The Ringer NFL Show - Super Bowl LVIII Recap | Dual Threat

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Nora and Steven get together under the red and yellow confetti at Allegiant Stadium to discuss the Chiefs’ big win over the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. They dig into what they learned about each team during a particularly bizarre game, analyze the coaching decisions, and speculate on where both squads will go from here. After, they talk about the greatness of Patrick Mahomes, the Shanahan playoff curse, and what the lasting memories of this Super Bowl will be (18:13). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Dual Threat, Super Bowl edition. I'm Nora Prunciatti. And I am a gainfully employed, Stephen Ruiz. He's back. He's here to stay. We are coming to you, not live, but we are coming to you from a radio booth above a confetti covered field, red and gold confetti here at Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas,

where the chiefs have won Super Bowl 58. in overtime, 25 to 22. Steven, where do you want to start with this game? I think we have to start with the Chief's defense. I feel like that's what won them this game. I think Spagnolo's game plan was as good as everyone expected to be. I think they took away all the things that the 49ers have done well on offense this year. They made them play left-handed, so to speak.

They had to play from the gun. They had to drop back and pass. It didn't work. And that's why they won this game because their offense was not good. I mean, I saw somebody posting online after this game that to get here and to win this game, Kansas City's playoff opponents were the top four teams in the NFL in offensive DVOA this season. And they held them ultimately to 15.8 points per game. There's a reason why you and I are down in, I would say the locker room,

but what's really a series of random tents filled with football players after the game. And you're still hearing this chief's team. Just shout out Steve Spagnolo. Just shout in Spags we trust. And that's, you know, that's offensive and defensive players. Yeah.

Alike just because that's really become the identity of this team. And, and, you know, when we talk about sort of defeating an offense, this Shanahan offense is sort of like the final boss. Right, right. Of the NFL. And I know you were going around to some of the chiefs

defensive players and asking them about what they did in the game plan. and how they managed to shut down Purdy and the rest of the 49ers. What did you learn? Yeah, when you look at their blitz rate, I think they blitz on half of the snaps. And usually when you blitz a quarterback, it's all about like the past game, defeating the past game.

But I asked them, were you guys blitzing because of the run game, which I thought they were doing. They were doing a lot of run blitzes, quote unquote, on early downs. It wasn't like, oh, it's third and long. And we want to get after the quarterback. It was, we want to stop this run game.

I asked Lacherius Sneed, if they were, would have had this blitz heavy plan had they played another offense that wasn't so built around the run. And he said, no. He said, we knew they were going to run the ball. We wanted Brock to throw the ball. And that's what happened. And then Nick Bolton said something similar, not at the Brock Purdy part, but he said that they were selling out against the run, and that's why they were blitzing. That's what it looked like from the booth. And it was a smart plan. And the 49ers weren't able to deter them from blitzing. Brock Purdy was one for five for 19 yards on throws over 20

air yards. And the only way to get a team to stop blitzing is to burn them for a big play. And that never really happened. He was 19 yards on throws of over 20 yards. Yeah, I don't know. You got to take it up with next 10 years. Yeah. Stat keepers. So they did, it's really interesting to hear how they did that in part to shut down the run. But they did get some of those unblocked pressures and really critical moments that, you know, led to six plus points of swing in the run. And that, you know, this game, right? Like, Trent McDuffie comes unblocked on third and five. That play forces the field goal at the end of regulation. Then third and four in overtime, Chris Jones, unblocked, gets to Purdy. That forces the field goal in overtime. I mean, again, like you're talking about some of

these critical plays, the plays that end up winning and losing a Super Bowl, it's pretty gutsy vice bags. Third down to three. Call cover zero. That, that, That's crazy. I need to run to the numbers, but I doubt any other defense is calling to Blitz in that situation. And Justin Reed, when he was asked about it, he was like, that's what we do. And that is what they do.

It is what they do. But at the same time, I mean, this is the fourth Blitz heaviest game plan that Spax has coordinated as the chief's defensive coordinator. And yes, part of that has to do with Brock Party specific limitations, how they wanted to attack this 49ers offense, how they wanted to attack him as a quarterback.

But not everyone has the guts. No. Right? Like that's a smart game plan. And to some degree, like, you know, if we want to throw around, is that quote unquote disrespectful of the opposing quarterback? There's probably some degree of who was it? Was it Sneed?

Who said to you, we wanted him to throw the ball? But it's also just a thing where like you live and die by that sort of game plan as a defensive coordinator. And, you know, in these big moments, you sort of, it's fun. to watch the teams and the coaches and the players who believe in what they do and want to roll the dice. So it was cool to see that element of the game plan play out for Kansas City. Did you think that there was anything in particular for the 49ers who came out swinging? I think they had 150 yards of offense in the first quarter, particularly when they were in that opening game script,

they were picking up chunk yardage. then the Chief's defense seemed to find their rhythm. There is always that element of getting off of the opening script into Shanahan offense. Was there anything you noticed about how they ended up quieting down? Not really. I just think they missed some opportunities. I think in the past game,

especially Brock Purdy missed a couple of open throws, I would say ball placement wasn't great on a couple throws. I thought the one thing he did really well was avoid sacks. He took one sack, and you talked about the unblocked pressure. He faced nine unblocked pressure, season high for the Chiefs, and he only took one sack. I think that was the best contribution from him to the 49ers offense, but I do think he left a little bit of meat on the bone. And then obviously the mistakes, I do wonder how we're talking about this game plan. If the 49ers don't have those pre-snap penalties that kill their second drive, I think,

if they don't have the fumble in the red zone by McCaffrey, then the first drive. Because, like you said, they were just eating up yardage. I think the McCaffrey fumble was the first play of the game where it wasn't positive EPA. Right. But no, I really think Kyle stuck with the game plan. I think he, I thought he called a decent game. I see some complaints about him not running the ball enough on Twitter,

but I thought he stuck with the run game, especially when you consider what I said about them run blitzing. They were really selling out against the run. They were leaving their corners on islands. This was, like, you look at pretty stat line and you say, that was a pretty decent performance by him, but you have to add in the, context that the 40 or the chiefs were willing to live with that.

They were willing to give up, you know, a five-yard pass and maybe five yards after the catch because they just wanted a boom play. They wanted to make it a boomer bust game. They never got that boom and it still worked because these players, there are a lot of players like unsung heroes like Mike Pinell had a huge game. And he hasn't played a lot of football this year. Leo Chanel, one of the best performances throughout the whole game. it was really fun to watch this defense work all year,

but this game was like a culmination of everything they do. It was like a caricature of their defense. I mean, this game was a weird football game. Weird. Really entertaining, dramatic to the very end, a lot of different angles to it, and some really, really cool plays by, you know, by Mahomes, by Debo Samuel,

Kyle Chanahan's calling up, dialing up a double-pass trick play. Like some of the sort of, the tent pole figures who we talk to death when we do narrative stuff throughout the week and blah blah blah blah blah

blah there's some really juicy stuff there from those guys at the same time there is a point third fourth quarter of this game where it's like hmm MVP candidates Juan Jennings

Leo Chenal Chris Conley like this wasn't so this is a bizarre game for a while where you know the sort of the heavyweight Titans who lead the broadcast intros didn't feel like the players that the game was

hinging on quite so much. Now, I do think that we should talk about Mahomes because when the game came down to it, he just sort of took over. And he continues to have this knack where he will find just enough, he will run just fast enough, he will run just far enough to pick up a first down, and he's just so unstoppable in that sort of casual way where when, you know, you bring up sort of how good of a job did Kyle Shanahan do at calling this game

and they did have, you know, they had the fumble, they had the pre-snap penalties. At the same time, they just have so much less room for error because there's a point in this game where, you know, after halftime, the chiefs go on that sequence

where Mahomes throws the pick then they're driving and there's a bad spot where Kelsey probably picked up a first down, but it ends up being second and one, third and one. And then Andy Reid burns a timeout and then ultimately makes the pretty iffy decision to punt on, you know, fourth and not even, yeah, it was like 0.6 yards, which goes back to their unwillingness. to sneak it with Patrick Mahomes because he's been injured on that play in the past.

And it just feels like, oh, my God, is everything, like everything's kind of going wrong for them. And they had the drops. And they can withstand that. Whereas the 49ers, you know, they had the turnover. They had the issues of their own. But at the same time, there's moments in this game, right? We're like, Kyle Shanahan sort of conquers the fourth down demons.

He goes for it on fourth and third. three with the kiddle play that set up the Jennings touchdown, where they go up 16 to 13. Again, like some of the trickeration and the way that he designs this offense, it's just like they can do so much. But if you give an inch, this Chief's team is just going to take a mile and it feels like they can get away with the mistakes and still have enough when even the other best teams in the league just can't quite do that. him with stand what I thought was a bad game plan by Andy Reid. I really thought Kyle,

like in terms of offensive play calling only, I thought he outcoached Andy Reid by a wide margin, especially in the first half. I just thought they were getting too cute, and I had that ran like in November about the dumb plays. And like it showed up again and it showed up so many times the season. You like with this offense, yes, Patrick Mahomes gives you a wider margin for error, but the pieces around him kind of negate that margin for error that he provides. And it just put so much on him. And we saw in this game, he was pressured a lot.

And the offense didn't really start moving the ball until he started running the ball. In the second half, he had six rushes for 59 yards, 5.7 EPA. That's 0.95 EPA per run. Basically, his scrambles accounted for an extra touchdown is what that means.

And really, when they started letting him cook, letting him go tempo, that's when the offense started moving the ball. It wasn't Andy Reed's play calling, in my opinion. Even like one of the key third downs where the 49ers sent out,

all-out pressure. He changes the play, hits, I think, Pacheco in the flat, a running back in the flat, moves the chains. That was Mahomes. He changed the play.

That wasn't even Andy Reid play call. Like, this was Mahomes' Super Bowl from the offensive perspective. This was Spag's Super Bowl from the defense perspective. I really think Andy Reid, like,

this could have been a way worse game for him, perception-wise. I mean, right, if they don't come out on top of this, probably one of the lasting images of the Super Bowl is Travis Kelsey kind of like knocking him over on the sideline, getting in his face.

Kelsey had a lot more production in the second half after he had one catch for one yard in the first half. Andy Reid said that they tried to get him going on some combination routes and tried to get him off of Fred Warner a little bit who'd had good coverage in the first half. So I think they did make some adjustments there, but there's certainly a world in which, if this game goes the other way,

we're talking about some of the limitations. in how Reid coached this game. I do want, just because it's so funny, I have to pose a question to you, which is, what have I told you? What have I just read you this tweet at the beginning of the football season and just asked you to make sense of it?

And I said, at Barack Obama, congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs, MVP Patrick Mahomes, coach Reed, Travis Kelsey, Chris Jones, and me, Cole Hardman. I don't know. I would have been, Aaron Rogers did something crazy.

How did this happen? Because he was a jet in September. Which somebody reminded him of after the game and the press conferences. And I think he said something along lines of like, oh, please don't remind me. As if the season hadn't been depressing enough for Jets fans, Michael Hardman had to just rub it in a little bit.

You know, look, it's very fun. To have this be where this. this game ended up, right, with Michael Hardman getting to be the hero and making the game-winning play and all of that. Obviously, that does not negate the struggles of the Chiefs' Wide Receiver Room throughout the year. But it's a funny, full-circle moment. It does make it interesting to think about where they go from here, right? Because Mahomes is in this place after his third Super Bowl and four trips.

He's got 15 postseason wins at this point. Joe Montana got to 16. Brady had 35, so obviously he's got a long way to go there, but he's 28 years old. He's got plenty of time where it's about how many and how do they get the next one? And, you know, Travis Kelsey didn't make any big statements after the game, but he did say, I'm closer to the end than the beginning. Did he endorse Biden?

He did not make any political statements. Can you imagine? but there's some work to do for this team and figuring out what their receiver core is going to look like going forward, how they're going to better support Mahomes than they did this season, because obviously it got tenuous. And the development of Rishi Rice is a big part of that. I mean, I thought he was really interesting to talk to after the game just because he was talking about all of these points throughout the season where, you know, he said at his first

training camp practice. He was running up and down the field, and he puked because it was just a brutal practice. And that was a welcome to the NFL moment. And then he scored a touchdown in the season opening Lions game. Yeah. I think, yeah. And that was sort of another one where he felt like, okay, I can actually be involved in this offense. And was just sort of going through the season and pinpointing moments of development.

Yeah. That's only going to continue. but it seems like they're going to have to find some other options. And I feel like you can't be like, okay, we hit on this pick, this day two pick, and be like, okay, we're set there. I don't think they can make the same mistake they made last off season. They come off the Super Bowl win after trading Tyree Kill. And then I don't know if that gave them the confidence to go into this season

with an underwhelming receiver room, but I think they still need to work on it because there were problems throughout this season. And the 49ers were able to play a ton of man coverage. And I think that's a direct result of you not having great personnel in the receiver room. Right. Well, and which is, I think part of that is why you saw Mahomes. Like, those are the situations when Mahomes, especially as a game goes on, you see him more and more go, like, screw it. I'm just taking this myself.

I'm just going to tuck and run and I'm taking this ball. And that's great. And it's an amazing quality of his. And it's amazing that he can do that. And it probably just won them the Super Bowl in a lot of ways. You know, there were multiple. moments in this game where we ended up talking about the fact that this team doesn't run quarterback sneaks.

Right. Because they just think it's a bad idea because they want to preserve him. He got injured on one in, what, 2018? Yeah. I think it was 2019? That sounds right to me. You have to make decisions about that in terms of quarterback longevity and keeping somebody like that healthy.

So the Eagles are just like, we don't care. We're just going to do it every play. Some of us are exempt from this conversation, I suppose. but the Eagles famously invested in the quarterback sneak. Let's do the quarterback sneak and make it even more violent. Let's smush him. What did Jason Kelsey say about that? Like, I scream on every,

every time they ran the tush push. No wonder why he wants to retire. How many years did the push push take off Kelsey's career? Many, several, several, several, several. Today's Ringer NFL recap show is presented by State Farm. From the way you cook up your game day sloppy joes to your favorite spot in the stadium, you personalize your life down to the last details. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan gives you the option to personalize your policy

resulting in an affordable price just for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Kyle Shadahan. Oh, come on. This poor man. I feel so bad for him. I feel so bad for a lot of 49ers. Christian McCaffrick played his ass off, and he was hurting.

Every time he got up, he was grimly. missing and there's been a knee issue all season long. Rain and I, you didn't get the ball a lot in this game and he was still blocking his ass off on the perimeter every snap, every run snap. Use check. Watching, use check too. Watching Debo in person was insane.

He was taking huge hits and it just didn't bother him. We've talked a lot about Brock Purdy on this podcast, obviously. But like this team is just so fun and so enjoyable and they have these players that are so rare across the league. It's kind of sad to see. that they're not going to be rewarded for this game. And same goes to Kyle because he orchestrated this offense. You designed this offense.

And I really don't want him to go down in history as like the guy who never won because I know how those guys are treated no matter what they do in terms of like play calling and stuff like that. And I think that's where he's headed right now. I saw a tweet. I don't know who sent it. But it was like, what is Kyle Shanahan's legacy? And it was a picture of Jeff Fisher.

And no, we can't do that. I refuse. The thing that gives me hope is that. You know, even Andy Reid talking about, I think someone asked him at the post game how he compared Super Bowl wins and sort of if it felt different now than it did with his first. And he said something totally offhand, but he said, well, I mean, the first one was great because it took me a million years to get there. And there are so many similarities between those two guys where Andy Reid, when he was still looked at as, you know, kind of. of a choker, this guy who couldn't manage the clock, who's always going to, you know, screw up in a big moment who you couldn't trust, was also this offensive mastermind,

someone whose contributions to the league were really underrated. And, you know, people who paid close attention and really cared about scheme and really cared about coaching trees would say, you know, Andy Reid, Andy Reid is underrated. No one understands how much Andy Reid has given to the game of football. Now, obviously, he doesn't have to answer any of those questions. Payton Manning kind of dealt with the same thing as a player, but it's the same situation. Like, until you win, doesn't matter what you do.

So I at least like to have, I feel, I have faith that Shanahan is so good that he will get there. It's just that the ways in which he's fallen short so far have been so devastating. I mean, this one, they led by 10 points again. This was probably the gentlest of the three. He had an 88% win probability. Pat Super Bowl, 99%.

Last Chief Super Bowl, 97%. So this one was easy. This one was easy to swallow. And yet somehow, I don't think, looking at his face after the game, I don't think it goes down. Looking at his face before the game. I mean, we did say, like,

even when they were doing, doing the introductions and doing the anthem, he takes the hat off. And I'm sure the guy just had hat hair. And, you know, those of us in, in glass houses who've been not getting enough sleep in Los Angeles for Los Angeles, Las Vegas for a week plus at this point should not throw stones. But we did look at each other for a second and go like,

oh, Kyle's looking a little mad scientist. I don't think he's been getting a lot of sleep this week. He looked like he touched one of those like static balls. And his hair was coming out at all different angles. But I do want to ask one question. What changed with Andy Reed? Nothing really changed. He got Patrick Mahomes.

Right. So that's my advice to Kyle Shannon. Go find your Patrick Ball. Thank you. You heard it here first. Today's Ringer NFL recap show was presented by State Farm. What do your podcast history and fantasy team have in common? They're a reflection of you.

And that's what the State Farm Personal Price Plan has in common, too. It gives you options to help you personalize your coverage so that you can protect what you care about most at an affordable price just for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Price is vary by state, options selected by customer. availability and eligibility may vary. Anything that we should, what are we missing here? I mean, one thing that I was interested in, especially early, when the 49ers were in a little

bit more control, they did, I want to give credit to that defense because they came out swinging and they were flying around in a way that made me, I was having questions about were we sort of underrating them based on recent performance. And I think it's a styles makes fights type of thing. Sure. This is an offense that can't, not can't, but isn't built to take advantage of the weaknesses of the 49ers defense. Like if you have a good wide receiver, you can match up against Thomas. You can exploit that matchup.

If you have a good run game, like the chiefs aren't known for the run game. They're known for RPO's and stuff. Like if you load the box, we're going to flip it out to Rice and he's going to take it for eight yards. They had nothing in the run game. They had nothing in the past game for the most part until Mahom started scrambling. And I really think the Drake Greenlaw injury, which was just bizarre. Like he's coming off the field and pops his Achilles. I thought that had a big impact on this game because you saw them start to hunt the matchup.

I forget who the replacement was. It was a rookie, a special teamers, special teams player. But they hunted that matchup throughout the second half and they had a lot of success doing it. Right. I mean, Mahom is still finished as the leading rusher. and it did, I think, change particularly, you know, I didn't think the inside runs were super effective throughout the game, but they had a little bit more variety

and a little bit more success doing that later, particularly after the Green Law injury, which, as you said, it's just one of the strangest things that I've ever seen where all the guys, I mean, I didn't even, I didn't quite, I didn't know what happened, what had happened. He wasn't, yeah, he wasn't in on the play.

And when you see a player, down, you're like, oh, that's a guy that was on the field and he got hurt. And then the carts coming out and then all of a sudden, you know, a few minutes after, they announce it. And you could kind of see it in the replay because an Achilles injury is often one that you can diagnose immediately. But they announce it in the press box and it's like, Drey Greenlaw, Achilles. It's just like, I mean, the poor guy. But also just the strangest thing that definitely had an impact in how that defense was able to operate and what Kansas City was able to exploit.

But I did think that especially early, the 49ers were flying around. The Joe Tuny absence, I thought, showed up. Yeah, that's a good point. Nick Caligrani was having trouble out there. The 49ers were winning in the trenches on both sides of the football. And they were implementing their style. And, you know, a lot of things change, right? the injury changes it.

Just at a certain point, Kansas City does start to adjust. Mahomes started to just sort of take over and say, like, you know what, if this is what I'm, if this is what you're giving me, then I'm going to respond to that. But, oh, man, they, they, it does feel like they were really close. Yeah, I thought Steve Wilkes called a good game on third down. He was really mixing stuff up. From the sideline. From the sideline, he finally moved down from the booth.

He was not scared to compete. Speaking of scared to compete, come on, Spags. Talk after the game. He didn't come to any press conference. He was scared to do an interview. What would you have asked him? I thought you said that this Brock Purdy guy was the real deal. Why did you, why Jerry Sneed says that that wasn't the case.

I don't know. Who's lying? No. I would have asked, they did some interesting stuff on defense. Like, they busted out the 6-1 front that we saw from the Patriots against the Rams. Like, these types of offenses have seen that a lot. I asked Justin Reed about it. He said they hadn't done that before.

And that's just the Spax thing. And they had Justin Reed at Mike Linebacker. in those formations, which is kind of crazy. But yeah, the defense was flying. It was their type of game. I like that you said that. Third and long, that's what they want to be in so they can get those pass rushers after the quarterback.

They were getting pressure. They did their job. They were maybe the second best unit in this game. Yeah. I think that, I mean, Chase Young, right? Had like two, had a sack and another couple TFLs, like some key plays. Javon Kinlaw, the offseason pickup had a big play.

Boso was getting a lot of pressure. They really, they had a good game plan. They executed it really well. It just becomes a testament to how easy it is for it not to be enough against this chief's team. And the fact that this is probably one of the, I mean, do you think that this is the worst chiefs team of the Mahomes era? That's so hard to say because the defense is so good. This is the best defense. It's the most balancing.

It's very apples and oranges. I really think they like spread. their, I don't even know how to say this, their powers around this time. This is the most balanced team, like I said. But obviously the offense wasn't as good as it's been. But the run game, like,

I know the stats aren't great, but it was a tough run game all year. And that's, I think, helped them a lot. And then Patrick Mahomes raised this game again. The scrambling this year was so key. We talked about them facing man coverage a lot. Scambling kills man coverage. And we saw it a couple times.

The 49ers tried to play two man with two safeties deep. when you do that, all eyes are on the receivers. No one's there to spy the quarterback, and he just runs up the middle for like 10 yards. After the game, Reid was like, I don't know why nobody spies him. He does this every week and nobody puts a spy on him. It's because he runs like 12 miles per hour. And he looks goofy doing it. He runs like he has to poop.

He runs like Lamar going to the locker room in that one game. His 40 time is 4. minus point one, whatever the guy chasing him is. Like, that's what he is. And it's, it's, it's. amazing to watch. It's amazing to watch in person. Speaking of miles per hour, Travis Kelsey hitting what?

19.8. 19.8. Kill a trav. Fastest time in seven years. Taylor Swift. Wow. Wow. He's got it in his heart. He was really feeling it. Did you see Nate Burleson after the game?

He said, that's the power of supportive woman. Wow. Yeah. Absolutely. What about the last two super polls? He didn't have a supportive woman when they won those. Also, like, 19 miles per hour, 19.8 is very, very fast for 34-year-old Travis Kelsey. Yeah.

But that happens on a football field with some degree of regularity. The thing that I was just dying to, if I could have had a fly on the wall in the chief's friends and family, Taylor, Kelsey. sweet at any point, it would have been when someone had to explain the overtime rules. Yeah, because we didn't know them. We were doing it.

We were like, okay, so, and then do you want the ball? Do you, would you rather defer? Which, do you agree with Kyle Shanahan's decision? Yeah, yeah, I think that's the smarter move because I think you want the first crack when it gets to sudden death.

Right. I don't know if that's, like if the numbers support that, and we've never seen this play out before. We never seen a team sport touch-down. I don't think we have numbers. Yeah, so I don't know what the answer is, but I would do that just to get the first crack when it gets sudden death.

You want the first because you trade possessions. Right. And if someone hasn't won, then the first possession becomes sudden death if you kick a field goal. Right, yeah. So that's the, you're not saying I want the ball on the first possession effectively. You're really doing it because you're saying, I want the ball on the third possession.

I want the first sudden death possession. The other thing that I think is sort of going undiscussed in that decision, which honestly I didn't expect to become, I didn't think that was controversial, but Shanahan was getting some flack for it postgame and it came up in the press conference and then somebody asked Andy Reid how he would have handled that. So it seemed like it became a thing.

The thing that I think is going underrated or underdiscussed is that, you know, both defenses were really tough. towards the end of the game. The 49ers defense had just been on the field, and I thought getting them off, getting them a breather, and keeping the Chief's defense on the field because they were gassed.

And the way that the 49ers managed to even score on that opening drive was almost primarily because they just were beaten down at that point. They had numbers to the runs. Like they had numbers to the ball. They were there. But they were just getting the push because that defensive line

was just exhausted. So I thought it was actually a smart decision to do that, one because of what would have happened if it had gotten to a third possession, but also because of that factor and it just kept a tired defense on the field, which looked like it's hard to not think back to that being such a factor in the Patriots Falcons. Yeah, that's what lost the game. Right. They played 90 snaps of like man coverage.

Right. By the overtime, they were done. But Nick Bolton mentioned that after the game and he kind of said they were offended by it. He was like, oh, really? But then he mentioned we were tired, and it makes sense to keep us on the field. Kyle Shanan being in both of the, there have only been two Super Bowls

that have gone to overtime. Being on the losing end of both of those is, as, that's a tough way to go out. I don't think he's going to win a Super Bowl. I'm not like a superstitious person, but like at this point, I think he's just cursed.

The football got just hate him or something. And I don't know why. You made a deal with the devil or something. He's like, yes, you can bring Brock. Purdy to the Super Bowl, but you're not going to win. He needs to get Taylor Swift on his team. He's like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill, but instead of a boulder, it's just play

action designs. He's going to be designing play action pass plays for the next 50 years. Nothing to show for it. Oh gosh. As soon as you said that there were like screams that came from inside the inside further down in the stadium and that seems emblematic. Anything else? How'd you feel about Usher?

I thought he was good. Me too. I didn't think he performed the songs. long enough? I would have liked to hear. It took a while for them to set up. It did. Usually the halftime show starts, you know, a little bit of a more start time.

How did you feel about the roller skates? That was when I thought it really kicked into a higher gear. I was like, yeah, good bit. Love roller skates. What are you going to remember? Anything you're going to remember Super Bowl 58 by that we haven't touched on yet? I think it's the Spags love. And that goes throughout the week.

Like, this has just been Spags' victory lab. I guess. It's the fourth time he's won to ring most of any coordinator. That's what I'm going to remember. In Spags, we trust. In Spags, we trust. Justin Reed was asked after the game.

He's like, someone asked, like, are you happy with your decision to come here two years ago? Of course. And he was like, yeah, I love Kansas City. And the second thing he said, wasn't like, I love Andy Reed. I love playing with Patrick Mahomes.

I love my teammates. It was, and I love Spags. What if he'd said no? Yeah, he said, no. This sucks. Got to play in February. rather be on a beach. But it really, no, it's a fitting.

It's fitting that this one really does feel like it was for Spags. It does feel like that the way that the team just sort of came together around him is really interesting. And I think to your point, my head goes very quickly to this is the weakest team of the Mahomes era. Just because this is a team in a budding dynasty that is defined by their offense and their quarterback. And it's definitely the weakest offense. Yeah. But I want to interrogate, I'm interrogating that assumption a little bit more

just because this was such a great defense. It went through the best offenses in the NFL in order to get here. And it performed against every single one of them. Those are different challenges, right? Like the Bills and Josh Allen is a very different beast than the Lions and Jared Gough is a very different. I'm thinking about the regular season. Miami.

Miami. Lamar. Lamar is a very different beast than Brock Purdy and this 49ers team. Yeah. It reminds me of the 2018 Pats team

where on offense it didn't look great but they figured it out with Brady and then they ran through the three best offenses in the NFL and held them to,

I forget what the average was, but it was the Chargers, the Chiefs, and then the Rams and they shut them all out. Not shut them out, but like shut them down. And there's a lot of,

I mean, look, there was a fair bit of that. Ram's Super Bowl, that Patriots Ram Super Bowl in this game. There are a lot of different similarities. Like, my brain goes very quickly to the Brady comps with Mahomes and just sort of what it feels like in terms of he will find a way. And if they, you know, if they are not out, if they are not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, if the game is not over and you have won it, there's just always. a feeling that he's going to find a way.

I thought it was really interesting. This is the only team in my memory covering Super Bowls who did not try to play the underdog, which is sort of funny because they were. And maybe that's why it happened. But they did last year for sure. Right. And I mean, the Patriots did it all the time. The Patriots did it against Nick Foles and the Eagles.

Like, it was just an absurd. absurd thing, but they were absolutely adamant that they were being counted out and nobody thought that they were good. And, you know, Brady would say, everybody thinks we suck. It's like, nobody thinks you suck. They were favored by five points in that game. You're Tom Brady. But there were reports that Travis Kelsey gave a speech. Read confirmed it after the game. Yeah. Well, and it's sort of funny. And I think this probably has something to do with my personal favorite pop star and where we are in the media right now. Andy Reid said that Travis Kelsey Mahomes and Chris Jones gave a speech last night.

Together? I guess together in different parts. Only Travis ended up getting the reporting that he had brought many of his teammates to tears and that it was very deeply emotional. What Travis said that he talked about and what some of Rice talked about what he heard in that room. and he just said, we're not underdogs. We have a formula to win, and we're going to win. And I just, in some ways, that should be so, yeah, sure, of course he said that.

Of course he thinks he's going to win the game. Like, he's got Patrick Mahomes as a quarterback. That is truly rare. That is a rare thing. Right. And I'm interested in it just because I think it's refreshing, but I do think that it says something about kind of where this team has gotten. And it seems like they've been talking about embracing the villain role.

There's been a lot of talk. They've gotten a lot of questions, especially with Mahomes going on the road in the postseason for the first time ever. But yeah, that's what I want. I don't want Tom Brady and Rob Grankowski recording a video after being like, are you guys counted us out? No, everyone picked you guys to win. What are you talking about? And they tried to do it last year. I'm glad they didn't do that bit again.

Yeah, no, me too. I was genuinely impressed by that. I do think the idea that the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes and his Kermit the Frog ass voice are going to be villains is like very silly to me. They were showing him on the big screen over the loudspeaker and it's very like echoey and it sounded even funnier. He's a sweet kid. Like he's just like a nice young man. You're just not it's not going to work. I don't care how many footballs they deflate or you know get some get some spy cameras going.

This team is not, I have a hard time seeing them being able to truly embody the villain role, although I suppose I would like to see them try. And Mahomes is too cool. Like his playing style, it's easy to hate on Brady, like throwing five-yard passes. That's easy. Like, it worked, but nobody wants to watch. I don't think casual fans are seeing that. Like, I want to tune in to watch a nice option route by Julian Edelman.

No one wants to see that. They want to see Patrick Mahomes throw the ball with his left hand. It is. But, hey, that was like five years ago. Gronk was cool. Do it again. Gronk was very cool to watch. And those teams were very cool to watch. And Bill Belichick's defense were very cool to watch. game.

Really fun getting to talk through the entire season's worth of games with you, Stephen. And, you know, we will be back. But just want to say thanks to everyone for listening for what's been a really, really interesting season, really, really fun season. Lots more to come. Fun week in Las Vegas with the entire Ringer NFL squad. Thank you very much to the absolutely fantastic Chris Sutton for producing this episode on site in this weird room that we've found to work in.

Thank you, as always, to Arjuna Ramgapal and Connor Nevins for their additional production supervision and to you for listening. Extra point taken with Sheal and Ben will be back on Tuesday morning. They'll have their thoughts on the game. That'll be really fun. And then it was such a success on Friday that extra threat is coming back one more time. on Friday. I have absolutely no idea

what we're going to be doing, but it's going to be really fun. Big news for John Wilkes Booth. Big news for John Wilkes Booth. I'm sure I'll get some more shoutouts, but the four of us will be back together on the feed later this week. So keep an eye out for that as well.

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