Miami (AFP) – The San Francisco 49ers will have Super Bowl revenge on their minds as they face the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL on Sunday. The Chiefs have beaten the 49ers in the Super Bowl twice in the past five seasons, including last February when San Francisco led in the fourth quarter.
It is something of a mantra in the NFL that past encounters count for nothing once the game gets underway, but Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan, who was in charge for both those losses, knows it will be hard for his players to forget. “I think everyone understands that we’ve lost two Super Bowls to them, so that can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape, I think that’s human nature,” Shanahan said.
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“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. We’re playing a really good AFC opponent. We’re .500 right now, and we want to stay atop of our division and get a win. I mean, you think about that stuff going into it, but in terms of (how) it plays out in a game, it really has no correlation, and you try to make sure that it doesn’t,” he added.
San Francisco are 3-3 on the season while the Chiefs have won all five of their games, but the bookmakers have Kansas City, narrowly, as underdogs. That is despite star 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey remaining out with a calf injury and doubts over the other key running back Jordan Mason’s shoulder. The optimism over the 49ers’ chances is largely due to the form of quarterback Brock Purdy who has thrown for nine touchdowns and 1,629 yards so far this season.
– No Weaknesses –
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo says that Purdy, taken last in the 2022 draft with the 262nd pick, has no clear weaknesses his team can exploit. “Hopefully we can get the quarterback not to be in timing like he is, because I can’t find a weakness in this quarterback,” Spagnuolo said this week. “Every time I put the film on, I’m more and more impressed.”
The widely respected Spagnuolo says that respect for Purdy won’t, however, stop him from unleashing the blitzes for which his defenses are known but suggested that he will have to be selective in his approach. “We’re never going to go into a game and not blitz at all because we’re fearful of it, but I think we do have to respect the fact that he knows exactly what to do with the football. To me, the most impressive thing is even if it wasn’t getting it out quick on a blitz, he has a unique way of getting away from it,” he said.
The Chiefs, of course, have quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl winner and two-time league MVP who says he is relishing the rematch. “I think it’s as big of a regular-season game as you can play in. I mean, they’re a great football team, and I always like going against the best, and that’s what we’re going against this week,” he said.
“We understand that it’s going to take our best to win,” Mahomes added. “You just have to have extreme focus …I think when you have two great football teams that meet up in the Super Bowl and meet up in all these big games, there’s going to be a history between that.”
The other unbeaten team, the Minnesota Vikings, face a tough test at home to the 4-1 Detroit Lions while the Houston Texans (5-1) face the Green Bay Packers (4-2).
© 2024 AFP
