Super Bowl LIV preview: Kansas City Chiefs v San Francisco 49ers will see contrasting offences go head to head in Miami
The Super Bowl is a mammoth sporting event, and an occasion of such magnitude is always going to come attached with a great deal of hype.
The NFL showpiece is always billed as unmissable – something fans in the UK should stay up for and immerse themselves in.
It’s fair to say that last year’s edition failed to deliver, with the New England Patriots choking out the LA Rams in a 13-3 win which set an unwanted record as the lowest scoring of all 53 Super Bowls and sent thousands to a premature slumber on their sofas.
Super Bowl LIV should not have such problems. Sunday’s clash between Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers has too many things going for it to be boring.
Too close to call
“Normally in Super Bowl week there’s a favourite, and sometimes it can be a strong favourite, or there’s certainly a sense of how the game will play out,” Sky Sports NFL presenter Neil Reynolds, who is covering his 11th season finale in Miami, told City A.M.
“At the moment, you listen to people over here, and there’s no clear favourite. It’s a classic coin-flip game.”
It looks set to be an intriguing tactical battle at the Hard Rock Stadium – but not the kind often used to embellish a match light on action. The intrigue stems from the modus operandi of the opposing sides: both teams attack, but in different ways.
This is only the fifth Super Bowl where both teams have averaged over 28 points per game in the season, yet they have gone about it in contrasting fashion.
While the Chiefs’ schemes are largely based around the incredible arm talent of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the 49ers rely much more on their powerful running game to get up the field.
Mahomes magic
If you are going to base the majority of your attacking play around someone, it is helpful when that person is Mahomes.
“I think he’s the best player in the NFL, he’s box office,” says Reynolds. “He can make every standard throw, but he can also improvise. He can throw with his left hand; when he’s not looking where he’s throwing; across the field; off balance; on the run; around defenders; over them. He’s got it all.”
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The winner of last season’s most valuable player award also happens to be aiming at some of the fastest wide receivers in the NFL. Tyreek Hill, Demarcus Robinson and Sammy Watkins open up all kinds of space downfield, while his near-telepathic relationship with tight end Travis Kelce can generally be relied upon to find first downs.
And when the opposition cover all passing options, Mahomes has the intelligence and the legs to run himself, as his magical game-turning touchdown in the Chiefs’ 35-24 AFC Championship win over Tennessee Titans attests.
While the Chiefs have Mahomes on their side, they also have the weight of history hanging over them.
Their founder and original owner Lamar Hunt invented the name Super Bowl after seeing his children playing with a toy called a “Super Ball”. But this is their first Super Bowl since 1970 and only the second of head coach Andy Reid’s 21-year NFL career.
Reid has made the play-offs 15 times and is playing his 29th post-season game on Sunday. Having overseen 221 NFL wins – the sixth most of any coach – the only thing missing on his CV is the Vince Lombardi trophy.
Unstoppable running
If the Chiefs’ championship game was notable for Mahomes’ passing, the 49ers’ win over Green Bay Packers was defined by their running back Raheem Mostert.
Mostert scored all four of the 49ers’ touchdowns, with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo tasked simply with handing him the ball from the snap. Garoppolo attempted just eight passes in the entire 37-20 victory as head coach Kyle Shanahan showed how effective his blueprint can be.
“Shanahan gets his guys blocking downfield so well with the angles they take,” Reynolds says. “They have an intricate approach to blocking: there’s a lot of motions before the snap to get the defence to show their hand.
“It’s an old-school feel with a modern, innovative twist to it. That’s what has made it unstoppable.”
The Chiefs will know what to expect in Miami, but stopping it is another thing, and if they do so then Garoppolo is more than capable of switching it up and connecting deep passes.
There is an oft-quoted phrase in the NFL: offence wins games but defence wins championships. It is a cliche, but it could well prove true this weekend.
It may well boil down to Mahomes’ passing game versus the 49ers’ running game. If Reid or Shanahan can neutralise their opponents’ trump card then that will go a long way to deciding who prevails on Sunday.
Neil Reynolds will be presenting live coverage of Super Bowl LIV between Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday February 2 on Sky Sports Action from 22:00 GMT.