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Monday, January 20, 2020

What We Learned in the N.F.L.’s Conference Championships - The New York Times

The Tennessee Titans were lovable underdogs, but their luck ran out on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, who beat them, 35-24. The Green Bay Packers found some balance on offense in their first season under Coach Matt LaFleur, but they were crushed by the San Francisco 49ers, 37-20, in a game that was nowhere near that close. The Chiefs and the 49ers will now face off in Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2 in Miami Gardens, Fla., in a matchup between one team with an electric passing game and one that relies on its defense and running the ball.

Here’s what we learned in the conference championship games.

  • Patrick Mahomes has more than one way to beat you. The Chiefs quarterback showed off his running ability in both of his team’s playoff games, racing for a team-high 53 yards in each victory and repeatedly turning broken plays into large gains. In perhaps the best run of his career, he broke off a 27-yard touchdown against Tennessee in which he shed multiple tackles, shot down the sideline and plowed through contact at the goal line. But Mahomes’ arm is just as deadly, as shown when he rolled out to his right and threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins in the fourth quarter. According to the N.F.L.’s NextGen Stats, Mahomes was running 10.92 miles per hour when he released the ball. That mobility could be key against San Francisco’s top-tier defensive line, as the group led by rookie defensive end Nick Bosa was often at its worst against fast quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson and even Arizona’s rookie quarterback, Kyler Murray.

  • San Francisco’s running back-by-committee is now a committee of one. The 49ers firmly believed in the hot hand this season, splitting carries between Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman and Matt Breida, with each leading the team in rushing yards at least three times. But Breida faded some, and Coleman, who had 105 yards and two touchdowns in the divisional round, was lost to a shoulder injury in Sunday’s game. That appears to leave Mostert as the dominant back heading into the game against the Chiefs, who did well against Tennessee’s Derrick Henry on Sunday but were subpar against the run during the regular season. Even if Coleman is out, Kansas City has quite a task ahead of it: On Sunday, Mostert became the first player in N.F.L. history to have 200 or more yards rushing and four touchdowns in a postseason game.

  • Frank Clark talks a big game — and backs it up. A veteran defensive end, Clark issued a cringe-worthy pregame quotation about Tennessee’s Derrick Henry in which he said the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry was not one of the more difficult running backs to tackle. But Clark followed that assertion by serving as the rock at the heart of Kansas City’s defense as it held Henry to his fewest yards since Week 9. Clark put an exclamation point on his big day with a 17-yard sack of Ryan Tannehill on the Titans’ final drive that forced a turnover on downs, effectively ending the game. He and tackle Chris Jones could be the key to limiting Mostert and the 49ers running game in two weeks.

  • Something may be wrong with Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers barely passed the ball in the second half last week, letting Coleman and others lead them to an easy victory. The disparity was even more extreme against Green Bay, with San Francisco gaining 285 yards rushing to just 69 through the air, with Garoppolo completing just two passes in the second half. While it could simply be a matter of the 49ers not messing with success, it is worth noting that all of this has followed Garoppolo turning his ankle midway through the divisional round win over Minnesota. Coach Kyle Shanahan downplayed any issues, saying after the game that they stuck with the run “because it was working.”

  • Kansas City’s long wait is over. The Chiefs lost Super Bowl I to the Green Bay Packers, won Super Bowl IV over the Minnesota Vikings and have not been back since. The 50-year gap between Super Bowl appearances is an N.F.L. record, but Mahomes was not shy about Kansas City’s chances, saying of his team: “We’re not done yet. We’re going to get it.” Since Kansas City’s last appearance in the N.F.L.’s championship game, the 49ers got there six times, winning five rings. The New England Patriots led all teams with 11 appearances in that span (winning six times), while the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos each appeared eight times. San Francisco will be breaking a seven-season drought after having lost Super Bowl XLVII to the Baltimore Ravens after the 2012 season.

  • Robbie Gould can still let it rip. The 49ers kicker had not connected from more than 50 yards this season, and was just 6 of 12 from 40 or more yards in a season in which he missed three games as a result of an injury. But he turned the clock way back on Sunday, connecting from 54 yards early in the second quarter and from 42 in the fourth quarter. The 54-yarder was his longest field goal since 2015, and a return to form for a player who is now 30 for 42 in his career from 50-plus, including the playoffs. His 3-for-3 day continued a streak in which he has not missed in 13 career postseason field goal attempts.

The 49ers are currently underdogs and will be the road team in Miami Gardens, Fla. It will be the team’s third Super Bowl in the stadium formerly known as Joe Robbie, with San Francisco having beaten the Cincinnati Bengals there in Super Bowl XXIII and having defeated the San Diego Chargers there in Super Bowl XXIX.

San Francisco 49ers (13-3) at Kansas City Chiefs (12-4)

Sunday, Feb. 2, 6:30 p.m. Eastern, Fox

Early Line: Chiefs -1.5

Aaron Rodgers passed for 326 yards while trying to rally Green Bay in a blowout against San Francisco. But there was no question who the best quarterback on either field was this week, as Mahomes threw for 294 yards, had a sparkling passer rating of 120.4, and seemed capable of even more production if Kansas City had needed it.

All of the talk coming into this week was about Tennessee’s Derrick Henry, but it was San Francisco’s Mostert who put on an absolute show. He had the second-most rushing yards in a playoff game since at least 1950 (Eric Dickerson had 248 in the divisional round following the 1985 season) and also scored the second-most rushing touchdowns in a playoff game over the same span (Ricky Watters had five for San Francisco in the divisional round following the 1993 season).

The Packers’ Davante Adams led all receivers with 138 yards this week, but much of it came in garbage time, while Kansas City’s duo of Watkins and Tyreek Hill used their speed to disassemble Tennessee’s defense. The Titans did not have a player with more than 65 yards, and San Francisco had two players tie for the team lead in receptions — with two. An honorable mention is warranted to Tennessee’s backup tackle Dennis Kelly, who at 321 pounds became the heaviest player to score a receiving touchdown in a postseason game.

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What We Learned in the N.F.L.’s Conference Championships - The New York Times
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