Super Bowl LIV

Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers

Sunday 2nd February 6:30PM

This is it – the greatest night in your sporting calendar.

The Kansas City Chiefs contested the first-ever Super Bowl, then won Super Bowl IV – that was 50 years ago, and while they’re only a small-time franchise in the grand scheme of things, the Arrowhead faithful are raucous. They’ve also now got the best player in the entire sport – and it looks like he’ll continue to be exactly that for most of his career.

To quote my good friend Will Russo, who’s been a Chiefs season ticket holder for over half his life: “Kansas City just doesn’t get players like Patrick Mahomes”. Well, unfortunately for this Los Angeles Chargers fan, they do – and he’s going to spend his career in Missouri.

They’re a small-city team with the standout signal-caller in the league, a roster filled with redemption stories and the second-most sophisticated offence in the NFL.

But sitting above them is Kyle Shanahan’s unit – and unfortunately for the AFC champs, that’s exactly who they’ll be facing off against in Miami on Sunday.

San Francisco is a massive football town. Since their move from Candlestick Park, they had yet to fully engage with a blueprint that seemed, at least from the outside looking in, sustainable long-term. Colin Kaepernick, for all that he should absolutely have a job in this league, was one-dimensional at times.

But Jimmy Garoppolo is a game-manager in the hands of the best offensive mind in the business – Kyle Shanahan. Their run game is the primary focus of their offensive identity, but their misdirection and constant rejuvenation of schemes is what makes them unpredictable.

Shanahan is the offensive coordinator that gave up the biggest lead in the history of the Super Bowl, let’s not forget. He has his own demons to battle. The reason the Falcons coughed up the 28-3 lead to the Patriots is because Shanahan went conservative with his play-calling and that goes against his grain.

There’s almost too many narratives to follow, isn’t there?

With that in mind, here are your three best bets for Super Bowl Sunday.

San Francisco 49ers – Moneyline: +105 with CanPlay

There’s little or no factors that make me want to pick Kansas City here. The Chiefs play a lot of man coverage at the back-end and the Niners’ version of Cover 4 is effectively a quarters coverage that turns into man on deep routes.

If the game plays out like that, which I suspect it will, deep balls will be at a complete premium. This leaves underneath coverage contending with slot receivers and tight ends. The onus for these players will fall on linebacking corps, and bar maybe Dallas and Minnesota, San Francisco have the best linebacking trio in the NFL.

Kansas City on the other hand, do not. That means they’ll have to compensate by playing a safety in the box to either play quick zone for sitdown routes or to shade man coverage on crossing and dig routes. It leaves man coverage on one side of the field and whether it’s Deebo Samuel or Emmanuel Sanders, I like their chances against a Chiefs secondary that’s better as a unit than they are individually.

Total Match Points – Under 54.5: -114 with CanPlay

There’s people reading this wondering what kind of medication I’m on, citing that both of these teams could scored 55 by themselves if everything clicks.

But that’s not how Super Bowls work, and definitely not an Andy Reid versus Kyle Shanahan Super Bowl.

Both of these head coaches will gladly throw away drives just to set up a disguise later on in the game. As an example, if the Niners get Sanders one-on-one with a cornerback, they might ask him to run two curl routes on back-to-back plays and never throw to him.

This is merely so Sanders can fake a curl later on and double move his corner for a massive gain in behind.

This is a chess match and chess matches aren’t high-scoring – particularly if the deep ball will be taken away by San Francisco from the off.

Winning Margin: San Francisco by 1-6 Points: +370 with CanPlay

Patrick Mahomes will fire late in the game to make it close, I assure you.

But even without that logic, the run game is so big for the Niners that clock will limit point-scoring chances, and with deep coverages being these two teams’ go-to in early downs, I expect drives to be long.

San Francisco will win this, but there won’t be a tonne between the teams at any point.