Super Bowl 2020 prediction Patrick Mahomes proves too much for 49ers defense in high-scoring Super Bowl LIV

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Super Bowl LIV is just a few hours away, and that means if you're not ready to watch the final two teams left standing battle for an NFL championship, you'd better get ready in a hurry. Two of the league's best teams throughout the entire season, the and make for a fascinating matchup from a tactical perspective. We've got two of the league's best play-callers going at it, and plenty of  Mark McGwire Jersey star players on both sides of the ball. In the interest of not delaying things any further, let's get right into the breakdown, but first, let's take a look at the latest odds and point spread.  Chiefs vs. 49ers Spread:Chiefs -1.5 |Total:54.5  When the Chiefs have the ball It's a cliche to say that the key to the game is getting pre sure on the quarterback without having to resort to the blitz. But it's also so cliche for a reason: that often is the key to the whole game. As we wrote earlier this week, no team in the NFL is  than the San Francisco 49ers. Despite ranking 29th in the NFL in blitz rate (plays they sent more than just four players rushing the quarterback) at 20.9 percent, the Niners ranked third in the league in sack rate (8.5 percent) and second in pre sure rate, getting in the opposing quarterback's face on 28.7 percent of opponent dropbacks, per Pro-Football-Reference. ...  finished the year with 10 sacks, 11 tackles for lo s, and 18 quarterback hits. He ranked 39th in pre sure rate among the 222 players defensive linemen and linebackers who rushed the pa ser at least 100 times. finished with 7.5 sacks, nine tackles for lo s, 14 hits, and ranked 70th among that same group of 222 in pre sure rate. had nine sacks, 16 tackles for lo s, 25 hits, and ranked sixth in pre sure rate. had 6.5 sacks, six tackles for lo s, and six hits in 11 games, and ranked 14th in pre sure rate.  , D.J. Jones, , , and played far fewer snaps because they're rotational contributors, but they combined for eight sacks, 19 tackles for lo s, and 13 QB hits. This week, though, it is not enough to just get pre sure. You have to put on the ground before he has gotten rid of the ball. And that is a far tougher task. Mahomes was pre sured on the fourth-lowest percentage of his dropbacks this season, per Pro Football Focus, and he was also sacked on a lower percentage of his pre sured dropbacks than all but three other pa sers. He has an incredible ability to escape from rushers and make a play, whether by scrambling Glenn Hubbard Jersey  (as he did against the in the AFC title game) or by making a throw that almost nobody else can make. His pa ser rating under pre sure was fifth-best in the NFL this year. The Chiefs' offensive line has a tough task in front of it when it comes to slowing down the fearsome 49ers pa s rush, but it's a strong unit in general and it helps to have protecting the side where Ford rushes from most often. How the 49ers approach things from a coverage standpoint is another thing to watch for. They're an incredibly zone-heavy team, but if you show Mahomes and Andy Reid the same pre-snap look every single snap, they're going to beat you eventually. That's especially true of zone coverage, which he has consistently shredded during his two years in the league. (Not that he hasn't also shredded man coverage. His pa ser rating is better than 108 against both types of coverage, per Sports Info Solutions.) Mixing in some man coverages and Cover 2 or Cover 6, particularly on early downs, has to be part of the plan. That doesn't nece sarily mean moving around the formation (which he never did all year until the NFC title game, and even then he only did it for only two snaps) but it would be good to mix things up a bit. The Chiefs test defenses with arguably the fastest wide receiver corps in the league, and also with excellent pa s-catchers at both tight end and running back.  , arguably the NFL's best , ran the 40-yard dash in 4.29 seconds. Speedster rookie ran it in 4.33 seconds, and that somehow seems slower than he runs on the field. is practically the snail of this group, having run the 40 in 4.43 seconds. ... In five consecutive seasons, Kelce has posted at least 72 catches, 875 yards, and four touchdowns. There are only two other tight ends (Tony Gonzalez and ) who have had five or more such seasons , let alone in a row. Kelce also has at least 83 catches for 1,038 yards in each of the past four seasons, and no tight end in the history of the league has ever done that more than four times. ...  led the Kansas City backfield in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns this season, and during Kansas City's two  Ramon Laureano Jersey playoff games he has contributed an additional seven catches for 65 yards and a touchdown... Among the 44 running backs who played at least 200 pa sing snaps this season, Williams ranked 12th in Pro Football Focus' pa s-blocking efficiency. He allowed zero sacks, zero hits, and only two hurries as a pa s-blocker all season. Playing a zone helps take away those deep plays: the 49ers gave up fewer completions on pa ses that traveled more than 20 yards in the air than any defense in the NFL. They also did not have to play the Chiefs during the regular season, so this challenge will be a bit different. Hill is a challenging matchup for Sherman, who tends to be better against larger receivers than smaller, faster ones. But the Niners account for that with their coverages, and they will surely devote attention to whichever side of the field that Hill is on when he's out there. San Francisco's linebackers and safeties were terrific in coverage this season, but they also did not have to deal with Kelce every week. There's a different challenge to guarding a player that big and that athletic.   It actually would not be surprising to see the Chiefs elect to run the ball a bit more often than usual, whether to keep San Francisco off balance or because their pa s defense is just so tough. But Andy Reid would be wiser to keep this game in Mahomes' hands rather than on Williams' shoulders. Williams contributes plenty in the pa sing game, and the Chiefs are a pa sing team.       When the 49ers have the ball One thing that seems all but certain is that the Chiefs will not approach this matchup the same way the did. Green Bay played nickel or dime packages fairly often, even when the 49ers brought in heavier personnel groupings. Doing so allowed the 49ers -- who already tend to have  -- to simply run the ball down the Packers' collective throats all night, with gliding through the defense for one of the best games in NFL history. Given how the 49ers handled the Packers' plan, it Reggie Jackson Jersey  would seem incredibly unwise for the Chiefs to go about things the same way. Playing more base defense and encouraging the Niners to throw the ball seems like a far better plan. The Niners are capable of throwing it all over the field, but it's clear from the way they played the past two games that they view as more of a complement to the run game as opposed to the driver of their offensive succe s. Forcing them to use him as the latter type of player is probably the right path. If Garoppolo beats you, tip your hat. At least you made the Niners play left-handed and didn't just let them do exactly what they wanted as Green Bay did a couple of weeks ago. For this reason, it would not be at all surprising if Kyle Shanahan and company opened the game with more of a pa s-heavy approach than they did last week, and specifically, it would not surprise if they tried to take the top off the defense with some deep shots early in the game. They have plenty of ways to beat teams deep down the field, whether with or on the outside, over the middle, or even one of the running backs or fullback on a wheel route. Shanahan is as good at scheming players into open space as any play-caller in the NFL, and he  Rickey Henderson Jersey will keep getting the same players into the same open spaces until you prove you can stop it. Figuring out what he has in store for this Kansas City defense is an interesting intellectual exercise. The secondary has developed into an above-average unit, even with Daniel Sorenson filling in for the last couple of games. and do an excellent job on the outside. is a playmaker of the highest order. has been moving around a bit and doing a good job of it. Sorenson has been solid, but it's po sible to take advantage of him in coverage, and the same is true of linebackers and , so it seems fairly likely to me that the way for Shanahan to at
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