The Chiefs are officially a dynasty.
Patrick Mahomes threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman with three seconds remaining to give the Chiefs their third Super Bowl victory in five years. Kansas City beat San Francisco 25-22 in a Super Bowl 58 thriller at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nev., on Sunday.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid won a third Super Bowl as a head coach, and Mahomes finished 34 of 46 passing for 333 yards, two TDs and an interception to win his third Super Bowl MVP. Kansas City tied the game in regulation, which set up a back-and-forth in overtime that ended in a familiar place.
Kansas City will have the opportunity for three straight championships in 2024 — an honor reserved for dynasties. Who were the winners and losers in Super Bowl 58? Sporting News takes a closer look:
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Winner: Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes affirmed his status as a top-five all-time quarterback by doing what the greatest quarterbacks of all time do in the clutch.
He closed in the fourth quarter and overtime. The 49ers took a 19-16 lead on a 53-yard field goal with 1:53 remaining, but that was more than enough time for Mahomes to lead a game-tying drive.
Mahomes hit 5 of 7 passes for 58 yards on the final drive in regulation — including a 22-yard pass to tight end Travis Kelce — to set up the game-tying field by Harrison Butker with three seconds remaining.
The 49ers took the lead in overtime with a 27-yard field goal by Jake Moody, but Mahomes again went to work. He converted a fourth-and-1 with an 8-yard scramble and hit 7 of 7 passes for 35 yards on the game-winning drive, including the TD pass to Hardman.
On Kansas City's final two possessions, Mahomes hit 12 of 14 passes for 93 yards with four runs for 33 yards.
It was a closing-time performance reminiscent of Tom Brady in Super Bowl 51 against the Atlanta Falcons, and it puts Mahomes squarely in those larger-than-life conversations with three Super Bowl victories at 28 years old.
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Loser: Kyle Shanahan
The 49ers missed another opportunity to win a Super Bowl under Shanahan, who despite great success with the 49ers has not been able to close on the final stage.
Shannon was the Falcons' offensive coordinator in Super Bowl 51 — and the infamous 28-3 blown lead still looms over his coaching career.
Shanahan has now watched the 49ers lose 10-point leads in the Super Bowl to the Chiefs twice, and the decision to take the ball first in overtime was questionable given the setup.
Shanahan did have his moments. A gamble on fourth-and-3 from the 15-yard line with 12:46 paid off. George Kittle caught a 4-yard pass, and Brock Purdy converted a 10-yard TD pass to Jauan Jennings with 11:22 remaining.
San Francisco had to settle for field goals in crucial situations, and a MVP-worthy effort by Christian McCaffrey — who finished with 160 total yards and a TD — will get lost in the shuffle.
Two special teams' miscues hurt. A punt bounced off San Francisco's Darrell Luter Jr. and through Ray-Ray McCloud's hands, which Kansas City's Jaylen Watson recovered. Mahomes hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 16-yard TD with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter to give the Chiefs a 13-10 lead. Moody also had an extra point blocked, which kept the door open for Kansas City to tie the game in overtime.
Now, San Francisco must avoid a Super Bowl hangover.
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Winner: Travis Kelce — and Taylor Swift
The romance that took over the NFL season was not a distraction on the largest stage.
Kelce had nine catches for 93 yards on 10 targets, and he nearly scored the game-winning TD in overtime. In the playoffs, Kelce had 32 catches on 37 targets for 350 yards and three TDs – and his sideline confrontation with Reid in the first half will be a two-second highlight instead of a two-hour talking point on Monday morning.
Swift was ever-present at the Super Bowl, but the camera shots were not over the top. She was part of the story, and Kelce’s celebrity is sure to boom in another offseason as a Super Bowl champion. This story is far from over.
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Loser: Dre Greenlaw
The 49ers linebacker suffered one of the most untimely non contact injuries in Super Bowl history. After a San Francisco punt, Greenlaw prepared to take the field with 9:16 remaining in the half.
Greenlaw's left leg gave out, however, and he was carted off the field with an Achilles' tendon injury. Greenlaw would miss the remainder of the game.
Dre Greenlaw appeared to injure himself jogging back onto the field pic.twitter.com/p3nwmTUsfO
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024
Winner: Kansas City’s defense
Reid won this Super Bowl in a different fashion, and that was with a defense that allowed more than 24 points in only one game this season.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spanuolo came up with two clutch calls in the pressure situations.
With two minutes remaining and San Francisco facing a third-and-5, Trent McDuffie blitzed and forced an incompletion from Brock Purdy. The 49ers could not bleed out the rest of the clock and had to settle for a Moody field goal as a result.
On a third-and-4 from the 9-yard line in overtime, defensive tackle Chris Jones forced Purdy to throw another rushed incompletion. Those two plays were huge in the final drives, and San Francisco was just 3 of 12 for the game.
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Loser: Brock Purdy
This is a tough one for Purdy, who did not have a bad game by any stretch. Purdy finished 23 of 38 for 255 yards and a TD, and top targets Deebo Samuel and George Kittle battled through injuries in the game.
Purdy, however, could not convert those gotta-have-it drives into touchdowns, and that means the “game manager” discussion will continue into the offseason. San Francisco’s best offensive play in the first half was a trick play – a TD pass from Jennings to McCaffrey.
San Francisco will be back in the NFC hunt next season, and Purdy does have two years left on his contract. Yet the question about whether he is truly a franchise quarterback will hover into 2024.
Winner: Andy Reid
Reid joined the three Super Bowl coaches club, a fraternity that includes Bill Belichick (seven), Chuck Noll (four) and Bill Walsh (three) and Joe Gibbs (three).
With Belichick out in New England, Reid is now the standard for all NFL coaches. He has 258 victories, and at 65 years old could make a run at 300. He has led the Chiefs to double-digit victories in nine consecutive seasons, and it’s time to put him in that GOAT discussion given that Kansas City has found multiple ways to win Super Bowls not limited to Mahomes – even if he will always be the focal point.
Reid has entered his icon era, too, and that was proven in a four-game stretch that also included playoff victories against Miami, Buffalo and Baltiomore.
