Friday Afternoon Quarterback: Super Bowl LIV – 49ers vs Chiefs

BY ADAM GREENE

Our long wait is over. We’ve slept through the NFL Pro Bowl and enjoyed a pretty solid NCAA National Championship game in the process, but now it’s game time.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS vs KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (-1, O/U: 54)

I’m not sure this was the match up everyone wanted when the playoffs began. It certainly wasn’t my pick, as I desired a Super Bowl I rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers here in the NFL’s 100th Anniversary.

Everybody else, it seemed, hoped the Baltimore Ravens and 49ers would square up come Sunday. We were all half right.

WHAT MAKES ME NERVOUS ABOUT THE 49ERS

Two things; Kyle Shanahan’s choke job in Super Bowl LI and their running game. As I wrote earlier in the week, Shanahan’s not wrapping his hands around his throat again. If he loses this game, it’ll just because the Chiefs beat him, no good call he didn’t make or bad call he forced into the game. If the Niners lose, it’ll be an honest loss.

Their run game is scary because, with that offensive line, they can take over a game. If there’s one way to slow down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense it’s to limit the amount of chances they get with the ball. San Francisco can do that.

WHAT MAKES ME NERVOUS ABOUT THE CHIEFS

Mahomes is the Michael Jordan of the NFL and can lay claim to the next decade as the league’s best quarterback by hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy Sunday night. In two straight playoff games the Chiefs found themselves down double-digits, 24-0 to the Houston Texans and 10-0 to the Tennessee Titans. The Chiefs won both those games with final scores that weren’t even close.

Mahomes can do things with the football no one else can. He can fit it into any window. Make any throw and sometimes can do it while not even looking at the receiver. The 49ers could get up 17-0 in this game and still lose by three touchdowns. He’s just that good.

THE PICK

I actually have two predictions, but ultimately they’re the same; Kansas City covers. When I look at this match up I see two stacked teams with two talented, deserving head coaches who have been to the dance before only to see another man leave with their date. The X-Factor is and always will be, when looking at the Chiefs, Mahomes and his ability to do freakish, unbelievable things with the football. My waking brain tells me that will be the difference and in a close game, it’s Chiefs 27, 49ers 23 and Andy Reid gets measured for his gold jacket.

But, here’s the thing. Last Sunday morning I had a dream. It wasn’t a nightmare by any stretch, but just one of those garbage dreams where you go through the things you do in your daily life. In this dream, I was watching the end of Super Bowl LIV and Kansas City was winning by a significant margin. Why am I telling you this when it’s an established fact that no one on planet earth wants to hear about your fantasy football team or your dreams? Because that final score was Chiefs 43, 49ers 23 and, if it happens in real life, I’ve obviously developed psychic super powers and will be starting my own X-Men or Avengers Initiative Monday morning.

Honestly, because my waking brain and sleeping brain came up with the Niners scoring 23, and they hit that even in a victory, say 49ers 23, Chiefs 20 (which I’m not picking), I’m still claiming partial supernatural precognitive abilities.

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