MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The 2019-2020 NFL season came to a close tonight at Hard Rock Stadium, as the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers faced off in Super Bowl LIV. Both teams won convincingly in their respective Divisional and Conference Championship games, setting up tonight’s showdown.
No real preamble this week — just straight up thoughts on a fun and memorable Super Bowl — one that saw the legendary Andy Reid win his first Super Bowl! Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Thoughts and Observations
1. This game had plenty of Chicago Bears connections: Patrick Mahomes, and what could’ve been. Dave Toub. Matt Nagy’s mentor in Andy Reid. Robbie Gould. Raheem Mostert (apparently.) So many storylines to root for. Personally, I was rooting for big ol’ Andy to finally get his first Super Bowl title. Arguably the greatest offensive mastermind in this league’s great history, it wouldn’t be right without him winning a title at some point. Why not tonight?
(P.S. — I’m sorry, Robbie Gould.)
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2. Virginia McCaskey, the Bears’ matriarch, made an appearance in the NFL’s Super Bowl commercial! She handed the ball off to a little kid before he ran it onto the field. Great commercial, overall. The NFL does well with these every year; this year was no different.
3. The Chiefs went 3 and out on their opening possession, with Patrick Mahomes missing an easy route in the flat on third down. He just rushed it. After Richie James of SF survived and recovered his own muff on the punt, the 49ers marched down the field with an impressive array of plays from Kyle Shanahan. The drive eventually stalled, but:
4. So far in the first half, Mahomes has been quite bad. He’s been off/late/inaccurate with his throws for the most part, though Reid is scheming them open. But the Chiefs are moving the ball with the running game — something people didn’t expect much of. Reid has even gone for it on two 4th-and-shorts and picked it up with option plays both times. It’s working. The 49ers have no answer for Andy Reid’s scheme right now.
5. The only reason the 49ers are in this game is their running game. Jimmy Garoppolo has been miserable overall, but the running game is the primary source of the 49ers’ drives. Shanahan’s run schemes are FUN.
6. Google with the heart-wrenching ad of the night — advertising an elderly man using Google Assistant to help him remember the finer details of his (presumably late) wife. Ugh.
7. Both coaches seemed like they almost gave up at the end of the first half and were content with a tie game heading to the locker room. The 49ers almost lulled the Chiefs to sleep until the final seconds, when Shanahan called two great plays to get the ball to near midfield and then inside the red zone on back to back plays. But an OPI on George Kittle negated a beautiful throw by Jimmy G (his first of the game) and kept it tied at the half. San Francisco receives the second-half kick.
8. Halftime performance analysis:
J-Lo wasn’t half bad, either. These women are 43 and 50 years old, respectively. Amazing.
9. Nice start to the second half for the 49ers — they dominated the third quarter. The running game dominated, Jimmy G was sharp to make some big completions, and they scored 7 points off a brutal INT from Patrick Mahomes. SF is up 20-10 at the end of three quarters. Great play calling from Kyle Shanahan; awful execution by the Chiefs.
Also, Nick Bosa is dominating Eric Fisher. Wow.
10. With the Chiefs near the red zone to begin the fourth quarter, Mahomes rushed another throw (behind his receiver) that was intercepted by SF. A points-removing mistake. Mahomes has been awful tonight.
11. On the ensuing drive, Mahomes chucked a deep ball on 3rd and 15 down the field to a wide open Tyreek Hill, who somehow got wide open for 44 yards. It was underthrown, but still wide open. After a DPI got KC a first-and-goal at the 1, Mahomes found Kelce to bring the Chiefs within three points. This was a very KC-like drive — Mahomes throws a prayer, somehow Hill finds it, and Kelce scores a TD. Mahomes has been terrible tonight overall, but they somehow got a big play to get them back in it.
12. Goodness. After a 3 and out (two incompletions by Garoppolo), Sammy Watkins beat Richard Sherman down the field (beauty of a route and throw) to set up KC in the red zone. And by the literal nose of the football, the Chiefs took the lead. I mean, so close.
It sets up this:
13. YIKES, Jimmy Garoppolo. Holy hell. He missed a potential Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass by five yards on an overthrow.
And on 4th down, he got sacked. Game over. Super Bowl over. Choke complete.
14. All I have to say:
(P.S. — I feel gutted for Kyle Shanahan and Robbie Gould. Man.)
15. In the last three years, we’ve seen an Andy Reid disciple (Doug Pederson) win the Super Bowl, the Patriots win the Super Bowl, and Andy Reid win the Super Bowl. Let’s hope next year is Matt Nagy’s time.
16. And that’s a wrap on the 2019-2020 season. Looking forward to an exciting offseason (for the Chicago Bears) to get back to contention next year. Stay tuned.
