Month: February 2024

With all the nonsense talk about the NFL having a script for the Super Bowl, it is ironic that the game did follow the convention wisdom.

Even though they were two-point underdogs and scored only three points in the first half, a good defense and late rally by Patrick Mahomes gave the Chiefs their third Super Bowl win in the last five.

Meanwhile, San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan lost his third Super Bowl, one as offensive coordinator of the Falcons in the 28-3 game against the Patriots and twice as a head coach. In all three games he had double digit leads and lost.

One of the reasons Shanahan has problems holding the leads is that he is quick to pass instead of emphasizing controlling the clock. In his two Super Bowl losses he ran only 53 times. When his father won two Super Bowls, he ran 75 times. And with a 10-3 lead at halftime, he threw eight of nine plays while going three and out on their first three possessions.

It didn’t help that the Niners had an extra point blocked and had a punt hit the foot of a Niner to set up an easy Chiefs’ touchdown on the next play.

The Chiefs defense also played a key role until Mahomes led a game tying drive with a field goal at the end of end of regulation and won it with a touchdown drive in overtime after the Nines won the toss and took the ball and got a field goal on their first possession.

There was some second guessing that the Niners didn’t kickoff but it was the first time the new playoff rules were used for overtime. The Chiefs said they would have kicked off if they won the toss.

Then all that was left was the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce kiss on field after the game. She was onscreen for less than a minute total but while her attending Chiefs games may bring in more women viewers, some fans complain about her being shown. Sign of the times.

Meanwhile both teams face challenges next year. The Chiefs are attempting to become the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row. The Packers did it from 1965-67 but the Super Bowl wasn’t created until 1966.

And the Niners are attempting to become the second team since the 1972 perfect Dolphins to win the title after losing the Super Bowl the previous year.

Those are just the beginning for the storylines for next year.

Patrick Mahomes is getting a lot of comparisons to Tom Brady as he prepares to play his fourth Super Bowl in the last five years Sunday.

But as he points out, he has a long way to go before he gets close to Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins if he ever gets here.

But the emphasis on chasing Brady obscures the fact that Mahomes can join the ranks of the best quarterbacks of all time if he wins his third in the last five years.

Since the NFL started playing title games in 1933, winning three titles has been the mark of greatness.  Brady won three in first four years as a starter and then went nine years without winning one until he won three in five years for the Patriots before leaving for Tampa Bay where he won the seventh.

Except for Brady, no quarterback has won more than five titles, which Bart Starr did with the 1960s Packers.

Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Sid Luckman won four while Troy Aikman and Otto Graham won three NFL titles after winning four in a row with the AAFC, but the NFL doesn’t count their records the way it counts the AFL records.

 So that is just seven quarterbacks who won three or more titles. Mahomes can be the eighth. Then there is John Unitas who started three title winning games, but was injured in Super Bowl V and Earl Morrall finished up.

A Mahomes victory would also give him his first repeat and the first since Brady did it in 2003-2004. Bradshaw was the last one to repeat twice and last one to win four in six years. Starr also repeated twice and is the only quarterback since title games were started to win three in a row. The Green Bay Packers won three titles in a row from 1929-31 when Red Dunn at quarterback in the days when the team with best regular season record was the champion. That was before the Bears and Luckman popularized the T formation. The Packers under coach Curly Lambeau used what was called the Notre Dame Box and mostly ran the ball. 

  Here is the list in the order of the quarterbacks who have won three or more titles since the NFL went to title games:

–Sid Luckman won 4 in 7 years from 1940-46 with the Chicago Bears.

–Otto Graham won 3 in 6 from1950-55 with the Cleveland Browns after winning four AAFC titles in a row from 1046-49 before the team joined the NFL.

–Bart Starr won 5 in 7 from 1961-67 with the Green Bay Packers.

–Terry Bradshaw won 4 in 6 from 1974-79 with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

–Joe Montana won 4 in nine years from 1981-89 with the San Francisco 49ers. 

–Troy Aikman won 3 in four years from 1992 to 1995 with the Dallas Cowboys.

–Tom Brady won 7 from 2001 to 2020. He won 3 in four years from 2001-2004 and 3 more  from 2014 to 2018 with the Patriots. He then won his his seventh in 2020 with Tampa Bay.

–John Unitas started three title winning games for the Baltimore Colts in 1958-59 and in Super Bowl V But he was injured in the Super Bowl and Earl Morrall went the rest of the way although the starter usually gets credit for the win.

Now the question is whether Mahomes will get added to the list this Sunday.

Kyle Shanahan, the San Francisco coach, will coaching in his third Super Bowl Sunday, his second as a head coach.

And Brock Purdy will be starting his first Super Bowl after being the last player drafted in 2022.

Both have a lot at stake in this game against the Chiefs when they go in as slim favorites.

Shanahan was the play caller for Atlanta when the Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit in the third period to win in overtime. And Shanahan’s play calling was a major factor in the Falcons blowing the lead. They were in field goal position with about four minutes left and all Shanahan had to do was call three running plays and take a field goal boost their lead to 11 points. Instead after a first down run gained only a yard, he started passing. A holding call and sack pushed the Falcons out of field goal range. The Patriots then tied it and won in overtime.

In 2019, Shanahan was a head coach the Super Bowl for the first time and the 49ers had a 20-10 lead going into the fourth period and the Chiefs scored three touchdowns to win.

Purdy, meanwhile, took the 49ers to the NFC title game against Philadelphia as a rookie but suffered an injury and the 49ers lost.

Even though Purdy has the 49ers in the Super Bowl in his second year, he is still trying to live down the reputation of being a game manager surrounded by great talent. Getting a ring would quiet his critics. He had to rally the 49ers to their playoff wins over the Packers and Lions and probably would have lost to the Lions if coach Dan Campbell of the Lions hadn’t passed up two field goal attempts and then failed on fourth down both times.

So the pressure will be on both Shanahan and Purdy to prove they can win it all. It will be a long offseason for the coach and the quarterback if they don’t win.

This will be remembered as the year when the coaches who weren’t hired got more attention than those who did.

Despite eight openings, Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel  weren’t hired after being fired at the end of the year. In Belichick’s case there were several factors besides his age as he nears 72 like his losing record without Brady and his shaky personnel record. And he is used to having total control of the franchise. The Falcons were the only team that even interviewed him although there were reports the Commanders considered him.

In Carroll’s case, he’s also in his 70s and hasn’t been winning although he said he is open to coaching again in the right situation. It remains to be seen if he will find that situation in the future.

ln Vrabel’s case, he was interviewed but it is unclear why he wasn’t hired although his philosophy of running the ball and playing defense is somewhat out of step in today’s game.

Now a look at the eight coaches who were hired:

RETREADS

Dan Quinn of the Commanders.

After Ben Johnson turned the job down, the Commanders turned to Quinn, who was fired by the Falcons and then got the defensive coordinator’s job in Dallas. He made one Super Bowl in Atlanta but blew a 28-3 lead although the play calling of Kyle Shanahan was a major factor in the collapse. Some coaches to do better in their second job. He hopes to be one of them.

Raheem Morris of the Falcons

Morris was the head coch of the Bucs from 2009 to 2011 where he was 17-31 and then interim head of Falcons in 2020 after Dan Quinn was fired so he is familiar with the Falcon organization. This is likely to be his last chance at a head coaching job.

COLLEGE HIRE

Jim Harbaugh is not a typical former college coach because he coached with 49ers before being pushed out by then GM Tret Baalke, who is now with the Jaguars. Harbaugh is somewhat quirky but is coming off a national championship season at Michigan where he served a suspension for cheating allegations. He arrived with the Chargers talking but about winning multiple Super Bowls but he is in the same division with Patrick Mahomes so that will be a tall order.

PROMOTED

Antonio Pierce and Jerrod Mayo started last year as assistant coaches. Pierce was promoted to the head coaching job when Josh McDaniels was fired in mid season and became the first interim coach to be hired full time since Doug Marrone of the Jaguars in 2017. Mayo replaced Belichick and apparently was tabbed to be his successor before last year. Mayo has a tough job taking over a depleted roster.

NEW HIRES

Brian Callahan of the Titans, Mike Macdonald of the Seahawks and Dave Canales all got head coaching jobs for the first time. Going from an assistant coach to a head job with a new organization is always a challenge and it will be interested to see how they fare. Canales has the toughest job because Byrce Young struggled in his first season and owner David Tepper is not noted for being patient.

–The big winners of the conference games were Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy. The losers were Lamar Jackson and two coaches, Todd Monken, offensive coordinator of the Ravens and Dan Campbell, head coach of the Lions.

–Mahomes was the underdog in his first road conference title game and led the Chiefs on touchdown drives on his first two possessions. The Ravens defense then held him to a field goal the rest of the game but since the Ravens were struggling on offense, he was content to play conservatively the rest of the game and avoid turnovers or mistakes that could have jumpstarted the Ravens offense. The result is he earned his fourth Super Bowl berth in the last five years.

–Lamar Jackson was aiming for his first Super Bowl appearance but is now 2-4 in the playoffs as he only put seven points on the board. Jackson didnt play well as he threw an interception in end zone into triple coverage and was a victim of a strip sack. It didn’t help that Zay Flowers fumbled on the one-yard line. But Monken got away from the run game and put too much emphasis on Jackson throwing. And Jackson didn’t seem to look for running lanes, either. It was a frustrating end to an MVP season for Jackson and raises questions about whether he will figure out a watch to play in the playoffs like he does in regular season.

–Brock Purdy is often called a game manager, but he led the 49ers to the best comeback in conference title game history after the 49ers trailed the Lions 24-7 at halftime. Purdy lacks some of the physical skills of the top quarterbacks but his abilityto  not get rattled when team gets off to a bad start is the reason why he is in the Super Bowl in his second season.

–The Detroit Lions had the biggest meltdown in conference history against the 49ers. They made a lot of mistakes in the second half with dropped passes and a key fumble and were unlucky when a pass bounced off the helmet of a Detroit player and turned into a 49ers touchdown. But Campbell must take his share of the blame for passing up two field goals, one which would have given the Lions a 17-point lead in the third quarter after the 49ers had cut the deficit to 14 and one that would have tied the game in the fourth quarter and running the ball on third and goal and then burning a timeout. Campbell is noted for his aggressive style but it backfired on him this time.