‘The Kingdom’ falls: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes lose again to Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts and Eagles
The Eagles proved they were the NFL's best team with a three-point win against the best franchise of the past decade. The Chiefs showed the world a once-great team.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If there were questions, they were answered Sunday.
Who’s the NFL’s best team? The Philadelphia Eagles.
What about the Chiefs?
Diminished.
Surpassed.
Granted, Micah Parsons’ Packers look good, and the Bills might be the AFC’s best team, but the Birds took the best shot from the best franchise of the past decade, and did so in the Chiefs’ home opener, and they emerged with a convincing 20-17 win. It wasn’t that close.
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Sunday gave the football world its first referendum game of the 2025 season, and, most likely, its most meaningful. That’s because it might resound for years, considering the magnitude of greatness the Chiefs achieved: seven straight conference championship games, five Super Bowls, and three Super Bowl rings. They reigned long, and they reigned well.
But now “The Kingdom” — coined by Chiefs radio voice Mitch Holthus more than a decade ago and appropriated by ESPN’s hyperbolic promotional wing in its contrived and overwrought docuseries on Kansas City’s football team — is fallen. After navigating to 15 wins last season with smoke, mirrors, and (possibly) skewed referees, the Chiefs now 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.
“Everybody talks about last year, but really, it’s about playing the game this year we need to play,” said defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who anchored the defense that has allowed a total of 37 points to the Cowboys and Chiefs. “Coming off last week’s win, we knew we had to do something even greater.”
That meant minimizing mistakes, like penalties and turnovers. On Sunday, the Eagles committed six penalties and had no turnovers at Arrowhead Stadium, one of most intimidating venues in the game.
“It was about who would shoot themselves in the foot more,” said left tackle Jordan Mailata. He clenched his massive fists, pressed them knuckle-to-knuckle, and continued: “It was a grind from the very start.”
It’s always hard to unseat a king.
When did the Kingdom fall, exactly?
Probably early in the fourth quarter, when Mahomes’ short pass to podcast mogul and celebrity fiancé Travis Kelce clanked off his hands and landed in the hands of rookie safety Drew Mukuba, who raced 41 yards. Kelce — brother of Jason and Taylor Swift’s muse — looked on, indifferently jogging far behind. The Eagles eventually scored on consecutive Tush Pushes for a 10-point lead with less than eight minutes to play.
The Chiefs could not shake it off.
In a game with minuscule margin for error, the Eagles did not turn the ball over. The Chiefs did. In a game in which conservatism mattered, Nick Sirianni was conservative time and again, settling for a field goal at the end of the first half, declining a penalty late in the game to rely on two Tush Pushes to gain the 1 yard that ensured the win.
Reid, on the other hand, burnished his 26-year legacy of in-game mistakes. Just two minutes into the second half, Reid tried to convert a fourth-and-1 … from the Chiefs’ 36-yard line. Kareem Hunt lost a yard, the Eagles gained 2 yards on their ensuing possession and accepted the gift of a 51-yard field goal and a 13-10 lead they never relinquished.
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This is not the end for the Chiefs. Reid, Mahomes, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy aren’t likely to go anywhere for a while, and they are excellent; Reid and Mahomes are perhaps the best ever.
However, Sirianni, quarterback Jalen Hurts, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will be entrenched in South Philly for years. They are younger and deeper, and they have general manager Howie Roseman, who helped design current front office philosophies, from salary cap management to analytics application to sports science to positional prioritization.
The game indicates where the Chiefs stand in this moment, and it likely is a barometer of where they will stand at the end of this season. The first and third of these three losses came against the Eagles, first in the Super Bowl, then on Sunday. The second loss came in Brazil, in the season opener, against a very good Chargers team.
History favors them, too. They lost two of their first three games in 2021, but still won their sixth of nine straight AFC West titles and made it to the AFC championship game. They lost the season opener in 2023, then looked awful in Week 2 in Jacksonville, but won the Super Bowl that season.
That was a younger, better version of the Chiefs.
Every year, beginning with the 2019 season, the Chiefs have played into late January or early February, a total of 19 games more than the Jets, Panthers, and Falcons, who missed the playoffs in each of those seasons. Perhaps aggregate fatigue is playing a role.
They also played Sunday without Xavier Worthy, who has a bum shoulder, and Rashee Rice, who was serving the second game of a six-game suspension, so Mahomes’ viable targets were limited. Their offensive line looked little better than the catastrophe Reid brought to Super Bowl LIX in February, when it gave up six sacks.
A three-point win might not sound important or ominous, but consider that the Eagles’ offense is still in a formative stage. Injury prevented the offense from practicing even once in the preseason, and new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who has never before called plays, is learning on the job.
The Eagles on Sunday showed the world a team with great potential.
The Chiefs showed the world a once-great team.