Chiefs: Super Bowl Leftovers – it’s been so long since the Super Bowl already, that this article seems almost anticlimactic, but I’ve been struggling to find any spare time lately.
I’ve been wanting to do a little comparison of the two Super Bowl participants, or at least some of the key matchups.
The Quarterbacks
I believe going into the Super Bowl, no one thought that San Francisco had the upper hand at this position, but to be honest, for the first three quarters of the game, Jimmy Garoppolo outplayed Patrick Mahomes. At one point in the game, Garoppolo was 18/21 passing. That said, his three attempts at deep passes resulted in one horribly overthrown, another one intercepted and one called back on an offensive pass interference.
Statistically, Garoppolo finished the game 20/31, for a completion rate of 65%. He threw for 219 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Garoppolo had 2 rushes for 2 yards.
Meanwhile, Mahomes finished the game 26/42, for a completion rate of 62%. He threw for 286 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Statistically, Mahomes had 9 rushes for 29 yards and 1 rushing touchdown, but in reality, he had a negative 15 yards on 3 kneel downs to end the game, so during real game time, Mahomes had 6 carries for 44 yards and the score.
The Featured Running Backs
San Francisco arrived in Miami with the perceived notion by the national media of having a huge advantage in the running game. These media types should have paid closer attention to the Chiefs end of year defense, instead of just relying on season long stats.
Raheem Mostert, the kid who ran wild on the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, was held to 58 yards on 12 carries and 1 touchdown, with 17 yards being his longest run.
Damien Williams, the featured RB for the Chiefs with underrated speed, ran for 104 yards on 17 attempts with 1 touchdown. Williams longest carry was for 38 yards. DWill also had a receiving touchdown in the game.
The Tight Ends
Super Bowl LIV featured the best tight end in the NFL, the Kansas CIty Chiefs Travis Kelce, and the San Francisco 49ers George Kittle, an up and coming tight end that could one day be considered as the current best.
George Kittle finished the game with 4 receptions on 7 targets for 36 yards, and committed an offensive pass interference penalty that ruined the 49ers chance of scoring right before halftime.
The Defenses
San Francisco’s defense was considered one of the very best in the league throughout the 2019 NFL season, and they didn’t disappoint for three and a third quarters of the Super Bowl. For about 50 minutes of game time, they held the Chiefs to 10 points, sacked Mahomes 3 times and registered 2 interceptions.
The Kansas City Chiefs defense, for the first 50 minutes of game time, gave up 20 points, registered zero sacks and intercepted Garoppolo once. However, we all know how the game ended, so at the end of the day, I’m going to claim that the Chiefs had the best defense on the field for Super Bowl LIV.
For an individual defensive comparison… and I’m sure you all know where I’m going with this… Frank Clark started the game, played 51 snaps and recorded one tackle and one sack. Although it doesn’t show in the stats, Clark was disruptive on several plays during the game. Dee Ford was not a starter, played 42 snaps, record one tackle and one assist, zero sacks. To be perfectly honest, I can only think of about 4 plays that Ford was on the field.
Shift the Rose Bowl Right Parade
I’m sure everyone remembers this play, the 4th down play with all the players in the backfield performing a pirouette before the direct snap to Damien Williams for the 1st down run.
Did everyone see how the offensive line was lined up for this play? Austin Reiter was, of course the center. Stefen Wisniewski remained at left guard and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif at right guard. Mitchell Schwartz stayed in his right tackle formation, but if you noticed, the left tackle on this play was TE Travis Kelce. Eric Fisher, normally the left tackle, lined up just to the right of Schwartz, with TE Blake Bell just to the right of Fisher.
At the snap Schwartz and Fisher double teamed San Francisco’s number 96, DT Sheldon Day and then Schwartz peeled off to take out the 49ers middle linebacker, number 54, Fred Warner. This was quite the play drawn up by HC Andy Reid.
Apparently this was just one of about 10 plays taken from the 1948 Rose Bowl, so maybe we’ll get to see more of them in next year’s Super Bowl.
Paul Pulley — ArrowheadOne
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