NFL SuperBowl LIV - 2/2/2020

Who wins Super Bowl LIV?


  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .

SLAB

Hall of Famer
^^Lol, ya I meant they would be considered the Rams of the upcoming 2020 season. High hopes; face plant.

Unless you’re the Patriots multiple Super Bowl trips don’t happen. Everything has to break right. Can everything break right if Jimmy is what he is? If Shanahan coaches like he does once a lead is had? We’ll see.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I am not distraught over yesterday's loss. The Niners did an incredible job this season, much better than anyone expected. They weren't the better team and the result is what it is. I'm not gonna blame the officials, Shanahan, Saleh or anybody else. Experience made the difference in the second half IMHO.

I don't know about any other Niner fans but I had a lot of fun this season, more than I would have thought possible. I look forward to next season in a way I haven't' for a long time. They will learn from their mistakes and they'll come back better and stronger.
 
7:19 to go in the game and the niners are up by 10, the odds that they win were slightly over 96%.
I know someone a lot smarter than me figures out those odds. But I usually scoff at them. Because, as a sports fan, I know we see these types of amazing comebacks more than 4 or 5 percent of the time.

Comebacks like BUF winning a playoff game after being down 35-3 at half or NE doing the same in a SB overcoming a 28-3 deficit during the final 20 minutes are surely not all that common. I get that.

But a team overcoming a 10-point lead midway through Q4 isn’t all that shocking or uncommon. Sure, the odds are always better for the team with the lead the deeper a game gets, but 2 score leads are overcome a fair amount of the time. KC had already done it twice themselves this same post season. It essentially became their M.O.

In short, as a casual observer of the game, I never once thought the 49ers were surely going to win with their 10 point lead. Not with 7 minutes to go. And actually, once KC scored to close to within 20-17, I thought they were gonna win. Momentum just felt like it was going that way to me.

So, as Han Solo once said, “never tell me the odds”.
 

I saw live how open Kittle was on multiple 3rd downs but holy crap hoe the hell can you miss your best weapon open like that. High school webs can make that read and throw, SF needs to let that clown Jimmy go.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
There was a third and medium at one point when Jimmy threw to a RB for a 2 yard slant. Kittle was wide open, and he reacted like he was PO’d. He knew it.

Jimmy can flash greatness (Saints) but he proved every single person, commentator, and doubter right in the Super Bowl when it mattered most. He’s better than the alternative (a non-starting level QB) but he’s firmly in the middle of the pack as an average starter who can occasionally flash above. Going into his age-29 season it’s going to be interesting to see if he can really improve at all. Idk if he can or will.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
I saw live how open Kittle was on multiple 3rd downs but holy crap hoe the hell can you miss your best weapon open like that. High school webs can make that read and throw, SF needs to let that clown Jimmy go.
I dunno man. The guy is 23-6 in his career including playoffs and he turned the team around from a 4-win season to the Super Bowl in literally one year and you're advocating to dump him and start over?

I mean, I don't even have a dog in the fight because I only very casually follow football, but this seems a wee bit impatient.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Defense gave up a ton of 3rd and long plays to keep the Chiefs in it. If they stop them on even one of those, I bet the niners win.
The 4th quarter hit and the whole team and coaching staff collectively swallowed their tongues and choked to death. It wasn’t just JimmyG (the QB just happens to be the most obvious target), that’s for sure.
 
The 4th quarter hit and the whole team and coaching staff collectively swallowed their tongues and choked to death. It wasn’t just JimmyG (the QB just happens to be the most obvious target), that’s for sure.
Yep I mean it fell on just about everyone. If Ward jumps to his right instead of his left, they dont complete that 40 yarder to Hill and the Niners probably win. The Niners had about 8 chances to close it out and failed on all of them. Jimmy G was part of it but he shouldn't be taking all the blame.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Yep I mean it fell on just about everyone. If Ward jumps to his right instead of his left, they dont complete that 40 yarder to Hill and the Niners probably win. The Niners had about 8 chances to close it out and failed on all of them. Jimmy G was part of it but he shouldn't be taking all the blame.
That said, I do think it did prove Jimmy far more average than I had squinted and previously gave him credit for.
 
I know someone a lot smarter than me figures out those odds. But I usually scoff at them. Because, as a sports fan, I know we see these types of amazing comebacks more than 4 or 5 percent of the time.
It's Nate Silver/538 right? I swear half of their reputation is based on figuring out that people don't use landlines anymore and half of their reputation comes from saying "Amazing! *losing team* had a 95% chance to win but *winning team* pulled out a miracle!"
 

I saw live how open Kittle was on multiple 3rd downs but holy crap hoe the hell can you miss your best weapon open like that. High school webs can make that read and throw, SF needs to let that clown Jimmy go.
Yep. That’s a throw any QB needs to make.

That said, even if he did hit on the throw there was no guarantee SF was gonna win. Mahomes hit his stride in the 4th and likely would have had the ball again with ‘around‘ 1:30 remaining and all three timeouts only down 3. I believe he still pulls out the W.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME

I saw live how open Kittle was on multiple 3rd downs but holy crap hoe the hell can you miss your best weapon open like that. High school webs can make that read and throw, SF needs to let that clown Jimmy go.
Oh good grief. Do you ALWAYS have to resort to name-calling and insults? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Sometimes the best team wins and that's what happened Sunday. As much as I love the 49ers (and have for many, many, many, many years), they lost to the better team. Having said that, I firmly believe they'll be back better than ever next season.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Oh good grief. Do you ALWAYS have to resort to name-calling and insults? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Sometimes the best team wins and that's what happened Sunday. As much as I love the 49ers (and have for many, many, many, many years), they lost to the better team. Having said that, I firmly believe they'll be back better than ever next season.
It’s funny saying this as the guy who was 100% sure the loss was coming, but on that one day IDK if I agree with that. What about the first three quarters? The Niners were the better football team for 75% of the game before the aforementioned choke job. They were the superior team until the second they caught that second pick. I don’t know if KC taking advantage of a terrified deer in the headlights team tripping over their own feet every remaining step of the game makes them better or just opportunistic and ready.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
It’s funny saying this as the guy who was 100% sure the loss was coming, but on that one day IDK if I agree with that. What about the first three quarters? The Niners were the better football team for 75% of the game before the aforementioned choke job. They were the superior team until the second they caught that second pick. I don’t know if KC taking advantage of a terrified deer in the headlights team tripping over their own feet every remaining step of the game makes them better or just opportunistic and ready.
I learned long ago not to argue specifics with you, dear SLAB. ;)
 
I dunno man. The guy is 23-6 in his career including playoffs and he turned the team around from a 4-win season to the Super Bowl in literally one year and you're advocating to dump him and start over?

I mean, I don't even have a dog in the fight because I only very casually follow football, but this seems a wee bit impatient.
I'm with you in not believing they need to go in another direction. I mean, they were in the SB and eerily close to winning it.

That said, I think you give him too much credit for their 'turn around'. They are led by their defense. And the defense went to another level this season because they added Nick Bosa -- who started drawing double and triple teams midway through the season because teams realized that couldn't block him straight up. That opened things up for the rest of their defensive front, namely Arik Armstead, who largely had underachieved up to that point in his career.

Offensively, they pretty much rely upon their rush attack and George Kittle. The largest part of Garoppolo's success comes via play action. Which is only effective when the run game is working. And even then he locks in on Kittle a majority of the time.

They clearly can win with Jimmy G, but I think many 49ers fans have proper perspective on the type of QB he really is. He's really not much better than say, Ryan Tannehill, who enjoyed similar success for Tennessee once he got that gig. Neither QB is going to consistently put a team on his back and carry the team. When they are in a position needing to sling it every play and the defense knows it, they aren't as capable as Mahomes, Brees, Roethlisberger or Rodgers.
 
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What about the first three quarters? The Niners were the better football team for 75% of the game before the aforementioned choke job. They were the superior team until the second they caught that second pick. I don’t know if KC taking advantage of a terrified deer in the headlights team tripping over their own feet every remaining step of the game makes them better or just opportunistic and ready.
Actually, you aren't being factual about this.

KC led after Q1. And it was tied at the half.

So, no, the Niners were not the better team for 75% of the game. They were better for exactly two quarters. The 2nd and 3rd quarter. But the game was tied at half. So I don't believe it to be fair to grant either team as superior after the first 2 quarters.

Obviously Q4 belonged to KC, who outscored them 21-0.

Your view of the game is a tad skewed. I get that they had a Q4 lead, but to say they were the superior team the entire game up to that point is not correct.

I think another way to look at it is that KC's offense really didn't play that well for 3 quarters yet were close enough to turn on the switch in Q4 and still win. I think it was Colin Cowherd that made the comparison to the Golden State Warriors teams from the past 5 years. He said a team would play close for a half or 3 quarters then GSW would go on one of their runs and take it.

That's what KC's offense did the entire postseason, including this SB. That's how good they are. They had the ability to hang with a team of SF's caliber while not playing well then pour it on when it mattered.
 
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Yep. That’s a throw any QB needs to make.

That said, even if he did hit on the throw there was no guarantee SF was gonna win. Mahomes hit his stride in the 4th and likely would have had the ball again with ‘around‘ 1:30 remaining and all three timeouts only down 3. I believe he still pulls out the W.
After some thought, IMO The worst part of the SB game (from the 49ers perspective) though was the total misuse of timeouts and botched chance at the end of the 2nd quarter. With 3 timeouts, at 1 min 40 sec you take your timeout for the punt. Then you work the drive with a min and a half and 2 timeouts, protecting time. That was the single most controllable mistake in the game. If you're playing for defense, you're not observing the primary objective of outscoring your opponent. Just because you deferred the kick-off for the 2nd half doesn't give you license to throw away a drive - another chance at scoring a TD or FG. That was effectively set in motion by draining the clock out during the punt. It happens alot in regular season games too inexplicably.

As for the whole game the Chiefs defense did enough to win....and won what I called the 'wildcard battle' - How were the 49ers offense going to do against the Chiefs defense? For me that was a little unexpected. I thought the 49ers would be able to score in the 4th quarter. Give the Chiefs credit.

If I were to give letter grades for the game I'd give: 49ers Defense: B-, 49ers Offense: C+, 49er Special Teams C, 49ers Coaching: C ///// Chiefs Offense A-, Chiefs Defense B; Chiefs Special Teams C+, Chiefs Coaching B+.
 
Actually, you aren't being factual about this.

KC led after Q1. And it was tied at the half.

So, no, the Niners were not the better team for 75% of the game. They were better for exactly two quarters. The 2nd and 3rd quarter. But the game was tied at half. So I don't believe it to be fair to grant either team as superior after the first 2 quarters.

Obviously Q4 belonged to KC, who outscored them 21-0.

Your view of the game is a tad skewed. I get that they had a Q4 lead, but to say they were the superior team the entire game up to that point is not correct.

I think another way to look at it is that KC's offense really didn't play that well for 3 quarters yet were close enough to turn on the switch in Q4 and still win. I think it was Colin Cowherd that made the comparison to the Golden State Warriors teams from the past 5 years. He said a team would play close for a half or 3 quarters then GSW would go on one of their runs and take it.

That's what KC's offense did the entire postseason, including this SB. That's how good they are. They had the ability to hang with a team of SF's caliber while not playing well then pour it on when it mattered.
After that second INT the niners had a 96.1% chance of winning. They gacked it away. Salah continued to rush 4 (unbelievably stupid considering who we were playing and what they had done the previous 2 games) and he was gun-shy about blitzing even after seeing what pressure was doing to mahomes. On the offensive side, steve young said it best in the post game, hand the ball to mostert on sweeps and make the KC defense pay for stacking the box with Juice and kittle. The niners had been doing that all year and they went away from it. Didn't see kittle and went away from juice completly. The offense crapped themselves twice at the end. All they needed was to extend the series. A couple first downs puts KC in an impossible situation being down by 2 possessions. The niners choked. On both sides of the ball.

Lorenzo Neal who lost a super bowl with the titans was talking about his super bowl loss 20 years ago. He said he still goes over every play. What they could have done and he wonders why his head coach went away from what got them there. He said this niners loss was much worse because they choked away a win by going away from what got them there. They will remember this for the rest of their lives.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
I appreciate the big game being talked, but so much has to break right to even get there again.

As the days have passed my angst towards Jimmy Average and Shanahan has only gone up. What a meltdown.

The first step is Ol’ Jim coming into next season with the most giant of chips on his shoulder. PO’ed at the universe. Because as of now everyone who ever talked down, every single Booger MacFarlane comment is 100% right.

#StillVerySalty
 
After that second INT the niners had a 96.1% chance of winning. They gacked it away. .
You don‘t really buy into that nonsense, do you? Those percentages are flawed and skewed. It‘s taking into account other players and teams that aren’t KC or Mahomes or even say, Tom Brady. It’s nonsense. That’s why KC won 3 playoff games the stats nerds claim they had 95%+ chance of losing.

The 49ers may have “gacked” as you put it, but Mahomes and KC also took it. I said this earlier and firmly believe that even had Garoppolo connected on that pass to Sanders, KC was still gonna win. The way Mahomes and KC’s offense was playing in Q4 and all of their postseason comebacks, I‘d estimate their chances at driving the field in 1:30 with 3 timeouts at 96.1% too.

But back to the point, SF didn’t dominant 75% of that game as purported. The first half was played evenly. The Niners dominated Q3 and the Chiefs dominated Q4. Anybody claiming otherwise isn‘t judging objectively.

Furthermore, if I had a dollar for every time the KINGS held a Q4 lead against a top team only to have that team flip the switch and win, I’d be a you know what. The Niners holding a Q4 lead didn’t at all entitle them to a W.

The Saints held a very late lead against SF and lost. Seattle was a disputed millimeter away from beating SF twice but still lost. What were their percentages of winning? Doesn‘t matter. It only matters which team has more points when the clock strikes zero.

Not only did KC have more points, they ended the game up by 11. So I’m baffled why SF fans think they were somehow cheated. I mean, it could be argued that SF is fortunate that game wasn’t longer. Because the way KC’s offense was starting to go, it might have been a 25 point loss if another 10 minutes were played.
 
You know why that win percentage is 96.1%, because the niners are the number one defense with a 10 point lead with a little over 7 minutes left in the game. I’ve heard ex players of the niners and damn near every other team say the same thing, that’s a win. You do what you’ve been doing up to that point, that’s a win for the niners. They didn’t stick to what got them there and they lost. Pretty simple. Hell, you had chiefs players thanking the niners for going away from the run. That says it all. Thank you for giving us a chance by going away from what got you there. Niners choked it away.