Eight months later, the pain of losing their second Super Bowl in five seasons to the Kansas City Chiefs still lingers for the San Francisco 49ers as they get ready for a rare regular-season rematch.
Memories of Chris Jones disrupting key plays, Patrick Mahomes making plays with both his arm and legs, and Travis Kelce finding openings in crucial moments during Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory are hard to shake as the Niners (3-3) review tape from that February game in preparation for their matchup against the Chiefs (5-0) on Sunday.
“Everyone understands that we’ve lost the two Super Bowls to them. So I mean, that can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday.
“I think that’s human nature. But you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games; that was last year.”
Sunday’s game will be the 10th time in NFL history that teams who met in the Super Bowl face off again in the following regular season, with the defending champion winning 6 out of 9 of those games.
The 49ers don’t want to focus too much on that past game and know that a regular-season win won’t make up for a Super Bowl loss. However, they can’t ignore rewatching it for any lessons that could help them this week.
“It’s definitely a little emotional,” defensive end Nick Bosa said. “But at this point, it’s just a game so we’re just looking at the tape, trying to learn from it. A lot of similarities from last year. A few new guys, but a really good defense and an offense obviously has No. 15 (Mahomes) back there. So always dangerous.”
The loss in February hurts especially because the 49ers had many chances to win their first championship since the 1994 season.
San Francisco had a 10-0 lead early in the game and held three leads in the fourth quarter and overtime, but Mahomes and the Chiefs managed to erase those leads and eventually win by coming through in key moments.
Kansas City put pressure on Brock Purdy, causing two important third-down passes to be incomplete, which led to field goals in the fourth quarter and overtime. Travis Kelce broke free for a 22-yard gain that set up a tying field goal at the end of regulation. Patrick Mahomes converted a fourth-and-1 run in overtime to keep a drive alive that ended with his game-winning touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman.
The most painful moments include the missed third-down pass at the end of regulation, which Purdy said still bothers him since it gave Kansas City a chance to tie the game, and not being able to stop Mahomes on that fourth-down run.
After San Francisco kicked a field goal on their first possession of overtime, they could have won the game with one stop on fourth-and-1.
Mahomes faked an inside handoff to Isiah Pacheco. Nick Bosa crashed down on that play, which was his assignment, while Mahomes rolled to his right. When Logan Ryan covered Kelce, Mahomes kept the ball and ran 8 yards for the first down that extended the game.
“That was tough especially because we have calls that can negate that,” Bosa said. “They ran the zone read a few times and we just didn’t find an answer to it. I definitely thought he was going to hold it or keep it, but I’ve got to do my job, especially in a big moment like that. … We definitely have a plan for the zone read this time. Hindsight is 20-20.”
Linebacker Fred Warner mentioned that there were ways San Francisco could have played that better but added that the game wasn’t decided by just one play.
“You want to be great in those critical situations to ultimately end and win the game, but there are little plays throughout the entire game you could have said, ‘Aw, that was the one. That could have won it,’” he said. “You’ve got to look at all of them.”
