Instant Super Bowl LVIII analysis: 49ers lose heartbreaker 25-22 to Chiefs in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – For a 29th consecutive season, the trophy case in the 49ers’ Santa Clara lobby won’t need to expand for a long-awaited sixth Lombardi Trophy.
The Kansas City Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions Sunday night by outlasting the 49ers 25-22 in a thrilling overtime game at Allegiant Stadium.
Patrick Mahomes ruined the 49ers’ Super Bowl hopes for the second time in four years, this time saving his game-winning ways for a touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman with three seconds remaining in overtime. Hardman slipped past nickel back Logan Ryan to get wide open, and as he crossed the goal line, 49ers linebacker Fred Warner tossed his helmet to the ground in dismay.
That capped a 75-yard touchdown drive, which followed the 49ers’ field goal on the opening possession of overtime.
Mahomes passed for 333 yards (34-of-46, two touchdowns, an interception by Ji’Ayir Brown), but it was his 66 rushing yards (nine carries) that finished off the 49ers. Mahomes snuck past Nick Bosa for an 8-yard gain on fourth-and-inches to keep alive the winning drive, and he used his legs on a third-and-1 scramble to reach the 49ers’ 13.
Brock Purdy’s Super Bowl debut saw him pass for 255 yards (23-of-38). Jauan Jennings accounted for a touchdown pass and a touchdown catch, while Christian McCaffrey produced 80 yards both rushing and receiving.
The 49ers scored on the opening possession of overtime, driving 7 ½ minutes for a 27-yard field goal by rookie Jake Moody to take the 22-19 lead. The series series was initially bailed out by a Chiefs’ holding penalty and a Brandon Aiyuk third-down conversion. Christian McCaffrey juked safety Mike Edwards for a 24-yard catch-and-run to set up Moody’s kick.
The game – and the lead – changed in a stunning two-play sequence just before the fourth quarter.
After a Chiefs punt clanked off 49ers rookie Darrell Luter and Ray-Ray McCloud couldn’t scoop it up, the Chiefs promptly converted that turnover into Patrick Mahomes’ 16-yard touchdown pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling (over linebacker Oren Burks).
Just like that, it was Kansas City 13, 49ers 10.
The Chiefs had erased a 10-point deficit – as they did four years earlier in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV against the 49ers.
The Chiefs pulled within 10-6 on Harrison Butker’s Super Bowl-record 57-yard field goal, five minutes before the fourth quarter. The 49ers forced that Super Bowl-record distance with a third-down stop, which came while a fan ran onto the field and was tackled by security 50 yards behind the play.
Whereas the Chiefs scored off a third-quarter turnover, the 49ers failed to do so, with their offense going 3-and-out after rookie safety Ji’Ayir Brown intercepted Mahomes’ third-down pass just after Usher’s halftime show.
The 49ers retook the lead on Brock Purdy’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings, who broke two tackles to cross the goal line, two plays after Purdy completed a fourth-and-3 conversion pass to George Kittle.
The 49ers’ lead held at 16-13, however, when Moody’s point-after attempt was blocked.
That lead lasted just 5 1/2 minutes, when a big goal-line stand and Javon Hargrave’s third-down sack force the Chiefs to settle for a 24-yard field goal, tying the score at 16 with 5:46 left in regulation.
Moody snapped a 16-16 tie on his 53-yard field goal with 1:53 remaining, a pressure-packed kick that followed him getting a point-after attempt blocked earlier in the quarter. Brock Purdy took the 49ers down the field with key passes to Jauan Jennings and Deebo Samuel, but a third-down pass fell incomplete just after the two-minute warning, summoning Moody for his kick – and Mahomes for his answer.
Mahomes, predictably, led the Chiefs downfield for a score, but it was merely a 29-yard field goal to tie with three seconds left in regulation. The Chiefs were in position for a winning touchdown, thanks to Travis Kelce racing past linebacker Fred Warner for a 23-yard gain to the 11, with 10 seconds left. Warner responded by blanketing Kelce to prevent a Mahomes’ touchdown pass at the front left corner.
It was only the second Super Bowl to reach overtime, the first being seven years ago, when the Falcons blew a 25-point lead to the Patriots in Kyle Shanahan’s finale as their offensive coordinator before he was hired as 49ers coach.
The 49ers dominated the first half, but it took a bit of trickery in Sin City to come up with the game’s first touchdown, a 21-yard touchdown pass from Jauan Jennings to Christian McCaffrey 4:23 before halftime, for a 10-0 lead.
Jennings, the 49ers’ No. 3 receiver and third-down specialist, caught a backward pass from Brock Purdy, then, channeling his Tennessee high school quarterback days, threw across the field to McCaffrey, who dashed untouched to the end zone thanks to blocks by linemen Aaron Banks, Spencer Burford and Colton McKivitz.
Moody’s point-after kick made it a 10-point lead.
The 49ers defense came through in the clutch throughout the first half, including Arik Armstead’s biggest sack of his nine-year career. Armstead pancaked Mahomes on third-and-5 from the 49ers’ 9-yard line, forcing the Chiefs to settle for a Butker field goal that snapped the shutout bid but reduced the 49ers’ lead to just 10-3 with 20 seconds until halftime.
Another huge play inside the 10-yard line came earlier in the second quarter: Deommodore Lenoir stripped the ball from Isiah Pacheco (with an assist from Chase Young), and Javon Hargrave recovered at the 8-yard line. On the previous play, Mecole Hardman beat the 49ers’ safeties for a 53-yard reception.
He was not the first starting running back to fumble: McCaffrey’s fumble at the Chiefs’ 27-yard line spoiled what had been a fabulous opening drive of the game with three plays over 10 yards.
The 49ers defense bailed out McCaffrey, violently forcing a three-and-out on the Chiefs’ first possession.
A bizarre Achilles injury forced linebacker Dre Greenlaw to the 49ers’ locker room before halftime. Greenlaw injured his left leg as he slipped coming off the sideline to start a defensive series.
The 49ers took a 3-0 lead on Moody’s then-Super Bowl-record 55-yard field goal 12 seconds into the second quarter. Purdy opened up the second quarter with a potential deep third-down touchdown throw to Deebo Samuel, but Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie batted the pass away in the end zone. Moody’s field goal came on the next play.
The 49ers’ defense dominated the first quarter, highlighted in the second series with a Young sack and then Randy Gregory’s third-and-15 stop of a Mahomes’ scramble. (Reminder: In their Super Bowl four years ago, Mahomes converted a third-and-15 pass for 44 yards to Tyreek Hill to key their comeback.)
After winning their first five trips to the Super Bowl, the 49ers now must mourn a third consecutive losing appearance. This one hit differently from the 2012 team’s short-circuiting in New Orleans (Baltimore won 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII) and the 2019 squad’s fourth-quarter collapse in Miami, where Patrick Mahomes won the first of three championships as the Chiefs’ quarterback for coach Andy Reid.
Meanwhile, Kyle Shanahan became only the third head coach to lose his first two Super Bowl appearances, joining Don Shula and John Fox. Shula won back-to-back titles promptly after his second loss, and finished 2-4 in Super Bowl action; Fox went 0-2.
With a star-laden roster and a young quarterback in Brock Purdy, Shanahan may have yet another shot down the line to follow the Super Bowl-winning lead of his father, Mike, won back-to-back crowns with the 1997 and ’98 Denver Broncos in his two Super Bowls as a head coach.
Purdy was the third-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl (24 years, 46 days). He did so to seal his first full season as the 49ers’ starter, only a year after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow in last year’s NFC Championship Game loss at Philadelphia.
Purdy is the 22nd quarterback to start for the 49ers since Steve Young led them to their most recent championship, when the 1994 all-stars posted a 49-26 blowout of the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.