Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV

You could say that, for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the third time was quite the charm.

Trailing by a score of 20-10 entering the fourth quarter, and thereby facing a deficit of double-digit points in their third postseason game in a row, Mahomes helped the Chiefs engineer yet another comeback victory, leading Kansas City on three drives that would end in touchdowns, en route to a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV.

After being limited by the stout defense of the 49ers for much of the game, and being held to less than 200 yards passing through the first three-quarters of the game, Mahomes finished with 286 yards passing and two touchdowns, resulting in him winning the Most Valuable Player award. Mahomes became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to receive the award, and one of only two players in league history to win the award before turning 25 years old (alongside Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith)

When Kansas City appeared to be mounting a comeback effort early in the fourth quarter, followed by Mahomes throwing an interception with his Chiefs deep in San Francisco territory, the turnover felt like the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Chiefs’ hopes of victory. But the Chiefs scored touchdowns on each of the next three drives. Mahomes would cap off the first one with a scoring pass to tight end Travis Kelce, and the second one with a swing pass to running back Damien Williams. After the 49ers turned the ball over on downs on the ensuing drive, Williams ripped off a 38-yard touchdown run that effectively sealed the victory.

On the flip side, the loss was a devasting one for the 49ers. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo played tremendously through the first three quarters but seemingly could not come up with the big play that would kill the momentum Kansas City seemed to generate in the fourth quarter. In addition, the “choking in the Super Bowl” narrative only got louder for 49ers’ Head Coach Kyle Shanahan, especially when juxtaposed with the Atlanta Falcons — for whom Shanahan was the offensive coordinator at the time — famously blowing their 28-3 second-half lead over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

The victory capped a 50-year drought in which the Chiefs had not won the Super Bowl. Their last Super Bowl win came back in 1970 when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. When that game was played, Pat Mahomes – the father of Kansas City’s Super Bowl MVP-winning quarterback – was still eight months away from being born.

The win also serves as the perfect career capstone for Kansas City Head Coach Andy Reid, who was already an odds-on favorite to be selected to the Hall of Fame after his career came to an end. After being dismissed by the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the 2012 season, Reid has taken the Chiefs to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons as Kansas City’s coach. Now, with a Super Bowl win on his resume, in addition to his career .618 winning percentage, his future enshrinement in Canton feels like all but a foregone conclusion.