches where they've been almost unbeatable at Arrowhead.
In 2023, the Chiefs were 4-1 at home when Week 11 drew the Eagles on Monday night. At that point, the Eagles had lost four straight games to the Chiefs going back more than a decade – since a 2009 win a the Linc – and hadn’t won at Arrowhead since 2005.
And it sure looked like the Chiefs would once again get the best of the Eagles, who were down 17-7 in the third, but Jalen Hurts led a seven-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Hurts running in a 10-yard touchdown to cut the Kansas City lead to 17-14 with 4:05 left in the quarter.
Early in the fourth, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce fumbled after a 4-yard catch when he was hit by Bradley Toby. Nic Morrow recovered the loose ball, killing a Chiefs drive.
With 8:56 left in the game, the Eagles had the ball at their own 20-yard line. Hurts hit D’Andre Swift on the left side, which turned into a 20 yard-gain. The biggest play came on 3rd-and-5, when Hurts connected with DeVonta Smith for 13 yards, setting up a 41-yarder to Smith on the very next play down the 1-yard line, and that’s where the Eagles are unstoppable.
One play later, Hurts’ 1-yard TD run put the Eagles up 21-17. The Chiefs had the ball two more times in the fourth but never advanced past their own 49. Finally, the Eagles had their first win against the Chiefs since 2009.
The Eagles improved to 9-1, and at that time, nobody could foresee the 1-6 slide they’d encounter to end the year.
Kolb comes through
The 2009 season wasn’t a great one for the Eagles. They won 11 games but suffered a bunch of injuries toward the end of the year, especially on the offensive line. They ended up getting blown out by Dallas in the last week of the season and again in an NFC Wild Card game, the latter of which turned out to be Donovan McNabb’s final game as an Eagle.
The season started off with McNabb getting hurt in the season opener against the Panthers, and third-year backup Kevin Kolb entering the game to finish off a 38-10 win. McNabb would miss the next two games, putting Kolb in the driver’s seat to show if he could be the franchise future. Kolb and the Eagles lost a Week 2 game against New Orleans at the Linc before welcoming the Chiefs, who were off to an 0-2 start.
Kolb held the fort down in this Week 3 battle, tossing two TD passes and going 24-for-34 for 327 yards in the 34-14 win. His 64-yard deep strike to DeSean Jackson in the second quarter put the Eagles up 21-7, and his fourth-quarter TD pass to Brent Celek extended the lead to 34-7.
Jackson went for 149 yards that day, and Celek added 104 on eight catches, which would end up being the eighth-most receiving yards of his career.
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