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Super Bowl LIX was played on Feb. 9 in a battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs with the former coming out on top in a decisive blowout 40-22.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA performed for the highly anticipated halftime show, including some controversial political metaphors.
Sophomore Kavish Shah was ecstatic that the Chiefs lost although he originally predicted the Chiefs to win, he said.
“I was surprised because I thought the refs were going to be with the Chiefs, but I guess the payment didn’t go through for the Chiefs, and then the Eagles were destroying them,” Kavish Shah said.
Senior Kyle Tse was in the minority for believing in the underdog Eagles team going into Super Bowl LIX, he said.
“I thought the Eagles had a better chance of winning because they had counters to Steve Spagnolo’s defense, and they knew everything because of previous matchups, but I didn’t expect it to be such a bloodbath,” Tse said.
Tse was shocked by how abysmal Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs looked in the first half, he said.
“Pretty much 33 scrimmage yards put up by the entire team in the first half was surprising because that’s not normally what you see,” Tse said. “But in the second half, he slowly got back to regular Patrick Mahomes, but it was too little too late.”
Kavish Shah enjoyed Kendrick Lamar’s performance even though it was a little out of the norm compared to past halftime shows, he said.
“Kendrick Lamar is not just a singer; he’s a storyteller,” Kavish Shah said. “So I kind of knew there was going to be more (than just singing) and some story. I liked the way his tracklist went and how one of his dances made the American flag. It was not just a dance with random songs; he was telling a story through music.”
Tse wasn’t entirely moved by Lamar’s halftime performance and found it somewhat mediocre, he said.
“I will say I’ve seen better,” Tse said. “It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it could have been better. I feel like he was just constrained by the time; he had to put out (sing) like 12 or 13 songs, and the length of his show was 13 minutes long.”
Sophomore Vihan Shah also wasn’t particularly impressed by Lamar’s performance, he said.
“I thought it was pretty bad minus SZA’s part — SZA was the best part,” Vihan Shah said. “I didn’t want him (Kendrick Lamar) to play ‘Not Like Us’ because I was annoyed by the song.”
Despite the dominant scoreline of 24-0 in favor of the Eagles at halftime, Kavish Shah still didn’t think the game was quite over, he said.
“I personally thought second half, the Chiefs would come back Tom Brady-style,” Kavish Shah said. “It didn’t happen. I’m happy it was a blowout though.”
Tse rated Super Bowl LIX fairly low in terms of entertainment value, he said.
“Compared to the last two years, this one was definitely worse because the last two years had super competitive endings,” Tse said. “This one wasn’t horrible. At least we got to see some fight out of the Chiefs at the end.”