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After winning the NFL MVP on February 9, superstar Patrick Mahomes II took home the Super Bowl MVP along with the Lombardi Trophy in Arizona — but was there an unsung “most valuable player,” or players?
According to Mahomes, there was. Amid the postgame celebration, the Kansas City Chiefs QB told reporters that “I think the biggest [game-changer] was the offensive line.” Continuing: The way they were able to protect me in that second half whenever we couldn’t use those chip [blocks] to help them out against a great defensive line, that’s the reason we won this game.”
ESPN analyst and former two-time Super Bowl champion Damien Woody agreed, tweeting: “Give the Chiefs OL the MVP. What they did against that Eagles front was phenomenal!”
After everyone talked about the daunting Philadelphia Eagles rotation of pass rushers all week, the KC blocking unit came out and pitched a shutout, allowing zero sacks on Mahomes and only one tackle for a loss. They were especially dominant in the second half, opening holes for running back Isiah Pacheco and keeping the pocket clean to allow their signal-caller time to operate the offense.
In the end, big plays were made by contributors like Kadarius Toney, Nick Bolton, Skyy Moore, Pacheco and Travis Kelce among others, but this clash was won and lost in the trenches and KC took over those battles during the second half.
Chiefs Offensive Line Talks That Talk After the Game
A few Chiefs offensive linemen sounded off after the victory, including center Creed Humphrey and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
Humphrey went viral on Twitter first, telling analysts to “put some damn respect on my guys man!”
Brown dropped a big statement on Twitter not long after, boasting: “0 sacks, put it on a f****** T Shirt!!!!” He included a suggestive GIF from “The Sopranos.”
Lastly, former Chiefs right tackle Mitchell Schwartz also went off on Twitter, praising the current Kansas City RT boldly: “Let me just say this: ANDREW. MF’ING. WYLIE. You guys threw shade at him all year and I said he was way better than you all thought. He just threw a freaking shutout against this vaunted DL after hearing about [Haason] Reddick for two straight weeks. HUGE congrats to @RealAndrewWylie!!!!”
Chiefs Digest reporter Matt Derrick caught up with Wylie in the locker room after the game — one of the only parts of the O-line that was there for both Chiefs’ Super Bowl wins in the past four years. The often-criticized right tackle was very humble, joking sarcastically that the blocking unit didn’t talk about the hype the Eagles defensive front was getting ahead of the matchup. “We didn’t talk about it at all,” he replied with a smirk.
Patrick Mahomes Calls Andy Reid ‘One of the Greatest Coaches of All Time’
During the same postgame press conference, Mahomes made it known that Andy Reid is “one of the greatest coaches of all time.”
“I think everyone knew that,” Mahomes continued, “but these last two Super Bowls kind of cemented that. To have someone that is such a great person, who gets the best out of the players to become men, and players, you wanted to do that, you wanted to win those Super Bowls for him and it’s great that we did that.”
Reid was complementary of the OL during his own postgame press conference as well, and referred to this as the “big boy game” where both of Kansas City’s front lines had to step up and play well. “And they did,” he added, “[on] both sides.”
The Chiefs signal-caller also spoke highly of his offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, who has been the subject of speculation once again in this year’s coaching cycle.
“I want to give the credit the Eric Bieniemy,” Mahomes acknowledged when discussing the Jerick McKinnon slide at the one-yard line that virtually iced the game, “because even though we sometimes get tired of listening and talking about those moments, they always seem to happen in the biggest games and he makes sure we go over the details every single week about them.”
Big Red is officially back in 2023, but it will be interesting to see if Bieniemy returns. His contract is set to expire again once the offseason begins.
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