#shakira
Everyone recovered from Shakira? Seriously, did y’all see where a man has discussed suing (FOX? Shakira? Her hips?), claiming Shakira’s clothing and movements put him in danger of “hellfire”?! Anywhoo, on to the second half breakdown nobody wants.
But seriously back to Shakira. She’s a year or two older than me, and she’s insanely beautiful and talented and HOLY SHIT 50 MILLION TWITTER FOLLOWERS – that’s impressive even if 45 million of them are bots, amirite? I can imagine a god-fearing person who’s never heard of the zaghrouta seeing Shakira and being shaken to their mental and physical and spiritual core. But we’re here to discuss football.
SF drive 5 – 9 plays, 60 yards…Field Goal
Kickoff returned from the 2 for 14 yards.
A short pass to Sanders is followed by a 15 yard gain to Sanders on a Slant from an Ace Wing Slot formation Split Zone PA against 1 Robber coverage. Then the Niners ran their Fake 1 back Counter, End Around with the lead blocker reversing field and Sanders gained 14 yards. On first from midfield, Coleman got four on a run to the left. Then out of I Right Slot with Z Jet motion, they faked Iso and threw a Wheel route to Juszczyk up the left side for 14 yards. Now at the KC 32, a TE Screen to Kittle gets 5 yards. A run by Mostert gets 0. On 3rd and 5, Kittle seems to be breaking open over the middle for a first down but Garoppolo throws underneath to Coleman, who had motioned out from the backfield.
And here is where Kyle Shanahan makes another mistake. Even after seeing the Chiefs go for two 4th and shorts, he sends Gould out to kick a 42 yd FG, which is good. But 3 points is worth almost nothing in a 10-10 game on the first drive of the second half.
SF 13 KC 10
KC drive 5 – 7 plays, 30 yards…Turnover (Interception)
Kickoff returned from 3 for 15 yards but PENALTY holding call is half the distance.
On first, Mahomes scrambles around and finds Watkins downfield for 19 yards against the Niners 3 Sky after faking Split Zone. On first, Kelce runs a great route but only gets 4 yards. Williams runs for 0 yards, bringing up a 3rd and 6. The Chiefs align in Gun Trey Left, motion Kelce across and run a rollout to the left, throwing a Flat route to the slot receiver Watkins for 9 yards. It looked like Mahomes threw a no-look pass here, as a defender was running towards him and leaping as he threw. On first, Williams gets 5 yards up the middle. Then Mahomes is sacked by Bosa (who rushed inside of LT Fisher) on what seems to be a Cat Fire Zone by the Niners; Mahomes fumbles but recovers, bringing up 3rd and 12. The Chiefs use a Gun Trey right formation with return motion by Kelce, running verticals. Now Mahomes makes a huge mistake (against maybe a Trips check, kinda looks like 3 Buzz Weak), thinking LB Warner will vacate a throwing window to allow a throw to the Slot WR on a deep Curl, but as Mahomes throws, Warner stops and the ball hits him right in the numbers.
SF drive 6 – 6 plays, 55 yards…Touchdown
On first from their own 45, the Niners use 21 personnel I Right viced and motion the FB short right; they run a Lead Split Zone PA with max pro and Garoppolo throws to Samuel the X on a Dig route for 16 yards, seemingly against Cover 4. Since you don’t see a lot of Cover 4 against that formation, maybe the Chiefs expected a shot play. The only other route was the Z running a Dino stem, so they were right. Samuel was open because after the playfake the underneath defenders focused on Kittle.
On first, Mostert gets 2 on a run to the right. Now we get a huge mis-read by Garoppolo. From Gun Trey left with Fly motion (which a defender followed), the Niners fake 1 back power O to the left. The Chiefs had shown 1 Robber but they played Cover 0. The Chiefs blew a coverage, as the CB and and a LB chased the motion player. The MOF safety took the RB and Kittle broke wide open over the middle. Garoppolo threw deep incomplete to Sanders, who was tightly covered up the left seam. This is the play Kittle was frustrated about, bending over, knowing he had a TD if Garoppolo hit him in stride. On 3rd and 8, Garoppolo hits Bourne on a Post for 26 yards. The Chiefs seem to show 2 Man but played maybe 1 Double Kittle? On first down at the 11, the Niners run the same play they scored the first half TD on, a PA Zone and pass to Juszczyk who’s stopped just short of the goal line. On first and goal, Mostert punches it in. From Jumbo I Left, they motion Kittle across; at the snap, the LG pulls, the FB blocks to the left, and Mostert runs inside to the right. It’s a nice Goal Line split flow concept. With the PAT, the Niners are up 10.
SF 20 KC 10
KC drive 6 – 12 plays, 52 yards…Turnover (Interception)
Kickoff – Touchback
After an incompletion and a 5 yard run, Mahomes scrambles for the first down. After an incompletion to Watkins, Kelce catches a Curl for 9 yards against a Nickel Fire Zone. On 3rd and 1 (and the last play of the 3rd qtr), Kelce gets the first on a direct snap. He’s flanked by Williams to his right and Hill to his left. At the snap, Hill goes behind Kelce and to the right, as Kelce goes to the right after faking to Williams. On first, the LDE forces Mahomes to scramble left and throw incomplete. The ball hits the hands of a leaping Kwon Alexander. If Alexander comes down with it, the Niners have the ball in Chiefs territory up by 10. He may have even been able to return it. On 2nd and 10, Hill catches the ball and gets 14 yards. Then Mahomes checks down and gets 13 to Williams against 3 Sky coverage. On first, Mahomes is sacked by Buckner for a loss of 9. On 2nd and 19, Mahomes scrambles up the middle for 13 against a Cover 4, bringing up 3rd and 6. The Niners maybe play 1 Cross; Mahomes maybe tries to prevent Hill from taking a big hit; regardless, the ball is behind Hill and goes off his hands into the hands of Moore for an interception.
SF drive 7 – 5 plays, 17 yards…Punt
On first, Mostert gets 6 on a Power O to the right, putting the Niners at midfield. On 2nd, Kittle gets 12 yards on a Dig route on a PA Split Zone with a Fake End Around against a Will Fire Zone. On first, Mostert gets stuffed on Power O to the left, bringing up a key 2nd and 9 for the “run the bawl” crowd. Garoppolo clearly checks out of something (but was it a run, and why call a run on 2nd and 9?!) and runs a PA Split Zone from a 2×2 set. To the right, where 2 WRs are almost stacked, #1 runs a Dig while #2 runs a Bubble. The Chiefs showed 1 Robber but play Man Free with a Mike Dog and Green Dog. As Garoppolo faked the run and turned back to make his first read, LB Hitchens had shot the A gap. So instead of having time to go to his next read, Garoppolo threw to the Dig, high and incomplete. The second read, Bourne, was wide open in the flat and the nearest defender had fallen down. (Surely this was the second read as the only other player to release was the backside X who was running a Vert to clearout space for the Dig.
On 3rd and 9, Staley false starts, making it 3rd and 14. The Niners go 11 personnel shotgun with Kittle in the backfield. The Chiefs play a Wide 9 Double Mug front showing pressure. At the snap, the Chiefs back out of the pressure; they seem to play Tampa 2 and get quick pressure only rushing 4 against 7 man pro. Garoppolo is forced from the pocket. He gains 3 and is hit hard but in bounds, so no flag. So on 4th and 11, Wishnowsky punts 46 yards and it’s fair caught by Hardman.
The Chiefs are down 10 with 8:53 to go on their own 17 following consecutive INTs.
KC drive 7 – 11 plays, 83 yards…Touchdown
On first, Williams gets 3 on a run to the right. On 2nd and 7, the Chiefs run something similar to Wasp (seems to be against Cover 4 Poach) but Mahomes has to scramble for the first down. On first, a short pass to Hill gets 9, and they convert on a Williams run up the middle. A false start on Duvernay-Tardif makes it 1st and 15. A short incompletion to Hill is followed by a deep throw to Hill from Ace Drop Vice against a Cover 4. Hill seems to Trap the ball and the Niners challenge as we go to a commercial break. A break where surely Niners fans were celebrating.
Back from the break, it’s 3rd and 15. On NFL Films Mahomes asks Bieniemy “Do we have time to run ‘Wasp’?” The TE and RB assignments vary; Wasp means #1 runs a Deep In, #2 runs a Detroit (a Post Corner I’ve also seen referred to as a Wasp route) and #3 runs a Stutter Cross. The beauty of the route is Hill (possibly the fastest player in the NFL) runs upfield and at the MOF FS and waits until that player turns to run with him before breaking back towards the sidelines.
FLASHBACK 2018 season AFC Championship Game, Chiefs v Patriots. Needing a big play, the Chiefs dial up Wasp, run from their favored 1×3 formation but often with Kelce as #3 so the Chiefs have their best 3 threats on the same side. (And whereas Hill is often #3 of Trips, here he’s #2, with Watkins at #1.) With the Patriots showing 1 high Man, the Chiefs ran it as “Gun Trey Left Flex Run-Pass 3 Jet Wasp” with the RB to the side of Trips and used a run fake, throwing to Hill for 42 yards.
Against the Niners single high zone, the Chiefs ran it as “Gun Trey Right 3 Jet Chip Wasp Y-Funnel”. There was no play action. The TE chipped on the right side then ran a Funnel route; the RB chipped the left side, then ran downfield near the sticks.
After seeming to match the 1×3 with a Cover 4 variation known as Poach earlier in the game, this time the Niners called a 3 Buzz with a stunt. Even though the Flat defender (Tartt?) and Hook defender (Warner?) were in great position in front of the Dig, the RCB Moseley broke on it. While many have called this wrong, it’s probably his job to break on it at that depth. Hill has also vacated Moseley’s deep outside third. Ideally, Moseley would sink but the Chiefs don’t run Wasp much (probably because it’s hard to pass protect for that much time). They’d run something similar a couple of times in the Super Bowl and Hill had continued across the face of the deep Safety.
At the line of scrimmage, Bosa rushed to the inside of LT Fisher and Buckner looped around him to the outside. Mahomes dropped back unusually far, 14 yards and threw off-balance. The pass was phenomenal, traveling 57 air yards; Hill gained 44 yards.
On the Niners sideline (where I’d argue the coaches are always too emotional) defensive coordinator Saleh looks near tears, as he’s clearly seen mouthing “Oh my God” – whether he’s in awe of Mahomes and/or Hill, disappointed he called 3 Buzz instead of Poach, or maybe dumbfounded there was no holding call (I’m joking on that last bit, as uncalled holding has been an issue on many big Super Bowl plays, so let’s not waste our time whining, as it pales in comparison to what happened on the Helmet Catch. Let’s just be honest with each other; NFL officiating is often terrible, but most people want fewer flags thrown, and while I want more to be reviewable, on many plays it’s hard to tell, so let’s just move on because making pass interference “reviewable” has been a circus all year).
Two incompletions follow, the second overthrown to Williams after a double move on the LB. On 3rd and 10, Reid uses a favorite Patriots concept, Hoss Juke (#1 Hitch #2 Seam to each side with the #3 strong receiver running a Juke. The Niners, for maybe the first time all game, showed Man Free, putting Moore over Kelce in the weak slot – a huge mismatch. Mahomes looks the safety off and throws to Kelce; Moore never turns to look for the ball, and leaps into the air towards Kelce as the ball arrives, blatant pass interference which is called and puts the ball at the 1 for a first and Goal. Say what you will about the earlier 3 Buzz call, this Man Free call is hard to defend. Did Saleh panic? Did he plan this to surprise the Chiefs if they used Empty? I don’t mind Man Free, but I firmly believe (the sample size is too small to say for sure) it works way better if you show something else. They showed Man Free and Mahomes simply threw it to the matchup he liked.
Note: Hoss Juke was the play the Patriots ran three consecutive snaps against the Rams in the second half of Super Bowl 53; Gronk’s catch up the left seam gave them the first and goal that resulted in the only TD of the game.
Now Reid shows another great wrinkle, lining up in 23 personnel Strong Jumbo I Right and running a Spider 2 Y Banana variation in which the FB and HB exchange assignments. So Mahomes faked a handoff to the FB while the HB ran to the Flat. Kelce was the Wing TE, to the right, and he ran the Banana; he was wide open for the TD. The LCB (Safety Tartt) took the Flat and seemed furious nobody took Kelce.
With 6:13 to go, it’s a one score game!
SF 20
KC 17
SF drive 8 3 plays 5 yards Punt
Kickoff returned from the 1 for 19 yards.
On first, a pin and pull zone Sweep to Mostert to the left gains 5. On 2nd and 5, a creative play call as the Niners run essentially a Fake RPO. Lined up with two players split wide to the right, but not WRs: FB Juszczyk as #1 and Kittle as #2 with a WR motioning towards the ball; the WR loops around Garoppolo and sprints out towards Kittle and Juszczyk. The Chiefs have 8 in the box; they bring a zone pressure, the only underneath pass defender to the strong side is Suggs, rushing out to play the flat. Garoppolo fakes a screen; after briefly faking blocks, Kittle and Juszczyk run slants. Garoppolo makes the right read; Kittle is wide open. But DT Chris Jones knocks the ball down.
This brings up 3rd and 5. Another great call by Shanahan, as the Niners run Arches. #1 Bourne runs a Corner, #2 runs a Drag (Shanahan calls this Eliminator), and #3 Kittle runs an Arches route (which i’ve seen decribed as an Angle, a Slant, a Short Post, a Follow etc), bending outside then breaking inside, into the space cleared by the Drag. The Niners should be able to block it, with 6 man pro. The Chiefs overloaded the offensive left side, showing 1 Robber. But they played Man Free with a delayed Mike Dog and a Green Dog. Jones drove the LG backwards and the NT slanted left to occupy the C and RG as the Mike dogged. We’ll probably never hear the full story but maybe Garoppolo couldn’t see the middle of the field (*ahem* like Russel Wilson in Super Bowl 49 *ahem*) as all this unfolded. Maybe he thought he saw a different coverage. But what we know is he flung the ball towards the Corner route…and Bourne had run a Curl. On the All22 after the play you can see the TEs coach is mad, Shanahan is mad, and Bourne looks confused. Regardless, it made it 4th and 5 with 5:18 to go.
A 40 yard punt is fair caught by Hardman.
KC drive 8 – 7 plays, 65 yards…Touchdown
On first, Mahomes throws short left to Williams. On 2nd from Trips, #3 Kelce catches a Juke route for 9 yards. The Niners showed Cover 2 ish but then seemed to play Cover 4 Poach again (some sort of 5 over 3 Trips check). On first, a 3 yard pass to Hill.
On 2nd and 7 from the 48 with 3:44 on the clock, the Chiefs use Gun Doubles Right before motioning Kelce across to Trips. The Niners show 2 high but the SS is over the Slot who is creeping up. The Chiefs run a play Reid says they took from Kyle Shanahan, who ran it in 2010. The Niners surely hoped to get quick pressure as the CBs were pressed and they ran a Nickel Fire Zone 3. Watkins released inside of Sherman and then ran a Go as the deep Safety rotated away to play MOF (while the SS had come down). The Chiefs faked Outside Zone left and so Kelce chipped Bosa and the RB was there to pick up the Nickelback (also, the LDT fell down). The 5 man pressure was stopped by the 7 man protection and Watkins had blown past Sherman. Mahomes hits Watkins for a gain of 38.
On first, the Chiefs seem to run the same RPO as earlier to Bell, but Mahomes scrambles to the left. Then Mahomes is sacked by Tartt for a loss of one. On 3rd, the Chiefs align in the 1×3 but motion #3 Hill to sidecar right. The Niners show Man Free (following the motion) but then play a Cover 0. The Chiefs run Swap Boot, faking to Hill to the left as the two backs cross paths on their release, Williams going from left sidecar to the right Flat. Kelce’s route means he and Sherman are in the way of Williams’ defender. Mahomes throws it to Williams and Sherman arrives as Williams gets near the goal line.
Did he score? WHO KNOWS?! It was called a touchdown and certainly couldn’t be overturned. Frame by frame, the ball looked to touch the front of the plane as Williams’ foot touched out of bounds.
With the PAT good, the Chiefs have taken the lead with 2:44 left, an eternity! Plus the Niners have three timeouts, plus the 2 minute warning!. We’ve got a game!
Note: Reid has said if they were ruled short of the end zone he’d have gone for it. We’ll never know!
SF 20 KC 24
SF drive 9 – 7 plays, 27 yards…Turnover (Downs)
Kickoff returned from GL for 15 yards.
Shanahan starts off the drive with a great call, a Draw play to Mostert out of Shotgun for 17 yards to the weak right side against a Dime 4-1 Cover 3 Buzz Strong. The RG blocked the Mike and the safety had to make the tackle. After a false start it was 1st and 15. Kittle catches a short Out for 8. On 2nd and 7, the Niners aligned in Gun Doubles and motioned Kittle across into a 3×1, throwing a Stick ish route to Bourne from the Slot for 16. This was against a Nickel 4-2 check v Trips, maybe Skate coverage? On first at the Chiefs 49, the Niners motioned into a 1×3 and ran another good play, kind a Double Stick Pivot concept to the right. Garoppolo seemed to make the right read and threw to Samuel, the inside Slot, but the pass was knocked down by Chris Jones. The coverage seemed to be 1 Double Kittle.
On 2nd and 10, the Niners go Gun Doubles and run All Slants, and it seems the Chiefs ran a 2 Man variation but with the Safeties each driving on #2 to their side? They Green Dog the RB.
On 3rd and 10, the Niners go back to the Shotgun formation with Kittle as one of the 2 backs and 3 WRs, all compressed.
Note: The author hates compressed formations against smart Defensive Coordinators because it makes it easier to disguise coverages. I’m not sure what Garoppolo thought he saw but there’s no way he knew the exact call. It was a one high call with two double coverages, a “Cone” double on the X (an underneath defender having short and outside, a deep defender high and inside and a “Cut” double on the #1 of Slot (an underneath defender having deep and outside. The MOF defender had the remaining receiver, Bourne, who ran a Dig route in front of him which was arguably open but NOT THE READ. The Chiefs rushed 5, possibly a peel call. The route concept is known as Mills by some, having been popular for Steve Spurrier’s Gators. The outside receiver runs a Post and the inside receiver runs a Dig. The backside receiver seemed to run a Deep Curl. Even though he was bracketed, Sanders ran through them to the Post and was open. Garoppolo missed by about 2 yards. It would have put the Niners in the lead with 1:33 to go. Again on NFL Films Shanahan seemed upset after a play. For all the mistakes he makes in big games, he also schemes up wide open receivers for what should be big plays. But I digress!
On fourth down, the game isn’t exactly in the balance, but it’s close. The Niners run another Shotgun 2 back condensed set, allowing another unpredictable call defensive call. From 2 high, the Chiefs seem to run a Peel call, with 6 rushers. The 3 WRs are clustered in the middle, each with a man defender on them, and with 2 Safeties near the sticks. Nobody is open, anyway. Back at the LOS, Jones rushes inside from the defensive left and knocks the Center off of Clark, who has looped inside from the defensive right. Clark gets the sack, which is a turnover on downs.
Situational Football: Game was not over, as SF had their timeouts
KC drive 9 – 2 plays, 42 yards…Touchdown
The Niners stop a Williams run up the middle for 4 and call timeout with 1:20 to go.
The Chiefs align in 22 personnel in a Big Wing Right I. The Niners align in a 4-3 Over Stack and play 3 Sky Strong. In a great call, the Chiefs run a lead play to the left. I’ve seen some people call it Iso, I’d call it Inside Zone Force Bounce, either way the FB Anthony Sherman saw the force defender (the Will LB) go outside the LT, he blocked him and the MOF FS took a bad angle and when he missed it was GOODNIGHT, IRENE as Williams raced up the sidelines for a 38 yard touchdown.
Note: Reid calls the play “95 Weak” but all that means in West Coast lingo is that it’s a run play and both backs are going to the same side. There’s a lot of 95 Weaks. No OL pulled, so call it what you want. Their were three double-teams on the LOS. The Niners bet on it being a strong side run, and they were out-leveraged as a result. Thems the breaks.
Now it was essentially over; after the PAT the Chiefs led 31 to 20 with 1:12 remaining.
The kickoff was a touchback.
After an incompletion towards Kittle, Garoppolo threw deep middle to Samuel and it was intercepted by Fuller. (The pass concept was similar to Shakes, the Air Raid 3 Verts play. It was #1 Hitch, #2 Corner, #3 Post with a #1 Corner and #2 Flat backside. The coverage seemed to be Cover 4 Trips check.)
So, now it was Victory Formation time. 3 kneeldowns and a meaningless deep pass out of bounds as the clock expired.
KC drive 10 Victory Formation
3 kneeldowns and a meaningless deep pass out of bounds as time expires and it’s over. I’m happy for Andy Reid and the Honey Badger, I’m glad I’ll never have to see any “Mahomes is the new Marino thinkpieces, we got some great Xs and Os AND some great situational football JUST LIKE ALL OF THE PAST FIVE SUPER BOWLS, STOP COMPLAINING, PEOPLE, WE ARE LIVING IN THE GOOD TIMES [continues screaming…]
Note: I must mention Steve Spagnuolo, who burst on the scene by using great calls to defeat the 18-0 Patriots in Super Bowl 42 and has been much derided since and just called another good game against a top offense. Even the plays where the Niners had someone open, it seemed to mostly be busted coverages, not bad calls. Like the superhuman effort by Justin Tuck in Super Bowl 42 (which should have resulted in a Super Bowl MVP award for Tuck), Spagnuolo got a superhuman effort by Chris Jones in Super Bowl 54 (which should have resulted in a Super Bowl MVP award for Jones).
Whiskey Over Milk 