KC Chiefs: Super Bowl LIV much more compelling than Super Bowl LIII

The KC Chiefs are one of the two teams competing in Super Bowl LIV and this year’s Super Bowl is already better than last year’s as a result.

EDITOR’S NOTE – Cameron Black, the staff member who wrote this, is blind, but has a great feel for the game, even without his vision. This article was written with the help of a screen reader.

Perhaps I am speaking through a mouth full of sour grapes, because my Kansas City Chiefs were robbed of their first Super Bowl berth in nearly 50 years by the New England Patriots last year, but I found last year’s Super Bowl to be the most boring, snore inducing, paint drying, grass growing affair in sports that year. That might even include a darts championship I happened to catch on some ESPN channel one night, probably ESPN 8 I think, but I digress.

I’m sure none of you need a reminder, so I will make this blessedly short; Last year the Chiefs were mugged of their first Super Bowl berth in nearly 50 years by an offsides call and a coin flip. Some might say that the New Orleans Saints were robbed of their chance to make the Super Bowl by blatant pass interference that was not called.

As a result of the Chiefs and Saints falling, football fans both casual and ardent alike, were treated to one of the most boring Super Bowls since the merger. It is without question that a Chiefs vs Saints match-up would have been infinitely more entertaining.

The heap of insults I am pouring on

Super Bowl LIII

, and my conjecture that Chiefs vs Saints might have been so much better might be just that, my opinions and conjectures, but I have found some numbers to back up my thoughts, and I will present them to you for your judgement.

According to projected numbers for Super Bowl LIII, 1.38 billion chicken wings were expected to be devoured during the big game, 12.5 million pizzas were expected to be consumed and the beer sales were supposed to be somewhere around 1.3 billion.

Well, this year those numbers should cover the greater Kansas City area, but what is everyone else going to eat? All I know is, I hope all that food was consumed, for it would have been the highlight of a Super Bowl that I’m not sure warranted a Big Mac and fries, but anyway, onto the more important numbers.

At half time of Super Bowl LIII, the score was staggering, and for all the wrong reasons. The half time score was Patriots 3, Rams 0. This year’s AFC Championship game was 3-0 before the first quarter was even over. Can you really see a Super Bowl featuring the most high flying offense going at one of the stingiest defenses in the league having a half time score of 3-0?

The half time score of Super Bowl LIV honestly might be tied at 14 apiece. There’s no doubt that both the Chiefs and 49ers have good defenses, but not good enough to have such a low half time score as 3-0, with Patrick Mahomes and the legion of zoom on one end of the field, and the brutal running game of the 49ers on the other.

In the first half of Super Bowl LIII, Rams punter Johnny Hekker had more touches (6) than running back Todd Gurley and wide receiver Brandin Cooks combined (5). Looking back at those numbers now, those last stats beg the question “Just what were the Rams doing with the ball, if not putting it in the hands of their play makers?”

Rest assured that neither team in this year’s Super Bowl will make that same mistake. Mahomes will be spreading the ball around to his usual eight or nine targets while the 49ers will employ the same formula they used against the Packers with such ease Sunday night.

They’ll also hand the ball off to Raheem Mostert, who ran against the Packers 29 times for 220 yards. You better believe he will slam the Chiefs until they prove they can stop him, which the Chiefs also did on Sunday, holding Derrick “freight train” Henry to 19 carries for a paltry 69 yards.

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The Rams ran zero plays in the red zone in last year’s big game while the Patriots ran one. The only way the two teams in this year’s Super Bowl don’t run a litter of red zone plays, is if they are able to score before even making it to the red zone, either bombs being dropped by Mahomes or Mostert peeling off huge runs.

A very troubling stat if you were a Rams fan a year ago is that 45% of the Rams offensive plays went for no yards or worse, negative yards, meaning that nearly half the Rams offensive plays were either stopped in their tracks or forced back. Give the Pats credit in this regard, for that does point to a very stingy defense, unless of course Rams receivers caught the ball and just stood there.

That credit being appropriately dished out, as stout of a defense as the 49ers possess, it will not slow the Chiefs offense for long or at all. For the 49ers, while the Chiefs defense might not hold them to such a deficit as I have stated above, if they are able to rob the Niners of their run game, things could become difficult, as Jimmy Garoppolo is not known for his passing prowess.

Jared Goff went 19-38 for 229 yards, and a fair amount of that came during a too little too late comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, and the passing yards will be more aplenty this time around. Mahomes is going to be more accurate because he’s proven capable of being able to air the pigskin out with ease. Jimmy G might not have done much in the passing game on Sunday, finishing with only 77 yards off six completions, but the Niners still scored 37 points.

Had you been tasked with explaining American football to a race of aliens straight out of Star Trek, you would probably suggest they not use Super Bowl LIII as their reference and just wait until next year. No matter what happens, win or lose, this Super Bowl has the promise – no, the guarantee – to be more entertaining than Super Bowl LIII.

Next. Winners and Losers from AFC Championship Game vs Titans. dark

Last year’s Super Bowl would have been worlds better, regardless of who emerged victorious, if the Chiefs and Saints had squared off, but this year the Kansas City Chiefs have rectified that mistake.

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The KC Chiefs are one of the two teams competing in Super Bowl LIV and this year’s Super Bowl is already better than last year’s as a result.

*EDITOR’S NOTE – Cameron Black, the staff member who wrote this, is blind, but has a great feel for the game, even without his vision. This article was written with the help of a screen reader.*

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EDITOR’S NOTE – Cameron Black, the staff member who wrote this, is blind, but has a great feel for the game, even without his vision. This article was written with the help of a screen reader.