WHAT KIND OF SUPER BOWL WILL THIS BE?
Matchup between high-flying Kansas City and ball-control San Francisco looks epic
The Super Bowl trophy is named for Vince Lombardi, who might have been talking about the San Francisco 49ers when he shed light years ago on one of his football secrets.
“Football is two things,” the late, great Lombardi said.
“It’s blocking and tackling. I don’t care about formations or new offences or tricks on defence. You block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you win.”
Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls ever played, the first one against the Kansas City Chiefs.
But here we are, just days away from the 54th Super Bowl on Sunday and the matchup between the high-flying Chiefs and ball-control 49ers already looks epic in an old school versus new school kind of way.
The old coach, Andy Reid, who has been around almost forever, is playing new-school football with a quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, who has wonderfully improvised his way to the championship game.
The young coach, Kyle Shanahan, son of a two-time Super Bowl champion coach, maybe the next great NFL coach, is smart and sophisticated, but he’s playing almost Lombardi-style football on the way to championship Sunday. Nobody in the NFL blocks and tackles the way the 49ers do. They have dominated the line of scrimmage in both their playoff victories. They have physically overwhelmed their opposition.
And that’s so much the fascination of Super Bowl LIV. What wins? The unstoppable quarterback, the Chiefs with all their speed, or the dominant running game and smash-mouth football San Francisco plays? Is it pure speed and athleticism or is it the Lombardi way, winning with physical authority and technique?
“We have a special team,” said Shanahan. “They have a special team. Everyone knows how good their quarterback is. Andy (Reid) is an unbelievable coach. When I started preparing for this game, I knew how good their offence was. I quickly realized how good their defence is.”
When the Miami Dolphins did what no one else in modern football history has managed — an undefeated season in 1982-83 — Bob Griese was the quarterback.
In their three playoff victories, he threw just 31 passes.
Think about that in the context of today’s football. Mahomes threw 35 passes in the AFC final. Griese threw 31 in three playoff wins. The Dolphins controlled the line of scrimmage and the ball with their running game. They played great defence and Griese didn’t have to be great. They blocked and tackled better than anyone they played against; Don Shula grew up coaching against Lombardi.
Jimmy Garoppolo threw just eight passes in the NFC title game against Green Bay, 19 the week before against Minnesota. He’s thrown for 208 yards in his two playoff starts with one touchdown.
By comparison, Mahomes has thrown for 615 yards and eight touchdowns in two games, ran for 106 more and a for-the-ages touchdown scramble. That’s 721 yards just for him.
“And this is just the beginning,” said Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins. “He’s here (at the Super Bowl) and he’ll be here again and more than that. What he’s doing right now is almost magical. He does things no one else can do or could even think of doing.”
How do you lose if Mahomes is your quarterback? How do you lose when the Chiefs can come back from 24-0 and 10-0 in playoff games to win rather easily?
You keep the ball and the way the 49ers run it by committee with Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman and Matt Breida — mostly Mostert lately — Garoppolo doesn’t have to win the Super Bowl by himself. Griese didn’t win by himself in Miami.
In other breakdowns: passing game advantage to Kansas City; running game advantage to the Niners; offensive line advantage to San Francisco; quarterback mobility goes to Mahomes and the Chiefs, and so it goes, back and forth.
You can come up with a reason Kansas City wins. You can come up with a reason San Francisco wins. You can see a close game either way or a blowout either way. Shanahan is right. These are great teams. They couldn’t be more different. And I don’t remember a Super Bowl as intriguing as this one.
Both teams can claim to have the best tight end in football. George Kittle of the Niners, the greatest combination receiver, blocker, maybe in history for the position. Travis Kelce, close to the best receiver ever to play at tight end, the first to have four 1,000-yard seasons in a row. Either man could make the play to change the Super Bowl. They are that great and that dominant.
So who wins? Mahomes or Garoppolo? Reid or Shanahan? Kelce or Kittle? Throwing game or running game? The speedy electric Chiefs or the physically commanding Niners? The opening line in Las Vegas was pick-’em and in Las Vegas the house never loses.