The Super Bowl was as good as we thought it would be. It was close, hard-hitting, and as penalty-free as you could want. By the way, the Super Bowl crew headed up by Bill Vinovich did an outstanding job (especially Bill on the intentional grounding call against Mahomes, he was right on!) There was a small bet in the MY COUNTY LINK offices between Ty House and Alex Warner taking the 49ers, and Gaylen Blosser and myself taking the Chiefs. Boy, those donuts at our next round table discussion will be good!
In our round table talk, I said if the Chiefs could run the ball, just enough, to keep San Francisco’s defense honest, they would win in a close one, 28-24. I was close. The final stats in the game show that the 49ers ran for 110 total yards, while the Chiefs ran for 130, 66 of those yards on scrambles by Patrick Mahomes, the MVP of the game. Mahomes also passed for 333 yards and two TD’s and one interception.
Brock Purdy had a good game too, proving he is a worthy quarterback in the league and a leader. He threw for 255 yards and a t.d., despite being harassed the whole game by the two former Ohio State defensive ends for San Francisco Nick Bosa and Chase Young. Of course injuries played a part too, with Dre Greenlaw (Achilles), Deebo Samuel (hamstring), and George Kittle(shoulder) all missing time for the 49ers. Isaiah Pacheco could only muster 59 yards rushing for the Chiefs, but it was enough with Patrick Mahomes scrambles.
I am sure this game will be overanalyzed by the sporting press, but I have always said that in order to win CONSISTANTLY, you have to run the football. It sets up so many other options for the offense. I thought that Kyle Shanahan got away from the running game after the first quarter. It also looked to me as if he panicked a little when his running game got stalled, and tried to pass too much from then on. He needed to stick with it. I also believe that is what cost San Francisco the game.
In the end, only one group of fans are happy after every Super Bowl. Everyone else is in the “wait till next year” mode. In all games, turnovers and injuries play the biggest part for teams. Next year, I hope that we have as good a Super Bowl as this one was, clean, hard hitting, well officiated, and no serious injuries. If we do, I bet those donuts will taste good next year too!
That’s the way I see it…..from the sidelines.
