1) The San Francisco 49ers were right to complain about the field conditions at UNLV—the failure to lay a pad between the turf and the sod shows a pretty blatant lack of detail in taking care of a Super Bowl team.
2) If you want evidence of how money can solve pretty much any of these problems, take a look at what Real Madrid pulled off in renovating Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the venue the NFL just committed to playing in two seasons from now.
3) While the front office and coaches were steamed with the league, again, justifiably, San Francisco’s players did seem to be taking it in stride, even with some of the league’s harshest critics of playing surfaces on the roster.
4) The Kansas City Chiefs, on the other hand, were blown away with the Las Vegas Raiders’ palatial facility, and that’s even though they only really had access to the practice fields, weight room and training room.
5) The power of Patrick Mahomes through a week like this is how normal it feels with him—just as he’s level when the world is shaking around him in a big game, he comes off that way in the lead-up, which, I think, rubs off on his teammates.
6) Chiefs offensive tackles Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor, imported this offseason to replace Orlando Brown Jr. and Andrew Wylie, will be pivotal figures Sunday, going up against a talented San Francisco front.
7) Kansas City won’t have All-Pro guard Joe Thuney on Sunday—tough as Thuney is, the pec injury wouldn’t allow for it—and that gives you another spot to watch on the Chiefs’ line (backup Nick Allegretti did play well against Baltimore).
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8) All of that adds up to San Francisco needing a big day out of a defensive line that hasn’t really played up to its potential all year—the talent, very clearly, is there, so that could change Sunday.
9) That also puts the spotlight on Nick Bosa, who’ll line up over Taylor for most of the game, and the sort of encore he can provide after his MVP-level performance in Super Bowl LIV.
10) Along those lines, Chase Young has a chance to make himself some money Sunday.
11) One thing to watch, from a game-planning standpoint, is how physical the Niners get with Travis Kelce, with Kelce having found ways to adjust in the playoffs, and uncover earlier in his routes to give Mahomes an outlet when the receivers don’t.
12) Speaking of Kansas City’s receivers, after seeing the Detroit Lions get Jameson Williams loose on a reverse, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Andy Reid get creative in getting the ball to Rashee Rice.
13) The Niners defense, in general, has shown susceptibility to outside runs (allowing 7.7 yards per carry through the playoffs), so it’ll be interesting to see if K.C. tests the perimeter of the San Francisco defense with Isiah Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and, again, Rice.
14) Kadarius Toney’s someone who could be effective in that vein as well—but do the Chiefs feel like they can rely on him after he’s proven himself unreliable through, well, pretty much all of 2023?
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15) The Niners’ willingness to stick with Christian McCaffrey through the teeth of the NFC title game, and after the team fell behind 24–7 at the half (half of his 20 carries came after the break), is notable, given how the Chiefs got the run-heavy Ravens to veer from the run game in the AFC title game.
16) Deebo Samuel’s alignment is important in that phase, too—in forcing another defensive back onto the field, which could dictate putting a physical, strong-tackling corner (such as Trent McDuffie) inside more consistently, and mess with Steve Spagnuolo’s ability to move guys around on the back end.
17) Spagnuolo, though, will certainly be a factor, and I keep thinking back to his Super Bowl XLII gameplan (when the New York Giants beat the unbeaten New England Patriots), and how he’d give his players two calls—one to give Tom Brady one look, and let him make adjustments, then another look to switch into after those adjustments were made.
18) Going with the strategy against Kyle Shanahan seems impossible, because if Spagnuolo shows Shanahan his hand, he’s probably going to find himself in trouble. Shanahan's quarterbacks generally break the huddle with rules based on the look they’re getting.
19) The overall talent on the Niners’ roster is better, but they also may have a few more holes than the Chiefs—in particular, the right side of the offensive line, and the secondary away from Charvarius Ward would be areas to watch.
20) What Brock Purdy has shown with his legs in these playoffs has the Chiefs’ attention, with the question being whether it’s enough for K.C. to devote a resource or two to make sure he doesn’t sneak through the front.
21) A matchup I’d be excited to see, if we only get to see it a few times, is Chris Jones vs. Trent Williams—Spagnuolo is judicious about putting Jones outside, but when he does, the big man usually wreaks havoc (it happened near the end of the Buffalo game).
22) The Chiefs’ front office deserves a more credit than its gotten, with the rest of the league only starting to pluck from Brett Veach’s crew (Ryan Poles went to Chicago as GM in 2022, and Brandt Tilis was just hired as Panthers EVP of football operations).
23) Specifically, assistant GM Mike Borgonzi should already be a GM, and I’d think you’d start hearing senior director of player personnel Mike Bradway discussed soon, too, with directors of player personnel Ryne Nutt and Tim Terry also integral parts of the operation.
24) One person who’s important to what the Niners do that you haven’t heard enough about this week is EVP of football operations Paraag Marathe, who is basically the original football analytics guy, and an integral part of everything San Francisco does.
25) I think Andy Reid will be back in 2024—but he will probably take a week or two to think about it, with a final decision before the combine (which starts two weeks from Monday).
26) One piece of evidence that Reid sticks around is what I highlighted earlier in the week—Reid’s car is at the Chiefs’ facility before almost anyone else gets there each morning, and after most are gone each night—which indicates he’s far from tired of the job.
27) If Reid were to leave, though, I’d put my money on Matt Nagy replacing him, given Nagy’s relationship with Mahomes, and also how he successfully shifted the Chiefs’ offensive identity on the fly this season.
28) I’ll give Las Vegas a “B” as a Super Bowl city, which will be enough to bring the game back here again, with the main issue being the slog of traffic from Wednesday on.
29) And one last thing to watch, and we’ll go more than a sentence on this one, would be the pressure that’s on the Niners. They’re leveraged from a cap standpoint—their highest number is $12.58 million, while they have eight players on contracts worth $15 million per year or more—so there are only so many shots left with the current core. They’ve been to four NFC title games in five years. And they blew a 20–10 lead the last time against the Chiefs. So what happens if they’re up 10 going into the fourth quarter? Where’s the team’s psyche? To me, these are pretty interesting questions, especially with a group that’s already shown a ton of mental toughness through two playoff rounds.
