Chiefs pull off historic 4th quarterback comeback against 49ers for Super Bowl win
By Matt Conner
After two weeks of media hype, stories, and analysis, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers finally got down to business and played football.
It happened. It finally happened. The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions, thanks to a historic fourth quarter comeback, with a 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers. Fifty years after their last Super Bowl win, Andy Reid has returned Super Bowl glory to the town that gave him a second chance at postseason success.
Both the Niners and the Chiefs traded blows in the first half and closed the first two quarters tied at 10 points apiece with almost identical stat lines. The Chiefs and Niners both hit a single field goal attempts and found the end zone once. Both teams had 11 first downs. The Niners had 177 yards to the Chiefs 155.
For the Chiefs, the lone score came on a very impressive long first quarter drive capped by a Patrick Mahomes 1-yard touchdown run. For the Niners, it took some time to show what they can do, but a run-heavy drive featuring Raheem Mostert and wideout Deebo Samuel ended in a nice 15-yard touchdown strike to Kyle Juszczyk.
The second half opened in favor of the Niners and remained that way for some time. The Niners received the ball and the opening drive resulted in another Robbie Gould field goal from 42 yards. The Chiefs followed up with a sloppy offensive drive that featured a Mahomes fumble that he was fortunate enough to recover. However on the next play, Mahomes tossed his first interception of the postseason to 49ers linebacker Fred Warner.
From there, Kyle Shanahan took advantage of a free gift of a drive by driving aggressively on a touchdown drive capped by a Mostert touchdown run to give them a 20-10 lead. For most of the third quarter, the Chiefs defense had no answer at all for Shanahan’s offense, which gashed the Chiefs for what seemed like a first down on each play.
The 49ers seemed destined to put the foot down on the neck of K.C. until the Chiefs responded with an impressive defensive stop to force the Niners’ first punt of the day early in the fourth quarter. From there, the Chiefs scored on the very next drive thanks to a 44-yard pass to Tyreek Hill and an pass interference call in the end zone that gave the Chiefs first-and-goal on the 1-yard line. From there, Mahomes hit Kelce for a touchdown to make it a three-point lead for the Niners.
After a quick defensive stop, the Chiefs once again got the ball with just over 5 minutes left. Mahomes found Sammy Watkins on a beautiful play action call that put the Chiefs in the red zone. From there, the Chiefs scored on a five-yard pass to Damien Williams that put them up 24-20. On the ensuing drive, the Chiefs stopped several attempts by Jimmy Garoppolo at midfield to move the Niners further and won the ball back on turnovers.
To cap the night, Damien Williams took the ball on a 38-yard run to put the game out of reach by a final of 31-20.