LAS VEGAS — Patrick Mahomes was on the San Francisco 49ers’ minds even once they had the ball on Sunday.
Going through third-and-4 from the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ 9-yard line in extra time, Brock Purdy mentioned he knew the 49ers couldn’t accept a subject aim as a result of it will give Mahomes an opportunity to counter with the kind of game-winning drive for which he’s develop into well-known.
“You simply don’t need to give him a chance to go down and win the sport with a landing,” Purdy mentioned.
That’s precisely what occurred.
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The 49ers’ third-down play was a superb one. It referred to as for Jauan Jennings, a powerful contender for the sport’s MVP award at that time, to start out inside, then lower shortly again to the close to pylon. He did, shaking his defender within the course of.
“It seemed like Jauan killed him, gained fairly good,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned afterward.
The issue is that nobody blocked Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who’s each Kansas Metropolis’s finest defensive participant and somebody who plagued the 49ers of their final Tremendous Bowl assembly with the Chiefs. Proper sort out Colton McKivitz put a hand on Jones, however moved to the skin to dam defensive finish George Karlaftis.
That gave Jones a free run at Purdy, who needed to rush his move and ended up throwing too far for Jennings. The 49ers settled for a 27-yard Jake Moody subject aim and a 3-point lead. And that set the stage for what Purdy and the 49ers feared: A classic Mahomes drive that went 13 performs, included a 19-yard Mahomes scramble and ended with a game-winning toss to a wide-open Mecole Hardman.
The rating and ensuing 25-22 victory left Mahomes with the MVP award and the 49ers exhausted, devastated and, for the second time in 4 years, ruing what may have been in a Tremendous Bowl versus the Chiefs.
“When you’ve gotten a superb offense just like the Chiefs do and what Mahomes can do, for us, it’s like, ‘All proper we have now to attain touchdowns,’” Purdy mentioned. “And we had alternatives to take action, I believe. Shot ourselves within the foot simply with penalties and the operations and stuff.”
For a lot of the recreation, the 49ers and Chiefs have been digital twins.
Each defenses have been dominant early, taking the opponent’s finest gamers out of the sport. Defensive effort might have been a difficulty within the 49ers’ opening playoff video games, however not on Sunday as gamers like Chase Younger, Randy Gregory and Javon Kinlaw stepped ahead with massive performs that annoyed the Chiefs and held them to six factors by almost three quarters.
Mahomes’ favourite goal, tight finish Travis Kelce, had one catch for 1 yard at halftime. And Mahomes and Purdy had precisely the identical modest passing complete — 123 yards — at halftime.
The Chiefs protection, nevertheless, was even higher at squashing their opponent’s star gamers. Receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel have been held to a few catches every on Sunday regardless of Samuel being focused a game-high 11 instances. Tight finish George Kittle had a key catch on fourth down within the fourth quarter however was held to 4 yards complete. That fourth-and-3 throw within the fourth quarter additionally was influenced by Mahomes.
“That isn’t most likely one thing usually we’d do, however thought it was the suitable factor in that state of affairs,” Shanahan mentioned.
The one true offensive weapons for the 49ers have been Jennings, who had a passing and receiving landing, and Christian McCaffrey, who had a mixed 160 yards of offense.
Jauan Jennings, celebrating his fourth-quarter landing catch, might have been in line to win the Tremendous Bowl MVP had the 49ers held on. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP through Getty Photographs)
What’s extra, the 49ers offense by no means may totally reap the benefits of Mahomes’ and Kelce’s modest begins.
Early within the third quarter, Mahomes was flushed from the pocket however discovered that Kelce was being blanketed by linebacker Fred Warner. He as an alternative hoisted a move to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling that was picked off by security Ji’Ayir Brown on the Kansas Metropolis 44-yard line.
The 49ers had momentum, that they had the group behind them they usually had an ideal alternative to construct on their 10-3 lead. As a substitute Purdy threw an incompletion on first down, guard Aaron Banks dedicated a false begin on second down and the 49ers needed to punt the ball away.
“It was small issues in all places — all three phases,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk mentioned. “We did issues that weren’t attribute to what we often do as a staff and I believe in the long run that’s what hit us, and it was an excessive amount of to beat.”
The 49ers additionally handled extra attrition than the Chiefs.
They misplaced linebacker Dre Greenlaw within the second quarter when, whereas working onto the sector following a punt, he tore his Achilles tendon. Proper guard Jon Feliciano was injured late within the third quarter whereas Samuel (hamstring) and Kittle (shoulder) needed to go away the sport for stretches. Throughout one important sequence late within the fourth quarter, the 49ers have been with out defensive starters Greenlaw, Brown and Deommodore Lenoir.
Because the 49ers weakened, the Mahomes-Kelce connection grew stronger. The tight finish’s 22-yard catch and run on the finish of the fourth quarter — he beat Warner, who had been robust towards him to that time — arrange the sector aim that despatched the sport into extra time, and Kelce completed with 93 yards to guide all receivers.
“That’s most likely probably the most disappointing factor in regards to the loss,” Warner mentioned. “As a result of we went into it saying that he wasn’t going to be the rationale they beat us. And we have been off on a few performs on the finish there the place he was working vast open over the center of the sector. That’s disappointing.”
Shanahan cited analytics as the rationale he had the 49ers obtain the ball to start extra time. He figured the staff that received the opening kickoff of the session would possibly get a second possession.
“We wished the ball third,” he mentioned. “If each groups matched and scored, we wished to be those who had the prospect to go win (the sport).”
The 49ers by no means received that likelihood. Their opening drive of extra time was their longest of the sport — 7:38. That was adopted by the Chiefs’ longest of the sport — 7:19. The distinction was that one resulted in a subject aim and the opposite in a landing.
After Mahomes’ massive scramble into the crimson zone, tailback Isiah Pacheco ran for 3 yards and Mahomes hit Kelce for an additional 7 yards. That put the ball on the San Francisco 3-yard line with the clocking winding down within the first extra time.
The ultimate blow got here on a shotgun snap on which nobody lined Hardman, who got here in movement towards the formation however reduce to the skin. Each Warner and security Logan Ryan have been speeding towards Mahomes on the play.
THE CHIEFS ARE BACK-TO-BACK SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/ZzfhTyUXg9
— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2024
“I’m undecided,” Warner mentioned of what went incorrect with the protection. “I’ve received to see it. I’m undecided who was imagined to be on (Hardman).”
The loss had a number of the identical themes because the one 4 years in the past in Miami, together with a blown lead and the lack to cease Jones and Mahomes in key moments.
The aftermath of this one, nevertheless, appeared worse. The locker room had a funeral-like quiet afterward. Shanahan gave solely a quick postgame speak to his staff, McCaffrey gave a clipped postgame interview and even the usually verbose Kittle’s session lasted simply 4 minutes.
“Not lots has been mentioned,” Purdy mentioned. “It simply hurts. Now we have the staff clearly to do it, to win the entire thing, after which to come back up brief like that. … The way in which issues have been the final couple of years right here, everybody wished it so unhealthy. So, I believe we’re nonetheless attempting to kind of collect our ideas and every thing proper now. However everybody in that locker room loves one another, I’ll let you know that.”
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(Prime picture of Brock Purdy being pressured in extra time by Chris Jones: Ethan Miller / Getty Photographs)