The same ghosts that haunted Sam Darnold came for Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX

You’ve got to give Vic Fangio credit. He was able to do what a few teams could this year, and did it on the biggest stage. In one game, he made Patrick Mahomes look human. He regressed so badly in Super Bowl 59, it cost him and the Kansas City Chiefs a third-straight championship. 

But the problem wasn’t just that Mahomes struggled. Despite his early season woes, the Chiefs were the No. 1 team in the AFC. It was that Mahomes was particularly abysmal in the first half in Sunday’s game. 

Mahomes' inefficiency in the first half reached new depths as he posted the 10th-worst first-half performance in the last five years, per an NFL Reddit subthread. The Chiefs had a 5 percent offensive success rate and Mahomes himself had a -1.36 EPA/dropback (expected points added). 

Among the worst performances on that list were two Davis Mills starts and a P.J. Walker start. But the most daunting comparison is the Sam Darnold, “I’m seeing ghosts” game back in 2019 against the New England Patriots. 

Patrick Mahomes was clearly seeing ghosts in first half of Super Bowl 59

Mahomes didn’t have to verbally say it like Darnold did, but we all could tell he was seeing ghosts. He spent more time scrambling around the pocket as the Philadelphia Eagles defensive front pressured the Chiefs from start to finish. 

In fact, Mahomes probably logged more miles in the game than the Chiefs had to travel to get to New Orleans. That’s how bad the game was for him and the Chiefs offense. Those same ghosts Darnold saw made their way to Caesar’s Superdome. 

By halftime the Chiefs offense was so bad, it had just one first down on their first drive of the game and had net 23 total yards. Yeah, it was that kind of game for Mahomes and Co. 

Again, Fangio deserves a whole heap of credit for scheming a game plan that didn’t have a single blitz package – the Eagles pressured Mahomes on 38 percent of his dropbacks without blitzing a single time. The Eagles used just a standard four-man rush, and that was even too much for the Chiefs poor offensive line to handle. 

The Eagles could have decided to not send a single defensive lineman for a play and Mahomes still would have run around the pocket like his life depended on it. That’s how lethal the Eagles defense was. 

This game will be remembered for many things. The one overarching theme was like Darnold once upon a time, Mahomes was seeing ghosts. It’s the only way to justify how badly he played.