Chiefs end 50 years of wait

Sunday Night's leading sporting event saw two teams looking for history in the NFL's centennial season. The San Francisco 49ers were looking to make it 6 Super Bowls in their history meanwhile Kansas City were looking to end a 50-year wait for a Super Bowl trophy. The game was played in Miami for the first time in 10 years, and the city that has hosted the most Super Bowls were in for a game worthy of the ages. When the teams were celebrating their conference championships Hall of Fame Quarterback Joe Montana who played for both sides in his career said on Twitter in a joking way, "You heard me first. I guarantee my team will win the Super Bowl."

Patrick Mahomes looking for a Super Bowl

The Chiefs were coming into the game after a 50-year wait, which included several horror defeats in previous playoff appearances, including squandering a 44 point lead to the Indianapolis Colts in 2013 45-44. The closest they ever got to the Super Bowl was two AFC Championships in 1993 and last year. But they came back with 3rd-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes who is becoming the NFL's future and looking to add a Super Bowl to his MVP season in 2018. His 2019 season was impressive with over 4000, passing yards and 26 touchdowns with only 5 interceptions and also running for 218 yards and 2 touchdowns despite being out for 2 weeks with a dislocated kneecap. He had a passing attack that was respected with Travis Kelce at tight end who had his 4th consecutive 1000 yard receiving season alongside with Tyreek Hill who made it to the Pro Bowl despite missing 4 games himself. They were backed up with a veteran in Sammy Watkins and had an excellent running attack in Damien Williams.

Their defence was ranked seventh in the league in points allowed with 308. They included two Pro Bowlers in Defensive lineman Frank Clark and Chris Jones. They also had 2 veterans in Terrell Suggs after claiming him off waivers in week 14 and Tyran Mathieu who had signed with the team in the offseason after spending 2018 with the Houston Texans. They also had two coaches who have been to Super Bowls previously. The Head Coach Andy Reid was looking to win his first Super Bowl after losing his first appearance with the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 39. The other coach with experience was Steve Spagnuolo who orchestrated the New York Giants defence in 2007 and called the plays that stopped the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42.

The 49ers were looking for their 6th title, and they're first in 25 years. The last Super Bowl they won was in Miami but at the end of the 1994 season when they demolished the San Diego Chargers 49-26 and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was looking to join Joe Montana and Steve Young in the 3 Super Bowl ring club. Garoppolo had already won 2 rings as a backup to Tom Brady in Super Bowl 49 and 51, now he was looking for his first as a starter. In 2019 he led the offence to the 2nd rank in the NFL and threw 3,978 passing yards and 27 touchdowns with 13 interceptions. His top receiver was tight end George Kittle also scoring a 1000 yard receiving season. The rest of the receiving corps included a mixture of youth and experience in Emmanual Sanders and rookie Deebo Samuel. He also had a running game with Tevin Coleman, Matt Breida and the star of the NFC Championship game Raheem Mostert.

Jimmy Garoppolo looking to join Montana and Young

The defence was ranked 2nd in fewest yards allowed and first in passing yards. Their line was the most feared in the whole league with Arik Armistead, DeForest Buckner, former chief Dee Ford and rookie Nick Bosa with a combined 33 sacks, 165 tackles and 6 fumble recoveries. They also had a former champion in Richard Sherman who looked to be back in his Seattle form. Their coach is Kyle Shanahan, who was the offensive coordinator in Super Bowl 51 for Atlanta and had Robert Saleh as the defensive coordinator.

The game started off with the 49ers defence holding Mahomes and company on a 3 and out and then went 57 yards in 10 plays and stalled for a field goal to be kicked by Robbie Gould to make it 3-0. Then the Chiefs responded with a touchdown drive and had a signature play when Mahomes looked like he got the first down however he got hit by Jim Ward, and the ball flew back on a fumble and made it 4th and1. Mahomes decided to finish the drive by running the ball himself on a 1-yard run to give them a 7-3 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

Kyle Juszczyk for the touchdown

The second quarter started off badly for the 49ers as when Garoppolo threw a hurried pass that got intercepted by Bashaud Breeland. The Chiefs looked to extend the lead but got stalled and was forced to kick a field goal which was converted to make it 10-3 Chiefs. The 49ers then responded by going 80 yards in 7 plays, and 5 of them had 10 yards each and was ended by a pass from Garoppolo to Juszczyk to tie the game at 10-10 for the halftime score.

J-Lo and Shakira performing the halftime show

The halftime show this year was done by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. After the show ended, the 49ers went out and decided to go for another score and after going 60 yards in 9 plays and took the lead off an another Gould field goal to make it 13-10 49ers. The Chiefs next drive was ended by an interception by Fred Warner. The 49ers then went 55 yards and score another touchdown with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter finished off by Raheem Mostert. On the next drive, the Chiefs got to the 49ers 23-yard line when Mahomes threw his 2nd interception, and it looked like it was game over. It even looked more convincing when the Chiefs had a 3rd and 15 from their own 35-yard line, but Mahomes threw the most significant play of the game a 44 yard almost Hail Mary type play to Hill. Then two plays later they got a defensive pass interference call on the 49ers which put the ball on the 1-yard line. Mahomes said "thank you" by throwing the ball to Kelce for the touchdown to make it 20-17 49ers.

Chiefs fans celebrating

That was the turning point as the Chiefs defence forced the 49ers to punt the ball. Then Kansas scored again with another long drive finished off by Damien Williams on a 5-yard pass making it 24-20 Chiefs. San Francisco then tried to get the lead back with not a lot of time on the clock, but the defence again stopped the 49ers this time forcing a turnover on downs. All Kansas had to do was run the ball to end the game. But then Williams found an opening in the 49ers and then ran all the way to ice the game 31-20. There was one more cruel fate for the 49ers as Garoppolo went down on a final interception to Kendall Fuller.

The MVP was Patrick Mahomes after going 26 completions on 42 attempts for 286 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions and running for 29 yards and 1 touchdown. The Chiefs also created history by being the only team in history to win all 3 playoff games while trailing by double-digit points. My reflection on the game is that both sides played really well, but 49ers shouldn't get the blame for losing it. This was definitely a better game than last years Super Bowl.

KRO Mark