Looking Back: Who said Wasps were a nuisance?
0By Hamish Girvan
With this weekend’s upcoming NFL draft all teams will be trying to emulate the Kansas City Chiefs In this year’s version of Superbowl. The preview was never followed up with a review. So here it is.
The lockdown gave an ideal opportunity to rewatch the game without any of the spent emotion of a fan watching it live.
There are three numbers to focus on 7;17, 6.23 and 2.50. These numbers represent the time left in Q4 of the match that the eventual winners, The Kansas City Chiefs, were down in the game from a scoreline perspective. But more of that to come,
The game had all the hype of the leagues best defence, in the San Francisco 49ers, matched up against the league’s best offence in the Kansas City Chiefs. Both quarterbacks had a total of 63 game starts combined – the lowest total for any Superbowl. It is forgotten that San Francisco’s quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had already been to one Superbowl, as a back up to Tom Brady, whilst he was at the Patriots in the 2017 Superbowl win over the Atlanta Falcons
The game started with the Chiefs offence being blunted by the 49ers (even though in Q1 the Chiefs scored the game’s first touchdown). The first turning point of many that happened was at the start of the second quarter when Garoppolo was intercepted by the Chief’s defence however they only managed to score a 3-point field goal with the advantage. The next turning point was a clear (but hyped up as a controversial call) offensive pass interference on 49ers Tight End George Kittle, when the 49ers would have more then likely scored. Both teams went into HT at 10-10.
After another elongated HT show both teams came back with the 49ers looking the smarter of the teams. When Mahomes was intercepted the 49ers made the most of it scoring a touch down, to go with the go-ahead field goal they had already scored. Boom – it was the 49ers up 20-10
As one of the VIP’s at the game, Sir Paul McCartney, famously sang once “We can work it out” – and Coach Andy Reid and his Chiefs team certainly did. The fourth quarter was the game changer for the Chiefs
It started badly. Mahomes was sacked then intercepted (again) in the space of a minute – and the smothering 49ers defence celebrated like it was game over.
Nothing like a premature celebration to let everyone down
At 8.55, 7.25 and 7.17 the Chiefs were still down 10. Then the Wasp struck. The excellent NFL films piece turning point just shows what happened. “Do we have time to run Wasp?” was Superbowl defining.
49ers head Coach Kyle Shanahan had choked in a Superbowl once before as offensive coach for the Atlanta Falcons in Superbowl 51 so he would have thought “here we go again.”
The drive from Mahomes resulted in a Travis Kelce touchdown and still down 3 with 2:50 to go the 49ers got the “yips”. Unable to do anything offensively in possession the Chiefs struck again and it was game over.
Damien Williams with a laser beam eyes scores the final touchdown
A 50 year wait for the Chiefs to win the big one was over. Ecstasy and agony on the field. And it all came down to a play called by a 24-year-old quarterback in only his second full season guided by a veteran coach in his 21st season as the head guy.
For Chiefs fans it was fate…finally.
Follow Hamish Girvan on Twitter