LAS VEGAS — Patrick Mahomes used to be at the San Francisco 49ers’ minds even if that they had the ball on Sunday.
Facing third-and-4 from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 9-yard line in extra time, Brock Purdy mentioned he knew the 49ers couldn’t accept a box purpose as a result of it will give Mahomes a possibility to counter with the kind of game-winning pressure for which he’s change into well-known.
“You just don’t want to give him an opportunity to go down and win the game with a touchdown,” Purdy mentioned.
That’s precisely what came about.
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The 49ers’ third-down play used to be a just right one. It referred to as for Jauan Jennings, a powerful contender for the sport’s MVP award at that time, to start out inside of, then lower temporarily again to the close to pylon. He did, shaking his defender within the procedure.
“It looked like Jauan killed him, won pretty good,” 49ers trainer Kyle Shanahan mentioned later on.
The downside is that no person blocked Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who’s each Kansas City’s absolute best defensive participant and any person who plagued the 49ers of their ultimate Super Bowl assembly with the Chiefs. Right take on Colton McKivitz put a hand on Jones, however moved to the outdoor to dam defensive finish George Karlaftis.
That gave Jones a unfastened run at Purdy, who needed to rush his move and ended up throwing too some distance for Jennings. The 49ers settled for a 27-yard Jake Moody box purpose and a 3-point lead. And that set the level for what Purdy and the 49ers feared: A antique Mahomes pressure that went 13 performs, integrated a 19-yard Mahomes scramble and ended with a game-winning toss to a wide-open Mecole Hardman.
The ranking and ensuing 25-22 victory left Mahomes with the MVP award and the 49ers exhausted, devastated and, for the second one time in 4 years, ruing what can have been in a Super Bowl as opposed to the Chiefs.
“When you have a good offense like the Chiefs do and what Mahomes can do, for us, it’s like, ‘All right we have to score touchdowns,’” Purdy mentioned. “And we had opportunities to do so, I think. Shot ourselves in the foot just with penalties and the operations and stuff.”
For many of the sport, the 49ers and Chiefs had been digital twins.
Both defenses had been dominant early, taking the opponent’s absolute best avid gamers out of the sport. Defensive effort can have been a topic within the 49ers’ opening playoff video games, however no longer on Sunday as avid gamers like Chase Young, Randy Gregory and Javon Kinlaw stepped ahead with giant performs that annoyed the Chiefs and held them to six issues thru just about 3 quarters.
Mahomes’ favourite goal, tight finish Travis Kelce, had one catch for 1 backyard at halftime. And Mahomes and Purdy had precisely the similar modest passing general — 123 yards — at halftime.
The Chiefs protection, then again, used to be even higher at squashing their opponent’s superstar avid gamers. Receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel had been held to 3 catches every on Sunday in spite 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 used to be held to 4 yards general. That fourth-and-3 throw within the fourth quarter additionally used to be influenced via Mahomes.
“That isn’t probably something normally we’d do, but thought it was the right thing in that situation,” Shanahan mentioned.
The simplest true offensive guns for the 49ers had 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, can have been in line to win the Super Bowl MVP had the 49ers held on. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP by way of Getty Images)
What’s extra, the 49ers offense by no means may just absolutely profit from Mahomes’ and Kelce’s modest begins.
Early within the 0.33 quarter, Mahomes used to be flushed from the pocket however discovered that Kelce used to be being blanketed via linebacker Fred Warner. He as an alternative hoisted a move to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling that used to be picked off via protection Ji’Ayir Brown on the Kansas City 44-yard line.
The 49ers had momentum, that they had the gang in the back of them they usually had a really perfect alternative to construct on their 10-3 lead. Instead Purdy threw an incompletion on first down, guard Aaron Banks dedicated a false get started on 2nd down and the 49ers needed to punt the ball away.
“It was small things everywhere — all three phases,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk mentioned. “We did things that weren’t characteristic to what we usually do as a team and I think in the end that’s what hit us, and it was too much to overcome.”
The 49ers additionally handled extra attrition than the Chiefs.
They misplaced linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the second one quarter when, whilst working onto the sector following a punt, he tore his Achilles tendon. Right guard Jon Feliciano used to be injured overdue within the 0.33 quarter whilst Samuel (hamstring) and Kittle (shoulder) needed to go away the sport for stretches. During one important series overdue within the fourth quarter, the 49ers had been with out defensive starters Greenlaw, Brown and Deommodore Lenoir.
As the 49ers weakened, the Mahomes-Kelce connection grew more potent. The tight finish’s 22-yard catch and run on the finish of the fourth quarter — he beat Warner, who have been sturdy in opposition to him to that time — arrange the sector purpose that despatched the sport into extra time, and Kelce completed with 93 yards to guide all receivers.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the loss,” Warner mentioned. “Because we went into it saying that he wasn’t going to be the reason they beat us. And we were off on a couple of plays at the end there where he was running wide open over the middle of the field. That’s disappointing.”
Shanahan cited analytics as the explanation he had the 49ers obtain the ball to start out extra time. He figured the staff that were given the outlet kickoff of the consultation may get a 2nd ownership.
“We wanted the ball third,” he mentioned. “If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win (the game).”
The 49ers by no means were given that opportunity. Their opening pressure of extra time used to be their longest of the sport — 7:38. That used to be adopted via the Chiefs’ longest of the sport — 7:19. The distinction used to be that one led to a box purpose and the opposite in a landing.
After Mahomes’ giant scramble into the purple zone, tailback Isiah Pacheco ran for three yards and Mahomes hit Kelce for some other 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 no person lined Hardman, who got here in movement towards the formation however scale back to the outdoor. Both Warner and protection Logan Ryan had been dashing towards Mahomes at the play.
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“I’m not sure,” Warner mentioned of what went incorrect with the protection. “I’ve got to see it. I’m not sure who was supposed to be on (Hardman).”
The loss had a large number of the similar issues as the only 4 years in the past in Miami, together with a blown lead and the lack to prevent Jones and Mahomes in key moments.
The aftermath of this one, then again, gave the impression worse. The locker room had a funeral-like quiet later on. Shanahan gave just a transient postgame communicate to his staff, McCaffrey gave a clipped postgame interview or even the typically verbose Kittle’s consultation lasted simply 4 mins.
“Not a lot has been said,” Purdy mentioned. “It just hurts. We have the team obviously to do it, to win the whole thing, and then to come up short like that. … The way things have been the last couple of years here, everyone wanted it so bad. So, I think we’re still trying to sort of gather our thoughts and everything right now. But everyone in that locker room loves each other, I’ll tell you that.”
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(Top photograph of Brock Purdy being stressed in extra time via Chris Jones: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
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