KANSAS CITY, Mo. − Jalen Hurts had earned his moment to celebrate.

So after a game that was about as ugly as any you could imagine, Hurts did his postgame interview at the ESPN set with a few hundred Eagles fans surrounding it. They were chanting "E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles!" and yelling derogatory things about the Cowboys.

Hurts got up, then slapped hands with as many fans as possible. It was late Monday night, and the few hundred or so Eagles fans, outnumbered by about 70,000 Chiefs fans eager to see another Super Bowl coronation, had earned this moment, too.

They, too, had sat through the cold, rain and wind. They endured Hurts' interception, his struggles through the second and most of the third quarter when the Eagles could muster only two first downs, and the 10-point deficit to the Super Bowl champions that seemed like 100.

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But Hurts, as he seemingly always does, rallied the Eagles to a scintillating 21-17 win Monday night.

"There was a lot of them out there, so I wanted to show them some love," Hurts said. "They always travel well, and we appreciate it."

There was something else, too.

And this explains everything about why the Eagles are 9-1, the NFL's best record, on a collision course to return to the Super Bowl. And it's why Hurts is clearly the favorite to win the MVP award, as he out-uglied Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The beauty is in the ugliness.

"We won, but damn, we were messy," left tackle Jordan Mailata said. "A win is a win. They're hard to come by. When we needed guys to step up and make plays, that's what happened.

"You can't coach that. You can't coach grit and determination and the want to win."

The Eagles' possessions from the start of the second quarter, just after they had tied the game at 7-7 through their first two possessions of the third quarter when the Chiefs had a 17-7 lead, went like this: Interception, punt, punt, punt, punt.

The Eagles got two first downs during those five possessions. They had 238 yards total on offense.

"As frustrating as it was going three-and-out, and not executing, or stupid penalties, you just gotta have the mentality of next play," Mailata said. "And we did. We made plays. We know it wasn't clean. It was grimy, on both sides, but we found a way."

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The offensive line couldn't contain Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, who had two sacks, or blitzing cornerback Trent McDuffie, who also had two sacks. The Eagles' defense missed tackles as Kansas City had 121 yards rushing by halftime, nearly double the 66.3 yards the Eagles were allowing on average per game.

Hurts never panicked, and neither did the Eagles.

"There’s a calmness there," Hurts said. "You have to truly remain in control. … You want to play to a high standard all the time, but things happen. Turnovers happen. The negative plays happen. Sacks happen. Big plays, giving up big plays defensively − those happen.

"But it’s just about never getting too high, never getting too low. I think that’s the character and the identity of this team right now."

No, that's the identity of Hurts. And that's what the rest of the team follows.

Through the malaise, the Eagles kept plugging away on offense. On defense, they stopped Mahomes and Taylor Swift's boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, cold.

The Eagles didn't allow the Chiefs a single point in the second half, and they didn't allow a single sack. Kelce, perhaps out of sorts that Swift wasn't in attendance, fumbled the ball away at the Eagles' 10.

Had the Chiefs scored on that drive, they would have taken a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

Even then, the Eagles couldn't take advantage, going three-and-out. Then the Chiefs made another mistake with head coach, bye-week master Andy Reid deciding to punt on fourth-and-4 from the Eagles' 39 with 9 minutes left.

The punt went into the end zone, netting the Chiefs only 19 yards.

Then Hurts went to work, sort of, trying to bubble-screen the Chiefs to death. Somehow, the Eagles faced a third-and-8 at their 45 with about 7 minutes left. Hurts threw over the middle to DeVonta Smith for 13 yards to the Chiefs' 42.

On the next play, Hurts threw deep down the right sideline to Smith, who hauled in the pass over his shoulder at the 1-yard line. And that's "tush push" time, which the Eagles converted.

But really, it was the two passes late in the fourth quarter that covered 55 yards, or more than one-third of Hurts' total of 150 yards passing, that showed everything about Hurts' hold on the Eagles.

"Taking advantage of the matchup that we had," Smith said. "Single coverage. We seen it the whole game. We felt like it was time to attack the matchup."

Smith was then asked if the Eagles were softening the Chiefs' defense for that deep ball with the bubble screens.

"Nah, he said. "It was just perfect timing for it."

And it was vintage Hurts. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Hurts saw something in the Chiefs' defense and checked the deep ball to Smith.

“Good quarterbacks make three or four plays that change a game with their mind,” Sirianni said.

Hurts downplayed that, just as he downplayed his 10-yard TD run on a quarterback draw.

"We hadn’t really been efficient offensively. We weren’t on the same page," Hurts said. "The interception, the turnover that we had. We had some communication things. … But in the end, it’s just finding a way to win. Whether things come themselves, or we’re just communicating between receivers and I, or just talking through it, we’re trying to take advantage of stuff.

"It was a great catch by him. A timely play of the game. … I’m happy how we responded."

This is how champions respond. This is how MVPs respond. The Eagles needed a play in the fourth quarter, and Hurts made it happen.

He earned his celebration with the fans in the cold and rain.

It was only for a moment. Buffalo, San Francisco, the Cowboys and Seattle are up next. There are many challenges ahead before the Eagles might really have a chance for revenge against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Doubt Hurts at your own peril.

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Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How Eagles' Jalen Hurts in ugly, beautiful MVP way took down Chiefs