LAS VEGAS — Patrick Mahomes has been dominating the San Francisco 49ers’ attention every time they get the ball on Sunday.
Facing a third-and-4 from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 9-yard line in overtime, Brock Purdy said he knew the 49ers couldn’t settle for a field goal because it would give Mahomes A counter-attacking chance for the driving style he became famous for.
“You just don’t want to give him a chance to win the game with a touchdown,” Purdy said.
This is exactly what happened.
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The 49ers played well on third down. It required Jauan Jennings, a contender for the game’s MVP award at the time, to start inside and then quickly cut back to the nearby pylon. He did, shaking his defender in the process.
“It looked like Jaan killed him and won pretty well,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said afterward.
The problem is there’s no stopping Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who is both Kansas City’s best defensive player and the guy who troubled the 49ers in their last Super Bowl appearance against the Chiefs. Right tackle Colton McKivitz put his hands on Jones but moved outside to block defensive end George Karlaftis.
That gave Jones a free run on Purdy, who had to rush the pass and ended up passing too far for Jennings. The 49ers took a three-point lead on Jake Moody’s 27-yard field goal. That set the stage for what Purdy and the 49ers feared: a classic Mahomes offense that ran 13 plays, including a 19-yard Mahomes scramble that ended with a game-winning pass to the wide open Mecole Hardman.
The score and the eventual 25-22 victory gave Mahomes the MVP award and left the 49ers exhausted and disheartened, ruining their second Super Bowl matchup against the Chiefs in four years. Contest.
“When you have an offense as good as the Chiefs have and Mahomes’ ability, for us, it’s like, ‘OK, we’ve got to score a touchdown,'” Purdy said. “I thought we had a chance to do that. Just shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties and actions and stuff like that.”
For most of the game, the 49ers and Chiefs were almost twins.
Both defenses dominated early, shutting out their opponents’ best players. Defensive effort may have been an issue in the 49ers’ playoff opener, but on Sunday, players like Chase Young, Randy Gregory and Javon Kinlaw stepped up and delivered with highlight-reel plays. The performance frustrated the Chiefs and limited them to six points for nearly three quarters.
Mahomes’ favorite target, tight end Travis Kelce, caught the ball for 1 yard at halftime. At halftime, Mahomes and Purdy had the exact same passing total – 123 yards.
However, the Chiefs defense did a much better job of shutting down their opponents’ star players. Receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel each had three catches Sunday, although Samuel was targeted a game-high 11 times . Tight end George Kittle caught a key catch on fourth down in the fourth quarter, but was limited to 4 yards total. Pitches on fourth-and-3 in the fourth quarter were also affected by Mahomes.
“This may not be something we would normally do, but we felt it was the right thing to do in this situation,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers’ only real offensive weapons are Jennings (who had a passing and receiving touchdown) and Christian McCaffrey (who had 160 yards of total offense).
Jauan Jennings celebrates a fourth-quarter touchdown catch that could give him a chance to win Super Bowl MVP if the 49ers hold on. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
More importantly, the 49ers offense could never take full advantage of Mahomes and Kelce’s tepid starts.
Early in the third quarter, Mahomes burst out of the pocket but found Kelce surrounded by linebacker Fred Warner. Instead, he threw the ball to receiver Max Valdez-Scantling, but it was caught by safety Jiel Brown at the Kansas City 44-yard line.
The 49ers had momentum, and with the crowd behind them, they had a prime opportunity to extend their 10-3 lead. Instead, Purdy threw an incomplete ball on the first possession, and linebacker Aaron Banks committed a false start on the second possession, forcing the 49ers to punt the ball away.
“Those three phases are all little things,” guard Kyle Juszczyk said. “We did some things that were inconsistent with what we normally do as a team and I think that ultimately hit us and it was hard to overcome.”
The 49ers also burned more than the Chiefs.
They lost linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the second quarter when he tore his Achilles tendon while running upfield after a punt. Right guard Jon Feliciano was injured late in the third quarter, while Samuel (hamstring) and Kittle (shoulder) had to leave the game to stretch. In a critical moment late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers lost defensive starters Greenlaw, Brown and Deomodore Lenoir.
As the 49ers faltered, Mahomes and Kelce became even more connected. The tight end’s 22-yard catch-and-run late in the fourth quarter — beating Warner, who was going strong against him at the time — sent the game into overtime, with Kelce finishing with 93 yards Send the game into overtime. Direct all recipients.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the loss,” Warner said. “Because we said from the beginning he wasn’t going to be the reason they beat us. We had a couple of plays late in the game where he was running wide open in midfield. It was really disappointing.”
Shanahan cited analytics as the reason he gave the 49ers the ball to start overtime. He thought the team that kicked off the quarter might get a second possession.
“We wanted the third goal,” he said. “If both teams play and score, we want to be the team that has a chance to win (the game).”
The 49ers never had a chance like this. Their overtime start was the longest of the game – 7 minutes and 38 seconds. What follows is the Chiefs’ longest game of the game – 7 minutes and 19 seconds. The difference is that one ended with a field goal and the other with a touchdown.
After Mahomes made a big run into the red zone, linebacker Isaiah Pacheco ran for 3 yards, and Mahomes hit Kelce for another 7 yards. That left the ball at San Francisco’s 3-yard line and the clock expired in the first overtime.
The final blow came on a shotgun blast, with no one covering Hardman, who moved toward the formation but cut back to the outside. Warner and safety Logan Ryan both rushed Mahomes on the play.
Chiefs win back-to-back Super Bowls! pic.twitter.com/ZzfhTyUXg9
— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2024
“I’m not sure,” Warner said of the reported issues. “I’m definitely going to see it. I’m not sure who should be on (Hardman).”
The loss had many of the same themes as the one in Miami four years ago, including a blown lead and an inability to stop Jones and Mahomes down the stretch.
However, the consequences of this incident seem to be worse. Then the locker room was as quiet as a funeral. Shanahan only gave a brief postgame address to his team, McCaffrey did a brief postgame interview, and even Kittle’s interview, which is usually lengthy, lasted just four minutes.
“Not much said,” Purdy said. “It just hurts. Our team is obviously capable of doing this, winning the whole game, and then to have a loss like this. … The way things have been here the past few years, everybody wants it so bad. So, I think We’re still trying to gather our thoughts and everything right now. But everybody in the locker room loves each other, I’ll tell you that.”
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(Above photo of Brock Purdy under pressure from Chris Jones in overtime: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
