Chiefs, 49ers off to Super Bowl
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years.
Mahomes, the brilliant third year quarterback, threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as the Chiefs beat the Tennessee Titans 35-24 yesterday at blustery Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC Championship game.
The Chiefs have a generational quarterback and are headed back to the Super Bowl for the first time in multiple generations.
They’ll face the San Francisco 49ers, who beat the Green Bay Packers 37-20 in the NFC Championship game, in the
Super Bowl on February 2 in Miami.
It will be the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl appearance since January 1970, in Super Bowl IV, and it will be the first Super Bowl appearance for Mahomes, the league’s MVP in the 2018 season who made a rapid recovery this season from a dislocated right kneecap and returned to the lineup after missing only two games. He now has been handsomely rewarded.
He threw for 294 yards on 23-for-35 passing as the Chiefs succeeded where they failed last season, when they lost the AFC title game at home in overtime to the New England Patriots. He added 53 rushing yards yesterday.
Raheem Mostert rushed for 220 yards and four touchdowns to make quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo mostly a spectator, Nick Bosa harassed Aaron Rodgers from the start and the 49ers beat the Packers for the NFC championship.
The 49ers (15-3) advanced to their first Super Bowl in seven years. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a team that won just 10 games in the first two seasons under coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch and had the No 2 pick in the most recent draft.
Now, San Francisco are one of two teams left standing after delivering a second thorough beating of the season to Rodgers and the Packers (14-4).
The 49ers are the third team to make it to the Super Bowl a year after winning four or fewer games, joining Cincinnati (1988) and the Rams (1999).