The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Super Bowl LVIII Recap: The newest NFL dynasty is born after Chiefs 25-22 win over 49ers in overtime

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Two straight Super Bowl victories. Three Lombardi Trophies in five years. There may not be an exact definition of a dynasty in sports, but whatever the Chiefs are doing sure feels like it qualifies. Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap Super Bowl LVIII, break down all the key plays and decisions, discuss the ideas of legacy and dynasty, and put a bow on this NFL season on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. The athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very, very well. We're live in person, not on radio at the actual Super Bowl with a wide open stands behind us.

And we got the go ahead to do a show right now after we just got told as the countdowns happened. We might have to move. So here we go. So the show's doing great. I'm doing fantastic. It was a wonderful game, an interesting game. an interesting game, but also an interesting experience as we sat here waiting to do the show because I saw a lady pushing a cart that we, you and I are still trying to figure out what was

that about. The post game Super Bowl chaos is always great. We saw a woman in a strange hat pushing a cart. It made no sense because Chris Jones's his mom. Yes, Chris Jones was very nice. The whole family was very nice. No, the cart was just, it was a unique cart situation. But another one I saw, I saw a drunken chiefs fan going from vendor to vendor as they're trying

to close up and bribing them with over $1,000 trying to buy beer. With the three spots as I'm following him because I'm going to the bathroom. Famously, you can't buy beer after like 9 p.m. in Vegas. So if he goes anywhere else, it's going to be really hard for him to get a drink. Might as well just do it in the casino. Maybe if you gamble a little bit, you can get for free. But that was what I was waiting to say because I saw that. I followed him because I'm going to the bathroom.

There's three in a row. He went, it was like 200, 500. Third one, he went a thousand. Didn't get it. But yeah, very, very interesting Super Bowl here in Vegas. It was awesome. The Super Bowl in Vegas had two inevitabilities. One, a lot of people being very drunk and doing silly things.

Two, Patrick Mahalm showing up like he did in the biggest moments. Of course. The Chiefs win this game 25 to 22 in overtime. And it almost felt kind of like the Chief's season in the sense that we had some frustrating moments. MVS had the play where he ran backwards. Guys weren't getting open earlier in the game. Mahom seemed to be running for his life. The offense was uneven.

The running game wasn't good the entire game. They had 27% success rate on running back runs. So it felt like that old Chiefs team, the chiefs team we had seen for the entire season had come back in the Super Bowl. And then as the game goes on, as the adjustments happen, again, they somehow find a way on the final drive of the fourth quarter and the final drive of overtime. And now this guy has three Super Bowl wins in four trips in his first six seasons. Three Super Bowl MVP's. Two guys ever have won at least three.

Joe Montana, Tom Brady, and now Patrick Mahomes. And the company he now keeps among those guys feels right. Yeah. It was before 30 again. He's 28 years old. That's all I tuned out to the game. He's only 28 years old. I think how many times you sat next to me and a Vic sat on the other side of me?

I don't know how many times I said this is the dumbest good team I've ever seen about the Chiefs. The drop by Pacheco on the toss play to start the second half. Oh my God. I hadn't gotten back to my seat yet. I saw it as I was walking back. I was like, you have to be kidding me. They had so. Second and 12.

You were a second of 15 or something. They had so many negative plays on first and 10 to start drives. especially early in the game. It just felt like they were putting themselves consistently in a disadvantage way too often. And this is the same team. As frustrating as that offense is, and at times sometimes, you know, you got some gashes on the defensive side.

I know we'll get to that. Then you have Aaron Schatz, formerly football stars now with FTA and tweeting, the Chiefs went through the toughest postseason ever in terms of DVOA. That's what that team did. And so it's like, maybe that's why I looked a little sloggy because they're going through a tough schedule, but the fact that they can do this with Mahomes and figure it out.

You can feel it in the moment. I know I would probably see it on TV, but even here on live, you can just feel what the light bulb went on for Mahomes in this offense. It was like, ah, again, he's inevitable, but sometimes it takes a quarter, sometimes it takes it dry. This game, it felt middle of that third quarter, it's like, oh, here comes the Chiefs offense, because Mom's just start clicking everywhere. He's now 15 and 3 in the playoffs. And this was supposed to-

Manning already. I saw that 15 and 3 in the place. This was supposed to be the year where it didn't happen, especially when you watched what they felt like for huge chunks of the season. What was that big question? Can they do it on the road in the post? scenes. They've never had to do that before. Well, all they did was win two road games, get here again, and I didn't know that DVOA step, but that makes perfect sense. What they had to go through, beating the two teams that had been the best teams in the NFL all season in Baltimore and San

Francisco. And in the Ravens, one of the best teams DVOA had ever measured. And the Niners had, one of the best offenses that DVOA had ever measured. And it still doesn't matter. It's at the end of the day, at the end of the game, he still came through in those big moments. And I can't imagine, I am a fan of an NFL team, but being a fan of a team. But being a fan of a contending NFL team, being a fan of the Niners or the Ravens or the Bills, and knowing that he's just going to be there forever, be there until your team probably falls apart. That is a truly terrible reality that is facing so many franchises. Until he gets bored.

Yeah, you know, again, you got Kelsey got held with what, one catch in the first half? One catch for one yard in the first time. Run game wasn't getting gone. They're making mistakes, punching themselves over and over. One huge play where Mahomes throws. It was one of prettier passes I've seen in person. It was a wobbler, but it was as far as the arc of that pass, that deep ball that he had to Hardman that came right towards us. What a bizarre play when it happened.

We didn't really know what to make of it because Gibson was in position to break that ball up and he just never caught it. He never caught it in the air. And the next play, Pacheco fumbles. I know. Well, both teams had a fumble inside the 10. It almost was good because it just evens each other out. And I don't have to worry about like, oh, well, if they didn't fumble inside the 10, because both teams did, they just erase each other. And everyone's, everyone wanted to take a turn fumbling upon.

I thought that was the cool thing to do in Las Vegas, so might as well just try that. And then you got guys making plays. That's what's so funny. We're like, okay, Mahomes, of course it's Mahomes. Then you got Juan. It's like the Juan Jennings, Mikul Harman, Mike Penel, Leo Chanel, Javon Kinla, Jair, Brown.

These are the names I was writing out throughout this game. And now, and my usual hipster, I got to throw out the third receiver blocking guy, anything like that. These were the guys making plays. So it's so funny in a Super Bowl that has all these stars. The brightest star, of course, shines in the end and Kelsey, especially in the second half. But all these quote unquote role players had big moments.

And of course it's like, really, that's, of course, this is what that's games going to unfold. The one with Taylor Swift added, the one Kelsey, the one Chris Jones. We're going to be talking about Mike Pinell because it's a 1613 finish. Thankfully, Patrick Mahomes saved us. Saved us. Let's go through some of those moments down the back half, the final drive and overtime. They have that fourth and one where they run the RPO with Kelsey coming across. Mahomes keeps it.

It's a great play call. Yes. That play specifically, that fourth and one, knowing they had to go for it, raises a pretty interesting conversation about the overtime rules. Because it's the first time we've had to face this situation where our coach had to decide after winning the toss, do I want the ball or do I want to kick it? The Niners decided they wanted the ball first because as Kyle Shannon had said after the game, I wanted if there was a third possession to have it with sudden death.

Sam Schwartzstein, one of our buddies from Amazon, who is a rules nerd. That's like what he does. He was tweeting about this. After my own heart. These are the decisions that you have to make. Do you want the information or do you want the same? sudden death advantage. And because the chiefs had the information, they knew to go for it on that fort down

where the Niners did not go for it on their fourth and medium on their overtime possession. So that, I'm sure we'll have that conversation and replay that a thousand times. But that fourth and one happens because it's a good play call. It also happens because the Chiefs knew they had to go for it. Also on that overtime drive, the third and sixth completion to Rishi Rice against that cover zero look. Niners go twice in the second half to cover zero on clutch down. There was the third down to McKinnon on the final drive in the fourth quarter for the Chiefs where Mahomes checked into it.

So it's cover zero twice. Mahomes beats it twice. And then you have that huge scramble to get down inside, in the red zone, put them in a position to finish the game off. And the other time they caught them, it was the two-minute drive at the first half. I just thought of this. Remember they hit rice on back-to-back plays? Yeah. One of those, remember we were laughing because like Oren Burke so I couldn't get lined up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was another blitz luck, too. It's because they went to the blitz look, and then I think they followed it up with a temple look, something of that sort. But again, they couldn't get lined up. But, yeah, those blitzlicks were, they were trying to change it up. This 49ers defense several times and several things. Again, we'll get more into that a sack. The first play, they ran a three-four front.

And I tweeted out. I got made fun of it. Someone said, yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to share in the dinner party, Nate. I'm going to share that the four-three-based personnel 49ers ran a three-four in that first play. Yeah, that's going to really earn me some accolades at those parties. But that second half showed, or in that overtime drive, especially, You talked about the O.T. Or I'm sorry, the RPO play that Mahomes keeps.

And that's the adjustment that Andy Reid and Mahomes made was Nick Bosa was crashing the F down on everything from the backside. It's what he does. He's super aggressive. He's athletic enough to sometimes adjust. It's not, this is one thing is when you guys, when you're a freak, you can do these things. You can break rules just like Mahomes can. So the chiefs, what they did, twice ran those RPAs, the big run that Mahomes had. And then, of course, that huge fourth and one.

There was the other point I wanted to point out talking about just like the plays they're making in high leverage moments. third and seven on the final drive of the fourth quarter. Mahomes hits Kelsey on that third and seven crosser. And that play, I think, really encapsulates the game in a lot of ways. Warner is on Kelsey in man coverage on that play. They run a little mesh concept. Warner gets picked. He's open.

Huge completion. They go down and score. But that we were wondering coming into the game. All right. If the Niners are just going to come out, play even fronts and play a ton of zone, we think this version of the Chiefs offense, what they've shown in the playoffs, is going to pick them apart. We were wondering all week.

What's the adjustment going to be? What's the adjustment going to be? And you noticed it, I don't know, probably halfway through the second quarter like this is exactly what they're doing. What did you see and how did that how did it apply to that third and seven completion of Cali? Having some deja vu from the Bucs Super Bowl when they beat the Chiefs. It was any time that the chiefs isolated Travis Kelsey and used him as a lone receiver and X receiver. They do this all the time. This is he's one of the best true ex receivers even though he's a tight end. I was curious. Okay, the foreign airs like to run man coverage. They ran mine coverage. an above average rate on passing downs. Who are you going to man up with Kelsey? So what the 49ers did was they put walked Warner on to him and then had a safety run one double. Usually when a team runs one double, it's a corner in a safety. Yeah. The foreign arrows are like, no, we're going to have Fred Warner do it because he's physical. This is exactly what the Bucks did a few years ago in the Super Bowl.

They did two man. But this version, what the foreign writers did was one robber, one double, however you want to put it. But there's several adjustments off it. And this was, it was great because the foreigners had changeups off of it. They ran a straight cover two up it. Multiple times they just dropped into zone. And it was really actually a very good defensive game plan. It was great.

What is the curveball going to be? And because it wasn't just those one double looks, there was a cover two off of it. I think they probably dropped into zone with him wind up that way at least three or four times. So I think that the plan they had was actually pretty sound. But this is what Mahomes in redo. Over the course of the game, they slowly start to figure it out. And they started to come up with answers down the back after the game. It was that last drive.

Yeah. So the adjustment was, okay, when you run the one double stuff, the best thing to do is create muck, let them run away. You're not going to win against bracketing on a traditional route unless it's kind of out of structure. So that crossing route was a great example of it. Then on the final play of regulation, yeah, final play of regulation, they run, they show that same exact loop, same exact shell,

run the cover two, Warner gets physical with them and they don't get the backshull or fade. Then an OT with the chiefs finally, this is the thing. Andy Reid has seen every look possible. Kyle Shanningham had a little bit too But Andy Reid has So what he started doing was Motioning a running back out to empty That creates Kelsey in the slot

But this actually spoke to what The foreign Irish is knowing that That's their game plan They were like oh they had a check for that And then the Chiefs proceeded The Nickel and Diamond Hit a nice route They had the answer to that

So fun little chess match on passing downs That got really leaned into Really cranked up in the second half It was cool to see the chiefs in real time During drives find different answers And there was the third and 10 To Kelsey with about 10 minutes left in the game And that was a play where the chiefs, I think, put, they had a shift and then a motion and the Niners had trouble lining up.

So again, it was like, okay, if you're going to play these sorts of looks on third down where the one double looks and we have to worry about the man coverage you're going to play, a lot of moving parts. Yes. Where's the guy lining up? Is he in the slide? Is he outside? So those were the adjustments the chiefs are making. It's like, let's just make it a little bit less static for them in those looks. So they have to move as we're lining up.

And also it's not, it's a untraditional look. It's not a crazy coverage, but it's an untraditional look, a linebacker and a safety on the tight edge. Yes. To me, trying to find an answer as a quarterback, I have to really rack my brain. Okay, so how does that play out like? And that's what Mahomes was trying to figure it out? He's like, okay, so what is my answer other than somebody else has to win? But I want to get Travis Kelsey the ball. So that's what they're trying to figure out. And honestly, as that game was going, I think if the four-iners won this game, if they won by that field goal, Fred Warner had a Super Bowl MVP-type performance this game. I thought he was fan-frikin-tastic, not just the Kelsey stuff, the sack at the end of the first half. Warner collisions, Justin wucks up the whole mesh route. Yeah, he didn't get the sack.

He caused the sack at the end of the first half. He mucks up Watson. So because they're running another mesh concept, there's a lot of mesh type concepts from the Chiefs. That creates it all mucky in the middle. Then Mahomes has a double cost. He ends up taking the sack. But over and over,

he was running down screens. He saved one up to Checo. That was huge. But he had a phenomenal game. It's just that you're going against Andy Reed, Travis Kelsey, and Patrick Mahomes. They usually are going to find an answer. One of the other things we were worried about with the Niners is,

what is their run game, run defense going to look like. They were really struggling against the run, especially in the playoffs. and teams really had some answers against them, the Lions and the Packers did, and they were fantastic against the run. 19 running back runs for 59 yards. Mentioned at 27% success rate.

I was a little bit surprised that we didn't see more perimeter runs from the Chiefs. Because I think they ran three of them over the course of the entire game. One of them was the fumble, and I think that might have scared them off a little bit. The first point was a TFL. So it's TFL fumble, so they're probably like,

are we going to really go for the whole shebang? It was funny because I literally said it. I said to you what we were sitting there. I was like, I'm surprised you haven't seen more perimeter runs. And then it was the second to last drive. They hit one for like a nine-yard game to get down inside the 10 when they ended up kicking that field goal. So the Niners did a great job there. But again, just little tiny ideas that end up becoming important after the fumbled punt, beautiful play design on the MBS touchdown. So MVS is lined up as the number one receiver. Kelsey's in the

slot. They run a little switch release. And there's nothing that the Niners can do in that moment. Orrin Berks is put in a really, really tough mind. And he's just not getting the depth he needs to on that MBS touchdown. We both said it in the moment. It's like you're just beat there. It's just a great play design. It's just a great call. Yep.

It was a switch verts. And really, again, this comes down to details. And again, it's I know what you know kind of thing is MVS takes the inside or at least because it is a switch verts. And on that, the corner Tavarius Ward is dropping off because he, okay,

if he's going inside, somebody's going to replace him on the outside. Sure enough, he caught Kelsey. Yep. He did what he was supposed to do. And the safety flew to the flat. The safety flew to the flat.

But the thing was there was a shift and then a motion right before the snap. Orrin Burke's backup linebacker in there and subpersonnel now, not Drey Greenlaw. He just gets caught. He just gets caught. First play, quick turnaround, quick change. And sure enough, he just gets caught. He's supposed to kind of fall off. But because of that stuff, because of the bump and then shifting,

it changes the number count. This is what they do. If you just have that sweet talk about the Shannoscope, Reed does this as well. If you have that slight hesitation, one guy's slow, one guy's stop. There's a wide open touchdown. And that helps him take the lead and gets a win.

Talking about all those tweaks. And just again, Andy Reid being a part of the chiefs always finding away in these moments. this is a huge moment for him. Three Super Bowl wins now. Five coaches ever have three Super Bowl wins. Five coaches all time. He's one of them.

I mean, this is, he is, I think, definitively, the second best coach of his generation. If you look bad, I mean, he took the job in Philly right around the time that Bill Belichick got hired. 98, 99. So their 10 years almost completely overlap. And now it's Belichick and him, and I think a pretty big gap.

And now the question is going to be, not how much of a gap is there between him and the rest of the field. It's what is the gap going to look like between him and Belichick when it's all set and done. Right. And now Mahomes is chasing Brady and Belichick is. They might just go, hey, let's do this together. We got this for the next decade. Let's try and push it. And everyone that I talked to this week that covers the chiefs or knows the chiefs, all the stuff,

the Andy Reid retirement rumors and everyone was like, no, he's not slowing down. Like he wants to keep doing this. I think he understands what sort of opportunity they have. And it doesn't sound like this is even something that's even crossed their mind with him. And even as he's getting into his 60s here. I don't know if you ever played craps. But yes, yeah, we played once together. We did.

Not this week, but years ago. But when you play crap, sometimes you just, like, you might have a number. And you're not rolling that, not rolling that point, but you just keep it on all the other numbers. That's what the chief feel like? They hit Mahomes. And then they're just like, let's just keep rolling. Keep rolling out of crappin alley. Yeah, let's keep this going.

What's that? Oh, we got, let's give another. Yeah, I'm going to put another $5 on Catarius Tony there. Oh, whatever. or that would add that win, but everything else is winning right now. But why wouldn't you? And the tweaks that they're adding, even, again, this is quote unquote the down year, still a top six offense throughout the year and they won another freaking Super Bowl.

It's just, why wouldn't you? I would just keep doing this because the vibe just seemed immaculate right now. Keep stacking up Chief's legacy talk. Kelsey has one catch for one yard in the first half. He finishes with nine catches for 93. And not only the production and not only him being the answer in the biggest moments of this game, I think it's so telling that the Niners' main tweak their main little adjustment was Kelsey focused.

He's still, at this stage of his career, is the number one thing that teams are trying to stop when they think about the chiefs. And I just think that says so much about what sort of presence he is, what sort of gravity he still has, even at this age. Oh, my God. Every motion, though, you can just feel because it shifts.

Gravity is a great word. We usually talk about maybe with a three-point shooter, but even here we talk about speed. Like Tiger Hill has got so much gravity. Devante Adams, Justin Jefferson. They run all this cloud coverage over there. But now when we see Kelsey with it, it's like a little motion coming in inside, then you see everybody's shifting to safety, rotating down, all these types of things.

But he's older, you know, he's R-H. And he's getting, yeah, he's older and older. And then he catches that crosser at the end of the half. And that was the fastest, I think this next-gen stats, it was the fastest he's gone in seven years. Yeah. They did a great job of putting him in bubble wrap for a huge chunk of this season and making him ready for these moments. It was a very thoughtful bit of overall, you. usage for the first two-thirds of the season, even for the whole regular season.

It must be nice to just get away with that when you can just kind of go, yeah, okay, now we're going to get into it. And, oh, there was some tight-end stuff. I saw some Blake Bell lead blocks. I was like, all right, here's the tight end stuff. But then it was just like, well, there's the tight end. There's Travis Kelsey. There's him getting isolated in the slot again, getting screens.

It's like, oh, yeah, same old game plan. Just give him the ball. Let him go. The Chief's offense comes up big at the end of the game, but the Chief's defense was excellent. And their plan, the other side of the ball, Chief's offense against the night. Niners defense. I don't think we really hit that. There were a lot of elements to it that were hard to predict.

We didn't know how it was necessarily going to go. I thought the Chief's offense had a horrible time that I may be anticipated coming into the game because of, one, the pass rush. The pass rush was really good for the Niners early in the game. It slowed down. So I think that that Niners defense was playing with their hair on fire. The other side of the ball, though, the Chief's defense against the Niners' offense, this is what we expected.

They loaded up against the run on early downs. and they said when we get into passing downs, we are going to bring a lot of heat, and that's exactly what went down. 31 carries for 110 yards for the Niners, okay? Negative 0.33 EPA per rush. That's a great starting point if you're going to be this team. Three and a half yards per carry with a guy with Christian McAfrey on the field.

It's huge. They get them into third down, three of 12 for the Niners on third down. That's how you have to do it. It was exactly how you want to play this team. The one adjustment, though, we knew they were going to bring heat. But this is a team that even when they blitz, it's a lot of zone behind the blitzes. And it felt like, I don't have the numbers on it. I'm sure we'll see it over the next couple days.

Anecdotally, it felt like there was more man behind the blitzes. And that's why all those inbreakers to Debo, there were so many contested throws in this game. Debo got 11 targets. He had three catches because McDuffie was gloving him up every single time they tried to go to him and I'll late that. They were so. McDuffie was fantastic. He was incredible. Yes.

They were physical. I watching the back that Dolphins game in Germany in week nine and seeing how physical the outside corners were with the Chiefs. Saw a lot of that tonight. That's base downs. That's first and second down. That's when they were running in more cover two, more cloud looks, more lock coverages. But like you said, when you got the passing downs, those more man situations. Devo got targeted 11 times, which was great process for my props, by the way.

Only ended up with three catches. And it was because McDuffie was swarming them. Or DB was swarming them every time. The amount of tight windows they had to throw the ball into the entire game. And it's why it was a Joanne Jennings game. Because he comes up so big on third downs. He's so good. He ran great routes today.

He was really good today. He made some money today. But it's still, he's a free agent. But it's still not the game you want to play. No. When you're having to hit all those tight window throws, that's what this chief's team did all year. And Sneed McDuffie, that combination has been phenomenal. And they showed up in the biggest moments when they were needed most.

All the door. All the DBs. They made the run game of slog, which I, you know, some of those cloud coverages again, they're turning back inside. Leo Chanel was fantastic in the run game. Leo and Mike Pinell. Mike Pinnell had a huge game. Rick and I'm going to go.

Is that 69 again? Every single time it was like, is that him again? They're the ones that forced the fumble initially? I mean, I thought those two, they really did though. Not just jokingly. Like, I've never seen a defensive player take it to George Kittle on the run game. And I'll probably, I'm going to watch it, but anecdotally, it was two or three plays. I saw there's Leah Chanel crushing Kittle in, pushing them back in and not letting the runs get to the edge.

and you're taking the 49ers out of their game. Now they're getting into eye formation stuff. Okay, that's fine. But it was wine back concepts. Remember, I kept saying to you, I was like, man, they keep running this play. And I think it's 0 for three. We saw those toss plays and he's falling use check as he's winding back. So they're taking them out of their game.

We're taking your fastball away. You can not get to it. You're taking your fastball away, though. But theoretically, they should be able to win those matchups against the interior of the chief's defensive line. All the non-Christ Jones players are replacing level guys. Mike Pnewell's on the practice squad. He got cold up. 33.

He got cold up in this game. And Joe Tuny got put on IR. Like that's who we're talking about here. So the game plan, like, all right, we saw teams gashed them with interior runs over the course of the playoffs. Let's do that. It was guys stepping up and not allowing that to happen. I think that's why it was big. More great tackling.

I mean, that was throughout the night. They limited those yak opportunities and yards after contact opportunities. And I want to look at some of the front stuff. And I don't want to get too far ahead of myself on it. But some of the fronts were interesting where they were running a, a. quote unquote rush front, meaning two, three techniques, the chiefs were, but then having Chanel outside. So they were kind of, they were daring them to run inside.

They were truly just pinching them. If you ever play Madden, they were doing like LB up, spreading out that line, but then putting Chanel at the line of scrimmage, usually when teams do that, they're doing it underfront. So it was just a little tweak. And I kind of watch more of it, but again, that's spags. It's just that funkiness. It's just another thing where you're like, as a team, you're like, okay, what's my answer?

So they start running counter, but then you're taking again. that got limited as guys got blown up by Chris Jones and Carl Loftus because those are more boom-bust runs. And again, you're just, again, taking away the answers that they had naturally. Spags had a fantastic postseason. He had a fantastic season. I think this is for a lot of the other guys on the Chiefs for Mahomes, for Kelsey, for Andy Reed, they're stacking up the resume.

This is just adding on to what they already are and what they've already done. For Spags, I think that this is, this season overall, and what he did over the last few games has put him in a different stratosphere. puts him in a different conversation for all-time coordinators, all-time coaches. I mean, what he has done, I said this after the Ravens game, and I truly do believe it, and I think that this game is another example of it. Getting Mahomes, the trade-up from Holmes is the most important thing the Chiefs will have ever done. It's the most important thing the Andy Reid era did.

But them going out and getting Steve Spagnolo after the 2018 season and locking down that side of the ball and getting the most out of their defensive personnel all the way through. When they were built a different way, that was making. making sure, can we get to average? Can we get to 18th? But as they've retooled the building of the roster, and as they restocked the defense after the Tyree Kill Trade, this was about can we create an elite defense as currently constructed?

It's young, it's cheap, but we invested in it. And that's what they did. They went from having a team, can we get to, let's get four or five high leverage stops a game, that'll be enough to, can we be a team that dictates the game on defense? And that's exactly what happened this year. And that isn't possible if Steve Spagnol isn't the guy on that. out of the ball. We used to call it when we first started the show, we'd be like, oh, they're like a

trap and run team in basketball. Okay, score, score, score, trap them. Okay, we gave up an easy three, whatever. We're going to get it right back. Easy lay up all that. But then you watch this year and you see him, it's kind of his handpicked players or at least the players that were picked on like, okay, I'm going to use you here. Chanel is the greatest example of that because he's such a unique player. But that's, you just have to credit spec. Some of that stuff is smoking mirrors and that's what covered up some of the lesser players that he had before, the Dan Sorensons of the world, because the guy gave him mention once a month on the show. But then watching it and everyone can go,

well, of course they hit on all these players right now. Spags highlights them. He gets their best out of him. Hey, La Jarius Sneed, you can just be as physical as hell. The Jerry Sneed went from a slot pressure guy to a outside ass kicking corner. And that starts with coaching. I mean, that helps him making these guys play confident.

Those, that Channayin offense runs so much shifting emotioning. And they do so much, I mean, as Spags does, they do so much of funky looks. and all those guys are communicating. There were several times I saw the DVs after a shift all signal the same thing at the same time, which means they knew what that look was. That tells me because that's what defense says. It's all responsive.

So if you're in this formation, we're going to check into this. The Chiefs were all on the same page no matter what the looks were. It was fantastic. The only thing that was getting was when they motioned CMC to the slot. I realized that was popping their heads a little bit. I was waiting for more of it. But they generated nine unblocked pressures on blitzes today. And two of those unblocked pressures were game changing place.

One one where McDuffie came unblocked on the third down. forced the field goal and then the one where Jones came unblocked to force the field goal. Those unblocked pressures changed the complexion of the game. Yep. Yep. And Chris Jones had six on block six pressures today. What was our number? Five.

Yeah. Five. Can you have a guy can create five pressures every single game? And him and Nick Bosa, both. Bosa was a monster for huge chunks of this game. If they had won, we would be talking a lot about the impact that he had on the game. Jones and Jones had several near, uh, near sacks and everything. But they were constantly getting pressure.

It felt like they were just taking turns on the interior of the right side, which we kind of figured. But that limits has a limitation on the offense. The foreignaires were starting to keep seven in or George Kittle was having the full time block a lot. And I think maybe some injuries with Kittle was part of that too. It's eases load throughout the game. But blocking is pretty tough too. So I don't know about that. But again, you're taking away what they want to do. You're you're dictating the game. You're holding the pen last. You remember you, I love that phrase that you've always used with it. And I think that's exactly what they did. Even if this is usually a look where the offense get them, they found answers that worked. Talk about what

Jerry Sneed, that becomes my biggest question for the chiefs this offseason. He's a free agent. So is Chris Jones. I just assumed that Sneed would be gone. That he would just be one of those guys as you pay, as you pay him a home. As you have some big money guys on the offensive line, the way you pay Joe Tuny, the way you pay Juan Taylor. This is just a guy that you have to lose. You get a

competitive pick back. The way he played, though, I almost feel like you have to bring him back. I don't think that as you're currently constructed, the model of team that you have, the feel of team that you have, I think he's almost too valuable for you to let him go. What's he out right now? Is he 28? He's 27.

27. And they have $24 million in Calf Space heading into next year. Mahomes has a massive roster bonus. So he has a $35 million roster bonus this year. I assume they will convert that to a signing bonus. So they'll get another $30 million in space. So theoretically, they will be able to bring some of these guys back if they want to. I would.

I know it's easy for me. I'm telling you, he played at such an elite level. This is a time. I feel like it's almost a no-brainer. If you had asked me before the season, which guy did they bring back? Chris Jones and O'Legeri's seat. I don't think it would even have been a conversation.

Yeah. Now, I kind of think it might have to be sneed. And he was crazy. And he's not even a blitz merchant where he only has to guard for two seconds. He was taking it to some of the best receivers. He got man coverage assignments on the guys this year. He was a true number one lockdown. We don't get that much anymore.

And he really could do that. Plus, again, I've mentioned this before from his prior year. years. He's a great blitzer. It works for the Spags defense. Well, he's extremely smart. You can just see that. It's very prevalent just how his game is ship or understanding the game and the game flow and everything. So I'm with you. It's like before he's like, oh, he's a fine player. He's a nice player. Nice role player. Someone can give him a nice and free agency. He can be a nice, like number two for you know, can do some blitz stuff. But no, but this year was just like, oh, no, he was my second team all pro. I mean, I think he deserved it. Stephen Ruiz just walked by. He's the happiest man in the building right now because he gets to keep cover in the NFL. He's having a really good day. He really is. Let's get, let's get to. Let's get to. The Niners. All right. So this is a team that was set up to win this game. It was built to win this game. They felt like one of the best teams in the league all year.

They were favored coming into this game, even against a Chief's team that looked so much better in the playoffs. And I think that made sense. When you look at the body of work that they had put together and what type of team we were talking about, this always felt like a team that it was Super Bowl or bust. And it busted. Again, almost to no fault of their own in some regard because of the team that they played against. And I think that was the conversation we had against Cobach,

about Halashanahan coming into this game. It was he probably has more writing on this in the way that we talk about him than anyone else in the game. If he wins it, he enters rarefied error and it's just a different class of coaches. If he loses it, that conversation changes. But sometimes over the last 20 years, we've seen these teams come along that just run into the wrong quarterback at the wrong time. And that's exactly what happened. So now you have this Niners team that was truly put together to do it this year. All those stars, all those stars on huge contracts, and they fall short.

And I think now the answer, the question is, what comes next? Like, what does the fallout look like? I know. And then now we've got a lot of questions starting soon. And we got a lot of questions started answering. And kind of felt like, like you said, it kind of felt like that going in. But of course, the questions I see right before we started the show on Twitter is, why did you throw the ball so much again? It was like, oh, we're doing, here we are again.

Shane and Hampshire, close losses. Why did you throw the ball so much? I'll figure it out in all 22. I don't want to give a definitive same and everything like that. But the run game wasn't mowing people down. The average three yards to carry with the running back is. And they had explosive plays if they go three, once in the right spot.

But it was that I just, that's what's going to linger. Just like the 283 game, that's going to linger. Why did you throw it on that one play? That's what people are going to remember. Fair or unfair, that's how it goes.

But I mean, this offense was freaking phenomenal. It was legit. Every stat we look at, the Robert and I looked at it looked on True Media, top 12 in every metric. It's since 2000. This is an elite,

elite, top 1% offense. So you're going to see, it's defense plays extremely well for how they've looked recently and this happens. And you still get you get some luck. Like just a little luck. Yes, you had the turnovers too, the fumble and everything. But, you know, you hang in there.

Your pass rush is getting there and you still end up short. It's just, like you said, it's just not fair. It just isn't because you go against that other quarterback and that other team that has answers and figures out answers. The only game management question I think you'd have about Shanahan is they did not call timeout at the end of the half. They let all that time tick down while the chiefs were driving. Could they have used their timeouts, potentially stole possession back, knowing

the chiefs were going to get the ball after the half? But other than that, I don't think this is a, oh, man, another Kyle Shanahan game management mess when we get into the biggest moments. Even the overtime taking the ball one, I think that's a coinful decision that comes down to it. I don't know. I don't know. It is kind of a 50-50 proposition. I'll just get my answer to it. I look at it as more like college overtime where you want to see what you need to get and go second.

I think it makes sense. But seeing smarter people discuss it and I understand and you bring it up the third possession stuff that Shannon said, I understand that. I understand that argument as well. But, you know, that's interesting. It was fun. It was a fun example. We got to see live because it was another example. And even us, we're going, like, wait, time's not going to run out.

We just had like, because of two monster drives. Well, we've never seen it before. I know, right? When the clock was ticking down, we were asking each other. Like, wait, what happens? What happens if the clock runs out? The answer is the game would just would have kept going. You get to finish your initial possession.

Yeah, the rule is if you don't finish the second possession, it just goes to a second overtime. So the idea that we almost saw a double overtime Super Bowl is insane. I know. I was actually kind of excited for it. I kind of wanted to happen a little bit than they scored. It was like they had that flare for the dramatic too because it was like the clock's ticking down. It's like they can't help themselves but do it. Oh, even that touchdown was almost a callback to last year's Super Bowl doing a little motion in red zone messing with the motion rules for the defense and catching them. And they got him.

Even Kelsey knew it was automatic. His route on it. He just took two steps and looked at the Jumbatron because he knew it was automatic. He was like, a touchdown. That's it. Hey, they score it. Like, yeah. But it's, yeah.

Again, there was another callback. And again, Andy reads really good this. He can find answers when he wants to. How do you feel pretty played? He didn't really do much to me. I thought some of his creation moments, like the one to use check. Those, the scramble and then the play to use check on that drive were his two biggest plays of the game. His best place.

And then the little dump off on the third down. There was a big blitz. Yeah. And he found CMC in the flat on that same drive. The catch and run. Yes. And then he had a boot to Kittle, one of Kettle's few catches where pressure came right out on the boot. Another thing that Chiefs did well.

played the boots really well, but came right at him and he kind of adjusted it. It was a short game, but it was from our angle, I was like, I didn't think I even said it out loud. I was, oh, that was a hell of a thrill. It was like, because he threw its sidearm around the guy. So a couple moments out of structure. I thought his best ones. Again, that one to you check, he really, you broke off Carl Loftus on it, I think on it.

He made Chris Jones miss a couple times. So those were his best plays, but I thought throwing wise, you know, a lot tight windows. And I thought he kind of a couple of a missed. That was it. One of the things that has crept up over the playoffs to me is his stature in the pocket is, it was a thing over the course of the playoffs. We were saying it all game, you kept tarping on it. The pocket's getting real tight.

The pockets getting real tight. When teams have pushed the pocket against him, I think the Niner, the Packers game is a very good example. They had all those five-o fronts that they were using. When they were closing in on him, he just doesn't, he's not a creative thrower. He's not going to be able to back up in the pocket. He's not going to be able to create things as that space gets condensed. And I think we saw that a lot again in this game.

Right. And I think that getting it over. This is where the height stuff comes, too, is everyone thinks, oh, is you just throwing over the middle or throwing or can't see past guys. So when it gets tight, it's giving yourself room for error. If I naturally have longer arms, I'm going to be able to work around a body like this.

And that's where height and kind of size stuff, do I get pushed off the thing? I actually think he's pretty sturdy. Like, I won't give that. He's a bill guy. He's a good athlete. He is a good athlete. I'm going to give him more credit than I did before.

He is a good athlete. He is. Seeing him in person and see him getting some corners and stuff like that. That was, it was impressive to see in person. But again, like you said, when you get the interior pressure stuff And that, again, you feel it, especially for a team that wants an attack over the middle, that's hard. Yeah. I have a body here and I have to throw right in front of me, but there's something here, here, here and here.

So that means I have to throw side arm to throw in front of me. And if you're not backing up in the pocket and buying yourself space, that's going to be difficult to do. And that's just not his game. And it's because they're taught. Watch Jimmy Jeep, watch anyone play in this offense, these types of offense. You stand here and you deliver here. Because it's about timing. It's all about timing.

When you have some of these other offenses where there is a little bit of, I've said it a million times. The phrase I keep coming back to you. pocket it's uh pocket playmaking yes pocket playmaking it's not about creation outside of the pocket he can do that we've seen him do that it's honestly one of his best selling points but he's one of those guys where pocket playmaking is just there's something left to be desired because he's not overly skilled right he's though he was mr irrelevant like even if he's outpaced that in a lot of ways at the end of the day he's not an overly physically talented quarterback so when you put him in these situations i think these are the results that you see

And this is, too, is they were getting forced to drop back more, and not just because of like game script or anything like that, but just the defenses that spas were playing. They were going to make him throw the ball more and more and more. And this is where you can see some of the limitations, the ceiling of when you don't have that menu that where you can just keep dropping back. You can keep adjusting your protection and get into the right call. We can check from this drop back to this drop back.

The Shannon offense is more going to be the designery plays that are the perfect look against the perfect thing as opposed to letting a player go point and find the right direction. It felt like a lot tonight, especially when you're going on with some spags, a Todd Bulls type defense, any of those types of defenses, they can again take away what you want to do. All right, do this one thing over and over. You can get it once, twice, three times. Do it a dozen times. One quarterback out there can. And that's where you can see some limitations sometimes with Purdy's game in this office right now.

Looking at the Niners construction for next year. Right now, they're slated to be about $3.7 million over the cap. Trent Williams, 31.5 million. Debo Samuel, 28.6 million. Eric Armstead, 28.3 million. Fred Warner, 24.5 million. George Kittle, 21.2 million. They got a lot of expensive pieces.

They can offset that because their quarterback makes a million dollars. But somewhere, they're going to have to move some money around. Because this is a team with holes. I mean, they have a couple guys hidden free agency, a lot of depth pieces, Jawan Jennings. So I'm wondering how do they move some money around and how aggressive can they be and trying to fill some of those holes. They're getting draft capital back this year. So they're going to be on a better playing field than they've been to restock the roster.

They're not going to have to use third round picks on kickers because they only have third round picks. So most of this team is still coming back, but it still feels like this might have been their best shot. And they're going to have to do it as a slightly diminished version of themselves if they're going to do it. It's just impossible to put together always perfectly. Like you, the chiefs haven't winning and everything, but that offense felt like a slog the whole year. this year, this 49 hours offense, even in the losses, even in the quote-unquote bad purdy games, which are the exact same games, they were chugging on people, marching on people. And the defense had flaws, but they were more than good enough. There was an above average defense that sometimes very good at this throughout this year. But yeah, like this is where the losses come. This is where can you find another Jennings? Can you find another all these types of role players that do so much in this offense that are kind of hands selected? Like you said, they have more draft capital. Their 40-nars are impossible to predict them preseason. The same team that went out and signed Hargars. last season. Well, that's what I mean.

They're impossible to make what they're going to do. They're going to trade. They're going to sign guys. They're going to do stuff. They're going to find some creative way to make sure what's keep pushing and keep pushing. And I actually think that's a smart way to do it. They know the window is now. And they know that this core pieces is going to come back.

Iyuk will see what happens when they have to decide to pay him, but he's back next year. There are so many guys that those decisions, they can keep pushing them all. This Niners team, as we understand it, this offense as we understand it, is coming back next year. They can pick a guard in the whatever round. You know, so I do think that they will be back. But when you get this close with this sort of team with an offense that looks the way that it did when it was firing on all cylinders, it's still hard not to look at this season as a missed opportunity.

Absolutely. Oh, man. I think, remember they lost the Ravens and we were like, you know, the Washington game happened. And it was like, okay. And then the buy week happened in the playoffs. We took a deep breath and looked at this team. I was like, yeah, it seems good, huh? I was like, 49ers are actually way up there, guys.

We kind of forgot for a split second. I know this team's way up, but that's, and then the playoffs had kind of some up and down moments, the first half against the Lions for early against the Packers. And so I don't want to take away what the season actually was. This was, yes, it ended in a disappointment. But the rest of this year was a resounding success, at least to my eyes. I agree. This was, again, the vision of Shannon's offense.

This is what he wants. And you can see a lot. So, again, it'll be interesting to see what this next step is, what they feel they need to upgrade, what they feel they need to find a new piece or find a new addition. And you can say all those wonderful things about that. Niners and acknowledge how good they were, how good this offense is, and how good this offense will probably continue to be. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that they are now playing in an era where the guy on the other side exists. And if you're going to be in these games,

in the biggest moments, and it's going to be close, it's hard not to see him on the other side and just expect the outcome that we eventually landed on. And I know that's not nuanced or interesting analysis, but this is how it has now been for the last 20 years in the NFL. There was one team in New England that did it. And now there's a team in Kansas City that's doing it. already done it more consistently, which is absolutely terrifying. But this is now the set of operations and what the umbrella that's going to be hanging over the league for the next five, seven, ten years because he exists. It's just that simple.

I just, I think we all thought we're going to get a deep breath from another dynasty and everything. It's just, no, let's just get right back into it. I think we all have to give one every generation. But at least they're in the NFC. And that's another thing. And they took advantage of a down year this year. Not took advantage. but they were the class of the NFC in a down NFC year.

That's going to get a little harder, but at least they're not in the AFC, which is just quarterback, legend-centric. We'll see what happens in the NFC. The N-Rams were not supposed to be good this year, right? The Rams are not supposed to be good. The Rams spent less on their roster and cash than any team in the league. And the Rams are a, we're a playoff team and dangerous.

The Lions, theoretically, they should keep building. They have financial flexibility. They have a young roster. The Packers, a team that gave them all they could stand in the playoffs. They were, I think, 31st or 30th in cash spending in the NFL this year. They were another reset team that, in theory, should be even better moving forward. Yes. So this was probably the worst year you were going to see in the NFC.

The Cowboys fell off in the biggest moments. The Eagles fell off down the stretch. So even if the NFC isn't the AFC, I could see a world where the NFC gets even better moving forward and that path becomes more difficult. That's what I was getting at, especially all the quarterbacks that might be entering the NFC. You might have one, two, go NFC, NFC, you know, K. of Drake May or Daniels, apparently, that's the thing now. But also you got Vikings, does Kirk come back there? They can just totally revamp.

The Vikings' offense was legit, one of the best while Kirk was healthy and Justin Jefferson, who knows what's going on in the FC South. But the other three divisions, though, I mean, seriously, but really what we say right there, four teams I feel better about at this point about this next year in the FSI that I did maybe last year. Yeah. So, again, naturally, he's just going to make it a slog. You can make it much, much harder. I truly can't believe that as we wrap this season up

and we saw what the Chiefs were for stretches of this year that we're sitting here with their logo on the board with that Chiefs color confetti on the field PC boys playing after the game again it was so hard to picture this and maybe it shouldn't have been and maybe we all learned a very important lesson this year about what this team is

and when it really matters when we should start paying attention and start making definitive statements and forming definitive opinions about the Chiefs maybe post Christmas. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Or we had our little bit like, I would say a 30 second like debate segment. I was like, oh, I'm picking the Chiefs. You pick the Ravens. I like, yeah, I kind of feel better about the Ravens still. Even though I was arguing with the Chiefs because they'll figure it out, right? They'll figure it out. And in the regular season, they lose to the Raiders.

I'm like, they'll figure it out. And they freaking still haven't figured out. They still had sloppy moments. Of course, they still won the goddamn Super Bowl. They didn't win a big game on Monday night, a big game on Thursday night, just a divisional round game. Just a divisional round game. the Super Bowl. I guess the class of the NFC.

It must be very frustrating for other teams and everything, and fans of other teams, but to watch it, at least a neutral fan perspective like mine, it's really cool to watch greatness and watch these guys just step up in these moments and do it so consistent. It's amazing.

It's amazing. And your eyes can glaze over, and I tend to be guilty of that, whereas a team just has this like unrelenting greatness over time. It's hard to find new things to say about them. It's hard to find new ways to analyze them. Thank you, Spags. year for help us out. Thank you. In reality, though, all of these great teams that sustain

it, there are a little difference. There are a little nuances every single year. For the Chiefs this year, it was the defense. But even with Mahomes, it was the way he's seen the game, him checking into that McKinnon play on that third down against that cover zero look, has just grasped with everything that's going on. There's always going to be something new to appreciate a team like this as they go on this sort of ride. And this is a year where I think they stacked up even more than we could have anticipated. Yeah, that's the lights went off. And the lights go off is... Look at that timing.

The light's going off is our sign that it's time to get out of here. That's a stand-up comedy. The lights flashing on us. Okay, you got wrap it up. No, it's... Greatness is very, very fun to watch a person. I'm just telling you guys right now. A fantastic season.

Guys, thank you to everyone who watched all year. Thank you to everyone who supported us. I can't tell you. I'm sitting there before the game. I'm like an emotional talking about this. I'm sitting there before the game. It's my ninth Super Bowl. And just being able to be here.

And the fact that we wouldn't be able to be able to, to do this without all of you supporting us. The idea that we've been able to form this little community of people who really love the show and people who support the show, I know that this isn't a guarantee. I know that we don't deserve this necessarily. So I feel grateful every single time we get to have one of these moments because I know that it didn't have to be like this. And that means a ton to me.

I know it means a lot to you. So thank you to every single person who listened to the show this year. Thank you to every single person who contributed to the show this year. Zach Kiefer was sitting next to me during the Super Bowl. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate his time. Sando and Randy for everything that they've done, what Dane has done on prospects to pros. We are so lucky to work with the people that we do. He's over here.

Ken Garrison who's here producing our show. Alex Semple here, Belor who's in home. He's done an unbelievable job. Tanika, who helped produce a couple of the other shows on the feed. Marissa coming in relief. Marissa is coming back now. We have a phenomenal team and we have a phenomenal group of people who love the show and support it. So thank you very, very much.

And we're not going anywhere. We'll have a couple more shows this week. but the Super Bowl always feels like, you know, you're putting an exclamation point or a period on the end of the sentence. And I thought the sentence played out pretty well this year. I agree. And also thank you everyone. Every single person that came up and said hi.

Yeah. Means so much, guys. Like, you have no idea. Sometimes going to the bathroom and, you know, just, you know, give me a second. Give me a second. But I will say, you guys, it's so cool just to hear your comments. Like, just what you guys, what you guys pick up? What do you guys think is interesting?

It's interesting to me. I love it. I love hearing from you guys. I can't thank you enough. Thank everybody that helps us out with the show. Thank Robert because he's the best. And this was great. Thank you guys for another year.

This was truly, truly fun. Thank you so much. We'll be back with some more stuff this week. But for now, that is all we have from Allegiance Stadium and Super Bowl 58. Appreciate you guys. Listen. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.