Sooners in the Super Bowl: Ecstasy for Jalen, Eagles, but Agony for Creed, Chiefs

For Jalen Hurts and Lane Johnson, it was football ecstasy.

For Creed Humphrey, Samaje Perine, Hollywood Brown, Wanya Morris and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs, it was agony.

In a Super Bowl rematch from two years ago, Hurts and a punishing Philadelphia defense roared past the two-time champions 40-22 in Super Bowl 59 on Sunday in New Orleans. Hurts, who played quarterback for the Sooners in 2019 after transferring in from Alabama, was named MVP.

For the third year in a row, Oklahoma had the most former players in the Super Bowl, putting a total of nine former Sooners in the big game. This time, though, instead of another Kansas City crown, it was the Eagles who emerged victorious.

The Philly defense was the difference in the game as Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the KC offense was overwhelmed all night.

But Hurts, who took the loss as the Eagles starter in that 38-35 loss to the Chiefs two years ago, got redemption with another exquisite offensive performance to lead the Eagles back to the NFL mountaintop.

"I’m still processing it," Hurts told Fox Sports on the field right after the final gun. "Just can’t wait to enjoy this with my family and … and soak it in."

Hurts led the Eagles with another MVP-worthy performance, completing 17-of-21 passes for 221 yards and threw two touchdowns with one interception. He also led the team in rushing with 72 yards and a touchdown on a QB sneak. In his Super Bowl loss two years ago, Hurts passed for 304 yards, rushed for 70 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, but Mahomes left with the win and the MVP award.

This time, both belonged to Jalen Hurts.

"God is good," Hurts said. "He's with me through all the highs and the lows, and I think for me personally, myself, I've just been able to use every experience and learn from it, the good, the bad, all of it, using it as fuel to pursue my own greatness. And I think I couldn't do any of these things without the guys around me. We had a special group this year, and we were able to learn from the past and get some nice, new pieces and get over that hump."

Hurts led the Sooners to their last College Football Playoff appearance following the team's fifth straight Big 12 Conference championship in 2019. Hurts set numerous offensive records that season, including most rushing yards by an OU quarterback (1,298) and touchdowns (20) to go with 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns passing.

He's the first former OU quarterback win the Super Bowl going directly from Oklahoma to the NFL. Troy Aikman played two season for the Sooners but finished his career at UCLA before wining three Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys.

Philly raced to a 34-0 lead in the third quarter and led 40-6 to start fourth. The Chiefs scored late in the third quarter and added two touchdowns and two 2-point conversions late in the fourth, but the game was never close. Philadelphia’s defensive line overwhelmed Humphrey and the KC offensive line, sacking Mahomes six times and harassing him throughout the evening at the Caesar’s Superdome.

"Defense wins championships," Hurts said. "We saw how they played today. We saw how they played in the game. They were able to give us short fields and let us do what we do."

The Chiefs were trying to become the first back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl winner, and the NFL’s first three-straight winners of the league championship since the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s.

Perine got one rush for 8 yards and was targeted once but didn’t catch any passes. Brown caught two passes for 15 yards and had a fourth-quarter touchdown called back by an offensive pass interference penalty. Humphrey, a Pro Bowler, started at center for a Chiefs offensive unit that went nowhere. And long-time deep snapper James Winchester was perfect on six punt snaps. Former Sooner offensive lineman McKade Mettauer is on the Chiefs’ reserve/injured list.

For Johnson, another Pro Bowler, it was his second Super Bowl championship with the Eagles after beating New England in 2017-18. Johnson started at right tackle for the Eagles and was instrumental in allowing Hurts to thrive against the KC defense. Hurts’ first-quarter “brotherly shove” touchdown was aided by key blocks from both Johnson and former OU tight end Grant Calcaterra, who played three seasons in Norman before retiring due to concussions and eventually transferring to SMU. Calcaterra didn’t record any offensive stats in Sunday’s game, but he did recover the onside kick after Kansas City’s final touchdown with 1:47 to play.