The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII 25:22 in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers and thus successfully defended their title.
Super Bowl LVIII: At a glance
- The Chiefs became the first team to successfully defend their title since the Patriots in 2004. At the same time, they are the second team since the Patriots in the 2016 season to win a Super Bowl in overtime.
- After a slow start, Patrick Mahomes turned things around in the second half and especially in overtime and made plays on the ground and through the air.
- Both kickers made record field goals in the game.
Super Bowl LVIII: The Analysis
The first half got off to a slow start after a promising opening drive by the 49ers. Christian McCaffrey lost a fumble just before the red zone and missed the chance for early points. It would also be the only longer drive of the first quarter. Both defenses then held several times.
This should only gradually change in the second quarter. The Niners got into the opposing half and then rookie kicker Jake Moody sank a 55-yard field goal attempt – a Super Bowl record. The Chiefs then got going and found themselves in the red zone after a 52-yard bomb from Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman. However, Isiah Pacheco, who had fumble problems in the game anyway, lost one to his opponent.
The Niners didn’t score any points, but they pushed the Chiefs deep into their own half after a punt. They stayed there and gave the ball back to the Niners at their 33 after another punt. From there, the Niners marched to the 21-yard line, aided by a penalty against L’Jarius Sneed for unnecessary harshness – hitting an opponent’s helmet after a play. There they reached deep into their bag of tricks – a lateral from Brock Purdy to wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who then threw a screen on the other side to Christian McCaffrey, who had free space for a 21-yard touchdown catch.
Before the break, however, the Chiefs managed a short field goal by Harrison Butker to make the score 10:3.
Super Bowl LVIII: Game awakens after break
The Niners entered the second half with the wind at their backs after Mahomes threw over Travis Kelce under pressure and threw an interception by Ji’Ayir Brown. However, the Niners didn’t do anything with that either. Strictly speaking, the Niners didn’t succeed much in the entire third quarter, also because they hardly relied on play action or their own run game. However, the Chiefs continued to struggle, but managed a 57-yard field goal attempt, which Butker sank for another Super Bowl record.
A little later, the Niners made a fatal mistake: After another Chiefs punt, defensive back Darrell Luter was hit in the foot for a muff that the Chiefs captured in the red zone. One play later, Mahomes found Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 16-yard touchdown. The game was over.
However, the Niners woke up afterwards, found their run game again and made chunk plays through the air. The key ended up being a 4th down conversion from Purdy to George Kittle for four yards – Kittle’s first catch of the night! A little later, Purdy found Jennings for a ten-yard touchdown pass. Moody’s PAT was blocked, so the Chiefs managed to tie the score on the following drive with another Butker field goal deep in the red zone to make it 16:16 with 5:46 minutes on the clock.
In return, the Niners played the clock down to the two-minute warning, but were then stopped in the opposing half by a zero blitz from the Chiefs – Trent McDuffie broke off the pass at the line, so Moody had to go at it again. And he scored from 53 yards to give the Niners the lead again. The Chiefs got the ball back one final time with 1:53 to play.
Too much time for the Chiefs, who even reached the red zone again thanks to Kelce. But there they settled for a field goal with three seconds left to equalize. So it went into overtime for the second time ever in the Super Bowl.
The Niners got the ball first and were immediately lucky that McDuffie was penalized for a holding on 3rd & Long. That gave the Niners a boost, which also brought them into the red zone thanks to McCaffrey. However, the drive stalled there and again a red zone drive only resulted in a field goal, this time from 27 yards.
In return, the Chiefs were unstoppable on a fourth attempt and marched inexorably towards the end zone. The highlight: a three-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Hardman for the decision.
The Chiefs defended their title and are the first team since the Patriots in 2004 to do so.
Super Bowl LVIII: San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Result: 22:25 OT (0:0, 10:3, 0:10, 9:6, 3:6) BOXSCORE
49ers vs. Chiefs: The most important statistics
- The Chiefs started the game with a three-and-out. That ended their streak of eight postseason games with points on the first drive.
- This Super Bowl is the first since Super Bowl 53 to have no points in the first quarter. At that time, the Patriots defeated the Rams 13-3.
- Pacheco’s lost fumble was just the Chiefs’ third red zone turnover since 2018 on the 75th red zone drive since then.
The star of the game: Patrick Mahomes (quarterback, Chiefs)
It was a slow start, but in the end it was Mahomes who made the decisive plays with his arm (333 yards, 3 TD, INT) and also his legs (66 YDS). It is indeed inevitable! Mahomes was also named MVP of the game, for the third time in his career.
The flop of the game: Kyle Shanahan (Head Coach, 49ers)
In the end, you have to blame Shanahan again for deviating from his strength, the run game, for long periods of the second half. He also scaled back play action. In doing so, he played into the hands of the Chiefs, who eventually got going. In addition, the play calls on 3rd down were usually not particularly good. Defensively, you can criticize why they only played off towards the end.
Analysis: 49ers vs. Chiefs – that stood out tactically
- The Niners did a good job before the season of keeping Mahomes in the pocket to stop his scrambles. At the same time, they generated pressure exclusively through their four defensive linemen, meaning the rest of the defense mostly played zone coverage. However, very close to the man in order to leave as little space as possible and to position receivers quickly after the catch.
- The Niners started offensively with a lot of 21 personnel with fullback Kyle Juszczyk on the field, who also caught the first pass of the game after play action. After the run game worked particularly well in the first drive, the Chiefs countered in the second with base defense, which they rarely play. The Niners countered with a lot of play action.
- Defensively, the Chiefs played over half of the snaps in man coverage and often used their cornerbacks to press. This also led to the Niners relying heavily on crossers over the middle. The four-man rush, meanwhile, was rarely enough to generate pressure, which is why the Chiefs blitzed on more than half of Purdy’s dropbacks.
- When it came to guarding Kelce, they mostly relied on bracket coverage. After Greenlaws, it was usually Warner who went with the tight end, while a safety behind him also helped out. That usually caused Mahomes to throw elsewhere. Towards the end, Kelce found himself in man coverage too often to remain ineffective.
- The 49ers had little success offensively after the break and that was partly self-inflicted. They ran into early downs, relied on play action less and less and thus repeatedly ended up in long third attempts. And in such cases, Purdy was too hasty against Blitzes and accordingly ineffective. After the Chiefs’ touchdown, they said goodbye to the run game completely and only relied on dropbacks from Purdy for a while. It wasn’t until the last drive that the run was used again.
- At the very end, the Niners played emphatically off-coverage, which Mahomes repeatedly used for short passes to open receivers underneath. In addition, the Niners repeatedly lost containment against Mahomes, who then provided first downs himself with read options and scrambles.