It was hyped up to be a big-time showtime between the charismatic, rocket-armed quarterback versus the NFL’s heavy-handed, hotshot defense. It didn’t disappoint.
(It also featured the key combustible of two wildly talented tight ends, but we’ll get to that racy halftime show in a little bit.)
Pat Mahomes took another huge step in etching his name in NFL lore by earning the MVP honors in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-20 nod over San Francisco Sunday night, bringing his squad from behind yet again as KC won their first SB title in 50 years.
History will document Mahomes as the star of SBLIV, bringing the Chiefs back from a two-score deficit in the fourth quarter with 21 unanswered points in Miami. Fair enough.
In reality, San Fran’s defense had its way with Mahomes until about midway through the fourth. The 49ers’ defensive line was winning at the point of attack, and the KC signal-caller looked rattled. He had two INTs, was throwing off his back foot, and was missing wide-open receivers over and over and over. Repeatedly, ya think? On a commercial break, he almost bought insurance from Ned Ryerson. Twice.
His best plays were on bootlegs and rollouts. To be honest, I’m not sure Mahomes threw a good pass until about five minutes remained in the fourth, when the Chiefs picked up a blitz and Mahomes found Sammy Watkins scorching Richard Sherman for 38 yards to the 10. That got him going. He then found Damien Williams for the TD to cap that one, and it was KC 24-20 with just 2:44 left.
Jimmy Garoppolo, who looked so smooth for three quarters, had no answer. The Chiefs were cutting loose on defense at this point and closed it out.
KC added another long TD run at the end, putting Damien Williams in the MVP talk, but this was clearly Mahomes’ team and his win. It’ll be fascinating to see how his career evolves and what stories we’ll be telling our grandkids some day about Patrick Mahomes.
I think San Francisco will be back. Coach Kyle Shanahan is a keeper and he’ll learn from this one. His biggest mistake on Sunday came at the end of the first half, when the Niners lucked out and got the ball at their 20 because gunner Byron Pringle couldn’t handle a pin-point punt at the goalline. (Looked like he was stuck in a Pringles’ commerical.)
Gifted 20 yards, the 49ers had a minute left and three timeouts. But, with the score knotted at 10, Shanahan was content to run the clock out while GM John Lynch was shown on camera imploring for a timeout. Hey, Shanny: THIS IS THE SUPER BOWL!! TAKE A SHOT! Jimmy G is making $27.5 mil a year, but you don’t trust him? Holy smokes, that’s the passive poppycock that makes Sam Elliott’s mustache dance.
Maybe Shanahan just wanted to commence with the halftime show, which featured Shakira (43 years old) and Jennifer Lopez (50 years old) showing that age is no barometer when measuring … uh … stamina! Yes, stamina.
The high-energy dance show featured a stage full of attractive women (do their mothers know what they weren’t wearing?) and some poles to help with all the right moves. I wasn’t really sure what to think, except that Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction seems so downright dowdy these days. Did anybody check in on Brent Musburger?
I’m not sure the pregame could’ve been done any better. Yolanda Adams nailed “America The Beautiful” and Demi Lovato was superb with the National Anthem, with not a word of protest in the stadium. Good. Keep the politics out of the arena.
But the real treat for the football fan came with the intro of the top 100 players and coaches, combined with the “Take it to the house, kid” campaign that brought the game ball to the stadium. Jim Brown on the park bench, Joe Greene at the stadium. Man, just exquisite.
Alexa: Order me up another Super Bowl. That was a blast.
