Jalen Hurts Turns Mahomes Matchups Into Statement Games

Patrick Mahomes has spent his career shredding quarterback résumés. From Josh Allen to Lamar Jackson to Justin Herbert, the Chiefs’ superstar has made the best in the league look ordinary when it matters most.  Until last February only Joe Burrow and Tom Brady had beaten Mahomes in the post-season, in 21 playoff games.  Think about that.  Mahomes was 17-3 in the second season and was gunning for a third straight Lombardi trophy.  Until he ran into the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Jalen Hurts, who is quickly becoming Mahomes’ kryptonite.  

Through four head-to-head matchups including two Super Bowls Hurts hasn’t blinked. He’s gone toe-to-toe with Mahomes on the sport’s biggest stages and, most recently, handed him one of the worst defeats of his career.

Head to Head

Hurts and Mahomes are now tied 2–2 head-to-head, with Hurts winning the last two meetings, including a dominant Super Bowl MVP performance in New Orleans 40-22.

Mahomes a Nightmare

Mahomes has been a nightmare matchup for nearly every other top quarterback of his generation.

• Lamar Jackson: 1–3
• Dak Prescott 0-1
• Justin Herbert: 1–4
• Deshaun Watson: 1–3
• Russell Wilson: 1–2
• Derek Carr: 1–9
• Tua Tagovailoa: 0–1
• Tom Brady 1-3 

Only Joe Burrow (3-2) and Josh Allen (4-1) have winning regular season records vs Mahomes among quarterbacks who have also faced him in the playoffs.

Mahomes in the Playoffs

Patrick Mahomes has been nothing short of dominant in the postseason. Through the 2025 playoffs, he owns a 17–4 career playoff record, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest big-game quarterbacks of all time. He’s undefeated in the Divisional Round, 5-2 in AFC title games, and already has three Super Bowl rings.

Some have gotten their “ounce” of flesh in the regular season but in the regular season you drive for show and in the post-season you putt for dough and that’s where Mahomes has been money.

Putting Season

 Elite Company

Tom Brady (2–0) is the only QB with multiple playoff wins against Mahomes, taking him down in both the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl.

Joe Burrow (1–1) is the only other AFC quarterback to topple Mahomes, doing it in Arrowhead in the 2022 AFC Championship game.

Jalen Hurts (1–1) is the only other NFC quarterback to ever beat Mahomes in the postseason, handing him a 40-22 defeat last February in Super Bowl 59, avenging the Super Bowl loss to Mahomes and the Chiefs two years prior in Super Bowl 57.

The Tiger Woods Effect

Most quarterbacks wilt when Mahomes is on the other sideline.  It’s the Tiger Woods Effect.  Josh Allen has lost to him four times in the playoffs. Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, and Tua Tagovailoa are winless. Even Ben Roethlisberger couldn’t find a way through #15 and both the 49ers’ Jimmy Garapalo and Brock Purdy couldn’t hold a 10 point lead in the two Super Bowls they played in against him.

Only Brady, Burrow, and Hurts have solved the Mahomes puzzle when it mattered most and only Brady and Hurts have done it with the Lombardi Trophy on the line.   The Birds QB1 doesn’t flinch when going head to head with football immortality.  He rises.

Everyone else? They bee flinch but the Chiefs’ quarterback doesn’t as he always seems to make the right play when it matters most.

Hurts Takes the Fight to Mahomes

Hurts is the rare quarterback who treats Mahomes as a measuring stick, not a death sentence. He threw for 387 yards in their first meeting, ran for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl, and delivered a flawless 17-of-22 passing day in Super Bowl LIX while adding 72 rushing yards and a score on the ground. He doesn’t just stay in the fight he raises his game and pressures Mahomes into matching his intensity.

It’s why Eagles-Chiefs has quickly become must-watch football. And it’s why Hurts, unlike almost every other quarterback in the NFL, has proven he belongs on the same stage as one Patrick Lavon Mahomes II.

Hurts has had two monster Super Bowl performances against Kansas City’s prodigal son and last February took home Super Bowl MVP honors, famously telling his left tackle, Jordan Mialata after the game, “It’s just what the f#*k I do.”    

Kellen Moore’s Head Coaching Debut Called ‘Completely Awful’ After Saints’ Loss to Cardinals

No one thought Kellen Moore was going to go directly from his one year as Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator to making the New Orleans Saints less of a joke than they’ve been in recent years.

But to look even worse, somehow? That wasn’t in the plans, either.

The Athletic’s Mike Jones (who?) called out Moore for what proved to be a completely awful debut as the new head coach of the Saints in a 23-20 Week 1 loss to the equally moribund Arizona Cardinals.

Jones did point out the Saints … seemed to try hard?

Talk about damning with faint praise.

” … Moore’s players displayed some fight,” Jones wrote on September 10. “Quarterback Spencer Rattler had some bright spots and kept slinging despite some tough situations. But poor clock management, a few questionable decisions and sloppy play ultimately overshadowed Moore’s head coaching debut. Moore, a sharp offensive mind as a coordinator, showed his inexperience at times. He went in at halftime with all three timeouts in his back pocket and later explained he was trying his best to save his timeouts. Saving them for what, though?”

Saints Job Seemed Radioactive In Offseason

There’s probably a reason the Saints job was the first head coaching spot to open and the last to close.

New Orleans fired Dennis Allen after a 2-7 start in 2024 — they ultimately finished 5-12 — then the Saints were the last of 6 head coaching vacancies filled when Moore was hired just days after he helped lead the Eagles to a 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on February 9 in New Orleans.

That reason? Anyone considering the Saints job also had to consider its fraught leadership situation with owner Gayle Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis — a duo that has seemingly run the franchise into the ground since the late Tom Benson’s death in 2018.

That starts with the losses of Payton and future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees in consecutive years — Brees in 2021 and Payton in 2022 — and continues with some questionable draft decisions, including taking offensive tackles in the first round each of the last 2 years.

In 2024, the Saints selected offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga at No. 14 overall — ahead of NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl edge rusher Jared Verse at No. 19 to the Los Angeles Rams and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year finalist and Pro Bowl wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. at No. 23 to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Saints haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, when they went 12-4 in Payton’s next-to-last season.

From Record Setting College QB to NFL Head Coach

Most football fans first met Moore for the first time as the starting quarterback for Boise State, where he went 49-3 from 2008 to 2011, including an undefeated, 14-0 record in 2009, and walked away with the FBS record for wins.

Moore spent 6 seasons as a backup quarterback for the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys before going directly into coaching,  eventually becoming an offensive coordinator for the Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers before his breakthrough season with the Eagles led to a Super Bowl win following last season.

Continue reading