Kansas City Won the AFC West for the 4th straight year, this time with a 12-4 record. It marked the sixth playoff appearance in seven seasons under Andy Reid. Kansas City also received a first round bye. Their playoffs started in the divisional round with a 51-31 win over the Houston Texans. Kansas City moved on to the AFC Championship game, dispatching the Tennessee Titans with a 35-24 victory. In both games, the Chiefs came back from big deficits. This marks the Chiefs' third Super Bowl appearance and their first since the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. Kansas City is 1–1 in their two prior Super Bowls. They lost Super Bowl I to the Green Bay Packers, 35–10, and won Super Bowl IV, defeating the Minnesota Vikings, 23–7. The Super Bowl is also Andy Reid's second Super Bowl appearance as a head coach, his last coming in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004 when he was the Philadelphia Eagles head coach.
The betting line for this game is Kansas City at -1.
If your the Chiefs, this is one game where getting behind early could be very detrimental to your chances of winning. It happened in their first two playoff games, against Houston and Tennessee, but its going to be different against the Niners. To be fair, this is a high powered Kansas City offense, that put up 51 points against the Texans and another 35 against the Titans. They know how to score. Patrick Mahomes and his weapons have been able to do more than enough to score in this year's playoffs. Mahomes has been en fuego the second half of the year. After returning from his injury, Mahomes has thrown 19 touchdowns and just four interceptions. And that's including the playoffs, in which he's thrown eight TDs and zero picks. Kansas City has been good in close games. The Chiefs have never lost a game by more than seven points with Mahomes as their starter, which is something that you need to keep an eye on in this ball game.
Meanwhile the 49ers can and have excelled in both close and blowout conditions throughout 2019. The 49ers are just as adapt as passing the ball as they are at running it. Look at the run game in the playoffs. San Francisco led all playoff teams in rushing yards after ranking among the NFL's top running teams in the regular season. One player to focus on for the Niners is Raheem Mostert, who exploded for 220 yards and four touchdowns against the Packers. Mostert's yardage and TD totals nearly broke all-time postseason records. It may have been a flash in the pan, but he's also been a model of consistency in running the football this year with this 49ewrs team. But what Kansas City has shown that they can do is shut the run game down. Look at what they did to the Titans last weekend. Can you trust Jimmy Garoppolo throwing the ball? He threw it for under 100 yards two weeks ago.
This is where things get interesting, it looks like it could be a pretty even attack between the two teams. The Chiefs can't get too far behind this 49ers team, because if they do, its going to be a tough hill to try and overcome. Sure, the 49ers defense is good, and they have an even balance between that and their offense. But the Chiefs have the more high powered offense, and once they get going, they're going to be hard to stop.
PREDICTION: Chiefs 31, 49ers 27
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