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2nd half Edit:
Not a bad second half either.

IMO the 'nail' was when SF had the ball with 6 min and change, but did nothing with it. But, it is tough to shut KC down for 4 Qs!

Congrats KC, AR, et al!

That, the OPI, and interception cost them. Even still they had a chance and came unraveled. Hopefully neither team has a Super Bowl hangover.

With all the talk from Revis towards Sherman, Sherman will get chewed up by the talking heads for that drive.

Incoming year of Wright, Kellerman, and Whitlock.


With the Super Bowl over, Dan Orlowski said Brady would go to the Dolphins next year. Would love that as a fan plus get to play Patriots twice but won't happen.
 
As much as I ended up rooting for KC I do think Damien Williams was out of bounds. I'm sure that will be a call that will be debated for a while.
that's the least important decision the refs made if you ask me. Either a TD or 4th down. I don't doubt one secon that they would have scored. KC was really strong inside the 5 today.

What should be debated though is
-end of the 1st half vs Kittle. He already got the gap and is only touching the CBs arm, it's going both ways, not shoving him or whatever
-long ball to Hill. 2 Niners D-Liners got held by the chiefs o-line, especially against Bosa was pretty blatant
-and the most important: 4th quarter around 5-6 minutes to go. 3rd and long for the Niners, late hit and helmet to helmet against Jimmy G. No call, nothing. Every ref looked away, while this should have been the most obvious call all game. Would have been a 1st down and (near) FG range. Instead they had to punt and KC scored the next drive.
Thing is this isn't an iconic scene like the Saints PI, so no one will talk about it.
 
That, the OPI, and interception cost them. Even still they had a chance and came unraveled. Hopefully neither team has a Super Bowl hangover.

With all the talk from Revis towards Sherman, Sherman will get chewed up by the talking heads for that drive.

Incoming year of Wright, Kellerman, and Whitlock.


With the Super Bowl over, Dan Orlowski said Brady would go to the Dolphins next year. Would love that as a fan plus get to play Patriots twice but won't happen.
Agree! I hope that both of these teams are strong again next year! 2020 has the potential to be a great year...
 
that's the least important decision the refs made if you ask me. Either a TD or 4th down. I don't doubt one secon that they would have scored. KC was really strong inside the 5 today.

What should be debated though is
-end of the 1st half vs Kittle. He already got the gap and is only touching the CBs arm, it's going both ways, not shoving him or whatever
-long ball to Hill. 2 Niners D-Liners got held by the chiefs o-line, especially against Bosa was pretty blatant
-and the most important: 4th quarter around 5-6 minutes to go. 3rd and long for the Niners, late hit and helmet to helmet against Jimmy G. No call, nothing. Every ref looked away, while this should have been the most obvious call all game. Would have been a 1st down and (near) FG range. Instead they had to punt and KC scored the next drive.
Thing is this isn't an iconic scene like the Saints PI, so no one will talk about it.
I thought there was a face-mask penalty in there somewhere that wasn't called, but the cameras pulled away just as they were about to replay it. So I'm not even sure which players were involved...

I really wanted to see that again, just to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.
 
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Wow!...Mahomes magic! The KC offense explodes in the 4th quarter. 3 for 3 in scoring drives. Nice bomb to Hill on that 3rd & 15 play where he twisted out of a likely sack. Funny to see Sherman get burned by Watkins. Garoppolo choked at the end there and needs a lot of work on hurry-up offense.

Mahomes game MVP and 2nd youngest QB to ever win a SB! As Joe Buck said "great quarterbacks win big games." Reid is a genius for drafting Mahomes - in two short seasons as the starter he brings home a Lombardi trophy to the deserving fans of KC. If Mahomes stays healthy, this could be the new dynasty of this decade.
 
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That, the OPI, and interception cost them. Even still they had a chance and came unraveled. Hopefully neither team has a Super Bowl hangover.

With all the talk from Revis towards Sherman, Sherman will get chewed up by the talking heads for that drive.

Incoming year of Wright, Kellerman, and Whitlock.


With the Super Bowl over, Dan Orlowski said Brady would go to the Dolphins next year. Would love that as a fan plus get to play Patriots twice but won't happen.
I thought in that Hulu commercial Brady said he's not going anywhere? Lol.

View: https://youtu.be/6Ed61xjrZx8
 
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I thought in that Hulu commercial Brady said he's not going anywhere? Lol.

View: https://youtu.be/6Ed61xjrZx8

Oh no definitely. This was like 2-3 weeks ago on Get Up were he, Rex Ryan, and I don't remember the other names but they were talking about it. I never brought it up because the Patriots weren't in the playoffs so was saving it for something relevant. I've stated I don't think he is leaving and will either return as Patriot or retire. Only way he's leaving is if McDaniel's left and went to a good team.

And honestly I'm happy he's staying. Can retire as a patriot.
 
Oh no definitely. This was like 2-3 weeks ago on Get Up were he, Rex Ryan, and I don't remember the other names but they were talking about it. I never brought it up because the Patriots weren't in the playoffs so was saving it for something relevant. I've stated I don't think he is leaving and will either return as Patriot or retire. Only way he's leaving is if McDaniel's left and went to a good team.

And honestly I'm happy he's staying. Can retire as a patriot.
Any reason why he was so ambiguous? He was seen at the Macgregor fight hanging out with Davis - and I've heard Davis is going to make a push for him once free agency starts. Someone mentioned TB, but the other day Arians was talking very highly of Rivers being a winner and all as if he wants him there. And Miami owner John Ross said he doesn't know why Brady would be interested when they're in rebuild mode and all mock drafts have them taking Tua. I can't figure this icon out - last summer he voids out his contract extension and plays this past season without saying squat about his future plans....Brady mystique I guess.
 
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Any reason why he was so ambiguous? He was seen at the Macgregor fight hanging out with Davis - and I've heard Davis is going to make a push for him once free agency starts. Someone mentioned TB, but the other day Arians was talking very highly of Rivers being a winner and all as if he wants him there. And Miami owner John Ross said he doesn't know why TB would be interested when they're in rebuilt mode and all mock drafts have them taking Tua. I can't figure this icon out - last summer he voids out his contract extension and plays this past season without saving squat about his future plans....Brady mystique I guess.

Idk maybe he wanted to have some fun but
only time will tell. I just stated what Dan said and that I didnt think it would happen, I thought it was funny. He's a family man and his oldest son lives in New York. If he wasn't a free agent nothing would have been made of that conversation. I'm sure MOST football related personnel would want to talk to him if at the same event. Only time will tell but I don't think he's leaving. But hey let him come to Vegas and I'll go to more Raiders games.
 
I thought the OPI call on Kittle was fine. It was in line with lots of calls this season and seemed pretty consistent. PI is a pretty hard thing to get right every time, it's like fouls in basketball. My biggest issue was there didn't seem to be consistent play calling. I'm sure I saw a similar situation where the roles were reversed and KC didn't get picked up on it.

Same with holding calls and late hits. You could probably call holding on every single play if you wanted. The very nature of the call lends itself to causing these problems. I'm unsure about the helmet hit on JG. To me that was just part of the hit and there wasn't really a way to avoid it, but I'm not 100% on what the rule is and how it should be interpreted.


Williiams' touchdown was fine. They can only overturn the ruling on the field if it's clear and it really wasn't clear if the ball broke the plane first or his foot touched the line first. If they want to sort situations like that then they can change the rules so either you need to have your feet grounded in the end zone or the ball grounded in the end zone before you are grounded outside it. As @jmdirt mentioned, if it went to 4th and goal I'm almost certain they would have scored anyway.


All in allI thought it was a good game and I agree with @Koronin that the final score didn't really reflect the overall game. It could have gone either way for most of it but I think the better team won in the end.
 
I'm unsure about the helmet hit on JG. To me that was just part of the hit and there wasn't really a way to avoid it, but I'm not 100% on what the rule is and how it should be interpreted.
That was 100% a flag. Helmet to his facemask AND put his full weight on Jimmy to bury him in the ground.
The refs were really soft on helmet to helmet hits against QBs all season. Barely touched the QB, they threw a flag and then the rules experts came on and said things like "the contact was there, flag was correct" to justify it. Here it was really blatant, no room for debate at all, but no flag.
 
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Used to the refs being useless. Some team gets hosed every weekend but the Niners should have had at least four clear flags and got none. That said it seems Shanahan just isn't a front runner, I thought he had a miserable game especially in the final quarter and once again he abandoned the run game when the run game got them the lead. Mostert had minimal carries compared to the previous two games. Their yards per carry was going well. Jimmy had his usual schizoid game with some horrible decisions. Shanahan decided not to take a time out before half time ? Kansas defense was better than expected and the Niners secondary even though good over the season was always going to be suspect against long balls with that speed on the Chiefs team. Surprised it took Mahomes so long to throw one.

Jimmy Ward, was isolated and beaten badly for speed on one of the 4th quarter TD's. Mahomes looked ordinary for three quarters and in the middle part of the game was getting outplayed by Jimmy but the final quarter was a shambles for the Niners and Shanahan must be reliving that Falcons loss about now. 49ers just imploded on defense and offense ins a short space of time. 49ers loss to the Falcons in week 14 was a similar situation sitting on a decent lead but not able to finish off the game. Disappointed but after a four win season previously it's a relative disappointment. Congrats to the Chiefs and Andy Reid, took them a while but they got there. Niners need to make a few adjustments to their roster but they should be thereabouts again next season.
 
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That, the OPI, and interception cost them. Even still they had a chance and came unraveled. Hopefully neither team has a Super Bowl hangover.

With all the talk from Revis towards Sherman, Sherman will get chewed up by the talking heads for that drive.

Incoming year of Wright, Kellerman, and Whitlock.


With the Super Bowl over, Dan Orlowski said Brady would go to the Dolphins next year. Would love that as a fan plus get to play Patriots twice but won't happen.
Orlowski rarely ever gets anything right.............
 
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That was 100% a flag. Helmet to his facemask AND put his full weight on Jimmy to bury him in the ground.
The refs were really soft on helmet to helmet hits against QBs all season. Barely touched the QB, they threw a flag and then the rules experts came on and said things like "the contact was there, flag was correct" to justify it. Here it was really blatant, no room for debate at all, but no flag.
At game speed when I saw it, the hit to JG looked like a penalty. But I'm going to have to watch the replay later. And also to see if KC's defensive adjustments may have prompted Shanny (or audible by JG) to get away from the run game (as movingtarget mentioned). But first must finish this snowshoe trip. Nevele neves needs a trip to never never land to find his happy thought.
 
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Orlowski rarely ever gets anything right.............
He said that Mahomes played the game of his life. lol. 2 INTs and he got lucky two times that his fumbles bounced their way. He was good during the last 8 minutes or so, but that's it. Sure, the Chiefs won because of him in the end, although his D or a not efficient enough Niners O kept them in the game during the first 3 quarters. He gets waaay too much credit for this game. Just imagine his second fumble is recovered by the Niners, they score a TD on that possession and it's game over. He would have gone down as one of the worst QB performances in recent history then. His passer rating at the start of the 4th quarter was around 50 irrc.
 
RE: penalties or lack there of: As I ranted at half time, the O PI on Kittle was BS. The tackle on Bosa should have been a flag (KC didn't have any O holding against that D?!), but the hit on JG was not H to H IMO (helmet hit shoulder and then came up to chin/facemask). Just looking at those two COULD be seen as a 14 point swing, but I'm not going to play too much wouldacouldashoulda because unfortunately, a big part of winning tight games is overcoming the idiots who 'officiate' the game. The NFL has no plans to do anything.

On to other NFL ramblings: This could be the craziest silly season with QBs in a long time. TB12, Brees, Rivers, Dak, Teddy, Carr, Cam, Winston, Mariota/Tannehill, Fitz, Smith (?)... Plus, obviously a few will come from the draft.

Since TB12 is the biggest BUZZ, even if he decides to come back (I think that he will) NE has to either draft well or pull one of the guys from the list above. I would love to see Cam play for BB! :) If Dak does a Bell, I hope that DAL pushes hard for Teddy.

Maybe lost in all of the this is that the Ravens are likely to be even better next year. And homer hat on, SEA will be better!
 
NFC West will be even more stacked next year. I really think that this will take its toll in the Playoffs, bc they basically have the hardest schedule of all divisons. Was already crazy this year how much the Niners/Seahawks had to do compared to the top AFC Teams. Arizona will no doubt be better next year and the Rams may be the "worst" team in the west, but still very strong.
 
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I am not one who thinks the refs determined the outcome of this game. The Kittle call could have gone either way. The difficult pill to swallow is that the pass was perfect and he may have caught the ball if he hadn't pushed at all. The non-call helmet to helmet on Garappolo, that surprised me, but I am still not sure it changed the outcome of the final score either.

For me, the final thought is that when they needed to adapt, innovate, as the game grew on, the 49ers got more conservative. I was really surprised that after that long 3Q drive, they didn't pound the ball, and threw zero screens, and didn't seem to target Kittle late. On D, the 49ers were never a blitzing team, but I was surprised how they didn't even hint at faking a blitz in the 4Q. It's as if they were so confident their mix of zones would contain the Chiefs, and the Chiefs wouldn't adapt, they rode that horse to the end. On the other side of the ball, it was KC who adapted, mixed things up enough to win.

KC may be great again next year, unless they get the usual SB hangover. They still only Mahomes $2.7 mil, unless they work to sign him now, where he'll likely haul in over $30m per year, for several years.

SF on the other hand, they have several players headed to FA, and not much cap room. It was said at the time they overpaid for Jimmy G, and at $24m it sure looked like it this game.

Jmdirt mentioned Baltimore next season. While the sting of losing to Tennessee must have hurt bad, and I'm sure a lot of Ravens players and fans were thinking they were the one team who could have beaten the Chiefs, losing in the playoffs is better than losing a SB or even a championship game. They "only" have $26m in cap space, and 13 UFA's about to hit the market, which are neither great nor horrible figures, but the only key player they can't afford to lose is LB Matthew Judon. No one else really stands out as I look at their roster. One would think they don't need to do a great deal to keep things moving and be a serious contender next year, presuming Jackson doesn't get hurt.

As to Tom Brady, apparently Jon Gruden yesterday said he wants him and the Raiders would be willing to shell out a lot of money to get him. But Gruden is such a huckster at times. The used car salesman of the NFL. I just can't see Tom going anywhere else, especially since it looks like McDaniels will be staying. My gut tells me those two with Belicheck, and maybe one of the Krafts will sit down, Tom will say what he wants - and nothing short of a team and offense capable of winning another SB will be acceptable - and he'll get a 2 year deal that will take him to the end of his career in NE.

Finally, congrats to Stephon Gilmore for winning defensive player of the year for New England. He was a leader and anchor for that defense and as big of reason as any other player for their team doing as well as they did. First CB to win the award in a decade. Nice to see Bills CB Tre'Davios White get votes as well. He's a star in the making and maybe not as much of a leader as Gilmore, didn't give up a single TD all year in Buffalo. Interestingly enough, J.C. Jackson, the Pats other CB, had a stellar year as well if you look at the stats. Considering QBs didn't want to take on Gilmore, this meant more throws Jackson's direction, but he was just as stingy covering WRs.