[gailtate]

A few thoughts based on the game and reading the thread: 

1. Luck/fate play a big role in every football game. The better you are, the more you can overcome things that don't bounce your way. We played well enough to win, and with the exception of the Chief's fumble and their third down hold (which wouldn't be a factor if we won in regulation), had most of the bounces go their way. We can certainly pick fault with Shanahan, Purdy, Wilks, etc for why we did not put the game away to the point where that luck was less of a factor, but it's hard to wholly lambast a coaching staff and team that both got too the superbowl and was in a position to win the game. 

2. Wilks defense played well in the superbowl, but was atrocious on the final two drives. Mahomes may be the GOAT, and there is no shame in losing to him. But there is a lot of shame in giving a mile of cushion (without disguising the coverage) on 2nd and 14 and 3rd and 6 when they are definitely going for it on 4th down. The pre-snap look was so bad Kyle had to call a timeout to get into a different play, and he should have.  This is not nor should it be why wilks was fired. 

3. Wilks defense was a disappointment throughout the year. Depending on the measure you use, we went from a top 1-2 defense last year to a ~10th ranke defense this year, despite relatively good health and adding Hargrave. This matched the eye test. We had a lot of games where we struggled to stop the run and mid-range passing game, and it was only when our excellent offense built up big leads that our defense was able to turn it up once their offense became one dimensional. We very rarely disguised coverages or lined up in ways to show something other then our base look, except for the well publicized cover 0 blitzes he liked to run at the weirdest times, again with no attempt to disguise it. If you show a good QB like Stafford or Burrow exactly what you are running, he's going to have answers for it. 

Our D-line in particular underperformed, partially since we moved away from a lot of the wide-9 principles/stunts that had worked well for us, instead just lining up and playing straight up the vast majority of the time. 

4. Our offense was awesome this year. We were the #9 DVOA offense of the last 40 years. This was done without an elite O-line, though with great skill players.  Shanahan and Purdy deserve a hell of a lot of credit for that.

5. Our offense showed some major deficiencies during the super bowl. The QBschool breakdown showed some glaring examples (and he has been harping on this all year) of our offense lacking good answers for blitzers and having blocking schemes that will often have the QB throwing hot away from the free runner, rather then towards it. Spags magnified these issues. On a lot of plays where we struggled, it was because they brought pressure and Purdy had no where to go. 

Purdy didn't have his best game, he had a bit of happy feet which caused him to miss a few throws he could have made, but was put in a lot of difficult situations due to pressure and O-line screw ups. Both big 3rd downs at the end of the game would have been big plays, but he had no time for the route to develop. Overall a B- game that was good enough to win.

Their top DBs were awesome. Deebo in particular just got abused and could generate 0 seperation for most of the game. Deebo's film was just infuriatingly brutal. He showed no effort in the Freaking super bowl. Even our double pass touchdown almost didn't happen since Deebo whiffed his block. Some of our success was using motion and scheme to get Aiyuk off of one of their top 2 DBs. We should have gone to that more. in 2 years when the salary cap crunch really hits, Deebo needs to be the odd man out IMO.

Niners are the second-best squad in football but less than the sum of their parts.. Point is, for all their brilliance the Chiefs coulda been had. When KC was wobbly and slip-slidin' (Kelce's altercation w/Reid spoke volumes about their state of mind) bewildered SF could not deliver the coup de grace.

[gailtate]

A few thoughts based on the game and reading the thread: 

1. Luck/fate play a big role in every football game. The better you are, the more you can overcome things that don't bounce your way. We played well enough to win, and with the exception of the Chief's fumble and their third down hold (which wouldn't be a factor if we won in regulation), had most of the bounces go their way. We can certainly pick fault with Shanahan, Purdy, Wilks, etc for why we did not put the game away to the point where that luck was less of a factor, but it's hard to wholly lambast a coaching staff and team that both got too the superbowl and was in a position to win the game. 

2. Wilks defense played well in the superbowl, but was atrocious on the final two drives. Mahomes may be the GOAT, and there is no shame in losing to him. But there is a lot of shame in giving a mile of cushion (without disguising the coverage) on 2nd and 14 and 3rd and 6 when they are definitely going for it on 4th down. The pre-snap look was so bad Kyle had to call a timeout to get into a different play, and he should have.  This is not nor should it be why wilks was fired. 

3. Wilks defense was a disappointment throughout the year. Depending on the measure you use, we went from a top 1-2 defense last year to a ~10th ranke defense this year, despite relatively good health and adding Hargrave. This matched the eye test. We had a lot of games where we struggled to stop the run and mid-range passing game, and it was only when our excellent offense built up big leads that our defense was able to turn it up once their offense became one dimensional. We very rarely disguised coverages or lined up in ways to show something other then our base look, except for the well publicized cover 0 blitzes he liked to run at the weirdest times, again with no attempt to disguise it. If you show a good QB like Stafford or Burrow exactly what you are running, he's going to have answers for it. 

Our D-line in particular underperformed, partially since we moved away from a lot of the wide-9 principles/stunts that had worked well for us, instead just lining up and playing straight up the vast majority of the time. 

4. Our offense was awesome this year. We were the #9 DVOA offense of the last 40 years. This was done without an elite O-line, though with great skill players.  Shanahan and Purdy deserve a hell of a lot of credit for that.

5. Our offense showed some major deficiencies during the super bowl. The QBschool breakdown showed some glaring examples (and he has been harping on this all year) of our offense lacking good answers for blitzers and having blocking schemes that will often have the QB throwing hot away from the free runner, rather then towards it. Spags magnified these issues. On a lot of plays where we struggled, it was because they brought pressure and Purdy had no where to go. 

Purdy didn't have his best game, he had a bit of happy feet which caused him to miss a few throws he could have made, but was put in a lot of difficult situations due to pressure and O-line screw ups. Both big 3rd downs at the end of the game would have been big plays, but he had no time for the route to develop. Overall a B- game that was good enough to win.

Their top DBs were awesome. Deebo in particular just got abused and could generate 0 seperation for most of the game. Deebo's film was just infuriatingly brutal. He showed no effort in the Freaking super bowl. Even our double pass touchdown almost didn't happen since Deebo whiffed his block. Some of our success was using motion and scheme to get Aiyuk off of one of their top 2 DBs. We should have gone to that more. in 2 years when the salary cap crunch really hits, Deebo needs to be the odd man out IMO.

Niners are the second-best squad in football but less than the sum of their parts.. Point is, for all their brilliance the Chiefs coulda been had. When KC was wobbly and slip-slidin' (Kelce's altercation w/Reid spoke volumes about their state of mind) bewildered SF could not deliver the coup de grace.