Super Bowl LVIII — 2023 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: A trick-play completion (Christian McCaffrey to Jauan Jennings, thrown by Jennings) is separately documented on the site's game context/narrative rather than in this passing table, which lists only the two starting quarterbacks' lines. Mecole Hardman's 57-yard reception was the game-winning overtime touchdown.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

Super Bowl LVIII became the longest Super Bowl ever played, stretching nearly 75 minutes of game time into overtime before Kansas City completed a repeat championship over the San Francisco 49ers, avenging the Chiefs' Super Bowl LIV win over the same franchise four years earlier from the opposite side of a much tighter contest. San Francisco controlled the first half, getting a record-setting 55-yard field goal from Jake Moody and a trick-play touchdown reception to build a 10-0 halftime lead, with Kansas City's offense sputtering behind uncharacteristic drops and miscommunications from Patrick Mahomes's usually reliable receiving corps. Kansas City finally found its footing in the third quarter, taking its first lead of the game, 13-10, after recovering a punt that deflected off a San Francisco special-teamer inside 49ers territory and converting the short field into a touchdown. The teams traded field goals through a tense fourth quarter, with San Francisco's Christian McCaffrey — the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year — a constant threat as both a runner and receiver, finishing with 80 rushing yards and 80 receiving yards. San Francisco kicked a 53-yard field goal with under two minutes left to reclaim a 19-16 lead, but Kansas City answered right back, with Harrison Butker's 29-yard field goal as time expired tying the game 19-19 and forcing overtime for just the second time in Super Bowl history, and the first under the newer overtime rules guaranteeing both teams a possession. San Francisco won the coin toss and elected to receive, converting the possession into a field goal for a 22-19 lead. Kansas City then drove 75 yards, and on the final play of the game, Mahomes found backup receiver Mecole Hardman — signed back to Kansas City midseason after a brief stint with the New York Jets — for the game-winning touchdown, a play the Chiefs internally nicknamed "Tom and Jerry" for its designed misdirection, sealing a 25-22 victory. Mahomes, who threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns on 34-of-46 passing while directing Kansas City through a season in which the Chiefs' receiving corps was frequently criticized as the weakest of his championship-era teams, was named Super Bowl MVP for the third time, joining an elite group of multiple-time winners. The win made Kansas City the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since New England in 2003-04 and cemented the Mahomes-Reid Chiefs as a bona fide dynasty, their third championship in five seasons. Travis Kelce, Mahomes's longtime security blanket, led all receivers with nine catches for 93 yards. Played before 61,629 fans at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the game also drew outsized off-field attention due to the highly publicized presence of pop star Taylor Swift, dating Kelce, whose attendance was credited with a measurable spike in the broadcast's audience.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Super Bowl LVIII
• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl LVIII box score