Well, it seems like the Chiefs are on a Super Bowl vengeance tour this year. Just as they did in Super Bowl 54, the Kansas City Chiefs have crushed the San Francisco 49ers 44-23 in the Super Bowl 54 revenge game.
First the Chiefs put up 41 on their Super Bowl 55 opponents, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a few weeks ago, and now they have just thrashed their Super Bowl 54 foes San Francsico 49ers with 44 points.
What’s next? Humiliating the Green Bay Packers by scoring 50 on them because the Vince Lombardi Packers beat the 1967 Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 1? To be honest, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the Chiefs did score 50 on the Packers nowadays.
That’s how good KC looks (and how bad Green Bay is, but that’s another story).
This was kind of a crazy and weird game given how competitive it was in the first half…before everything fell apart for the 49ers. The 49ers started out red hot, with Christian McCaffrey having a few decent carries in his first game as a 49er, the 49ers defense picked off Patrick Mahomes on only his second throw, and they went up 10-0 midway through the 1st Quarter. A good start, right?
Sure, Jimmy Garoppolo (25/37, 303 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT) was a little shacky in the pocket during that span, but he did connect with WR Ray-Ray McCloud on a wild TD catch that McCloud had to come back on his route and dive for to put SF up 10-0.
And, even though KC eventually took the lead 14-13 late in the 2nd Quarter through two Mecole Hardman touchdowns (one a catch and the other a run), the game was still in reach.
The 49ers defense was keeping Patrick Mahomes contained and Travis Kelce under control, while Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Samson Ebukam, etc. held the KC rush attack at bay too. Everything was going to plan as the 49ers recovered a muffed punt inside the KC 20-yard line just as the half was expiring.
What could go wrong? I’ll give you a hint: he’s the reason why most things go wrong on the 49ers offense.
Yes, Jimmy Garoppolo did what Jimmy Garoppolo has always done and wildly threw a stupid interception to rookie CB Joshua Williams that not only stopped any chance of the 49ers picking up points just before halftime, but also radically shifted momentum in the way of KC.
How many times is Jimmy Garoppolo going to throw these wild, no-look, back-foot interceptions? Doesn’t he understand that one of the many reasons why he was benched for Trey Lance at the start of the season was because he cost the 49ers a chance to go to the Super Bowl last year because of a wild, no-look, back-foot interception he threw against the Rams in the NFC Championship game?
You’d think he would have gotten the memo, but I guess not.
It’s honestly sad how this 49ers roster, which is supremely talent in every single position except for QB (without Trey Lance on the field, that is), is never going to win a Super Bowl because their offensive leader has a fetish with throwing the game away at the worst possible moment. EVER. SINGLE. TIME.
Anyway, the Chiefs took their game up a gear in the second half as they utterly manhandled the 49ers defensive frontline with nonstop runs by Clyde Edwards-Helaire (6 CAR, 32 yards, 1 TD) and Isiah Pacheco (8 CAR, 43 yards), which ended up totaling to over 112 total rushing yards, while Patrick Mahomes diced up the defensive backfield by throwing for 25/34, 433 yards, and 3 touchdowns.
In the end, the Chiefs outscored the 49ers 30-10 in the second half as they routed San Fran out of their own stadium, completing their Super Bowl 54 rematch game win 44-23. By the way the Chiefs played today, you might have thought that they were the ones who lost that night in Miami and the 49ers rode out victorious, not the other way around.
Obviously, the Chiefs are going to win the AFC West division title again and end up as either the 1st or 2nd seed in the AFC. As it has been for the past three seasons, the rode out of the AFC will either end up going through Kansas City or Buffalo. With this win today to put them at 5-2, the Chiefs will try to pave that road to come through Arrowhead Stadium once again.
As for the 49ers, they’ll probably win the NFC West. Probably.
But I’m having my doubts they’ll even make it out of the Wild Card round if they continue to play as poorly later into the season as they have in this early stretch. They have now lost 4 games (they’re now 3-4), while the Seattle Seahawks have taken their spot atop the division with their win over the Chargers today.
And, with the Seahawks playing lights out football under Geno Smith, the 49ers might not even have the NFC West consolation prize this season.
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