Chiefs v. 49ers: Jimmy Garoppolo looks to redeem himself in Kansas City

The Chiefs continue their preseason campaign on Saturday against the 49ers. What can fans expect from both teams?

The Kansas City Chiefs’ just wrapped up their second game of the preseason against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and honestly it was a bit of a boring performance. There was some unique anticipation, especially for the preseason, for what the game might hold between two teams with a growing rivalry. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly because it’s the preseason, neither side really lived up to the expectations that the game seemed to hold.

After a dominant performance against the Bengals, the Chiefs looked sluggish. There are a couple reasons this was likely the case. First, it’s the preseason. Players can say all they want about preparing the same regardless if it’s preseason, regular season, playoffs, etc. The truth is, if the game doesn’t matter, it’s tough to get up for it mentally. I think we saw some of that play out on Saturday.

The second reason was the delay. Delays happen, but they’re pretty rare. After warming up, and in most player’s cases working themselves into a lather to prepare for the physicality of football, they had to go back in the locker room for almost an hour. That tends to have a negative impact on a player’s mental state, especially  in a game that was completely meaningless.

All in all, the results don’t really matter yet and I think we saw that on Saturday. There continues to be a conversation about reducing or eliminating the preseason altogether, and that game is a perfect case to defend those arguments.

With that said, the Chiefs now enter the third game of the preseason against the San Francisco 49ers and it’s the last one in which the starters will play. This game is still mostly meaningless, but it’s the closest we’ve had to real game action in over six months. What can fans expect from both teams going into the contest?