Patrick Mahomes Outlasts Jalen Hurts + Rihanna

The Sunday Punch Podcast

Jalen Hurts Proves Himself

• His first-half fumble was returned by the Chiefs for a touchdown. On the Eagles’ very next drive, they went 75 yards on 12 plays and scored a touchdown.

Offensively, the Eagles are positioned to mostly run it back. The team’s three featured pass catchers—DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, and Dallas Goedert—all showed up in a big way against Kansas City. They’re all in their 20s and are under contract for at least the next two years. That continuity with Hurts is a big reason to be bullish on the Eagles’ future

The defense, however, could be a different story. The Eagles couldn’t get a stop in the second half against the Chiefs. Kansas City scored touchdowns on three straight possessions and then took 5:07 off the clock before kicking the game-winning field goal.

Sirianni likes to show movie clips to the players to reinforce certain themes. In a team meeting before the Super Bowl, he broke out a clip from the movie Focus with Will Smith. Smith plays a con man, and the scene Sirianni showed highlighted the character’s attention to detail when setting up one of his targets. But attention to detail was precisely what was missing from the Eagles’ defense against Mahomes and Reid. They were flummoxed by Reid’s scheming and use of motion in the red zone. The defensive backs failed to adequately communicate, leading to a pair of wide-open touchdowns. Overall, Mahomes and the Chiefs moved the ball with ease. Just 7.4 percent of Mahomes’s throws went into tight windows

Going forward, the roster turnover on defense could be massive. The Eagles have eight starters or prominent role players slated for free agency: defensive linemen Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, and Javon Hargrave; linebackers T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White; cornerback James Bradberry; and safeties Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps. The Eagles could also be looking at a new defensive coordinator if Jonathan Gannon gets the Cardinals’ head-coaching job.

Patrick Mahomes + Greatness
Leading the Chiefs to their second Super Bowl title in four years

He’s doing all of this for a few reasons: He has one of the best offensive coaches in the history of football in Andy Reid. His organization provides him with a competitive roster every year, and most of all, he is the best quarterback in the sport. With all of these things put together, the floor for the Chiefs every year with Mahomes should be a conference title game appearance, and even that will seem disappointing

Rihanna haltime performance

Yes, The Associated Press just confirmed that Rihanna is, in fact, pregnant, so I no longer feel like I’m writing this while playing this particular Super Mario Bros. level.

Yes, there was a copious amount of lip-synching, gracefully and gleefully undisguised. Yes, the Super Smash Bros. staging, quite striking when viewed from above, quite effectively compensated for her limited mobility. (But not as limited as you’d think! She’s pregnant! Holy shit!) Yes, she sang/performed a whole bunch of her stupendously rad hit songs, rapid-fire as these things go: no one selection terribly surprising (even “Bitch”) and none disappointing in the slightest. No, unless you count her training camp–sized cadre of puffy, white backup dancers and her demure band, she didn’t bring anyone out. No special guests. None. Zero. (Yes, I held my breath for the entirety of “All of the Lights.”) Drake wept. Good.

Yes, quite logically, given the fact that she is literally pregnant, she gave approximately 15 percent as much pure effort as, say, Katy Perry in the same spot. Even Rihanna’s choreography—crisp, precise, lethally confident, lascivious enough to trigger angry phone calls but just demure enough to safely ignore those complaints—had a bombastic leisure to it. An old line from her old friend and current halftime show power player Jay-Z kept popping into my head: My presence is charity. But this is the essence of Rihanna’s greatness, her whole baffling but triumphant deal: Her regal restraint, her disinterest almost, can possibly generate more exhilaration than, say, Lady Gaga trying harder than you’ve ever seen anybody try at anything ever in your life.