LAS VEGAS -- In the end, it was the Kansas City Chiefs, somewhat inevitably. In another Super Bowl it looked like they would lose, and at the tail end of a season that looked for long stretches as if it would never come together, it was once again the Chiefs holding up the Lombardi Trophy and Patrick Mahomes as Super Bowl MVP.
I don't know how many times in the course of our weekly exercise in overreaction this season that we wondered whether the Chiefs might not be able to pull this one off. Their offense looked lackluster. Too many drops. Not enough receivers. A pair of early-December defeats left them just a game in front of the Denver Broncos in the AFC West. A Christmas Day loss to the Las Vegas Raiders just when it looked like Kansas City was getting it together. So yeah, the Chiefs gave us plenty of overreaction fodder. Even in the glow of another title after beating the San Francisco 49ers, the Chiefs admitted there were times this season when things didn't look great.
"This one means more," Mahomes said of his third Super Bowl title in five years and second in a row. "To battle through that adversity and come out on the other side, it just means a lot."
It was the Chiefs again, because when the chips are down, Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Steve Spagnuolo and apparently Mecole Hardman Jr. are the kinds of players and coaches you can count on to get back up and deliver in the biggest of big moments. We never should have doubted them, and that is not an overreaction. That said, enjoy the 2023 season's final overreactions column, in which we judge potential takeaways.
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Mahomes catching Brady?
Reid catching Belichick?
OT mistake for the 49ers?
Spagnuolo should be a head coach?
Shanahan will never win it all?
