Wednesday 5 February 2020 01:32, UK
This was the playoff series that kept on giving and that certainly proved to be the case in the biggest game of them all.
Super Bowl 54 was dazzling, entertaining and downright stunning at the end as the Kansas City Chiefs ended 50 years of hurt and lifted the Vince Lombardi Trophy with a 31-20 win over the shell-shocked San Francisco 49ers.
Here are six big talking points for me coming out a game that provided the perfect conclusion to the league's 100th season. It was a game that will live long in the memory.
The physical skills of Patrick Mahomes are clearly off the charts and he is the face of the NFL and will be so for much of the next decade. But one thing that was talked about a lot in this Super Bowl week in Miami was his leadership skills and his competitive nature. Like so many of the great ones, he never knows when he is done.
Down 20-10 with 11 minutes remaining, Mahomes threw his second interception in what had been a difficult night and his passer rating was languishing in the forties. After that, he went on a tear, completing eight of 13 passes for 114 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a rating in that period of the game of 129.5. He believed when several others didn't.
Tyreek Hill admitted that when Mahomes tried to rally the troops he was thinking, "We're down 20-10 with seven minutes remaining. Come on man." But Mahomes delivered in the biggest of spots with legendary quarterbacks such as Dan Marino, Brett Favre - his childhood hero - and Tom Brady looking on. And there is more to come from the 24-year-old phenom.
Kyle Shanahan has got some more post-Super Bowl explaining to do. In two Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator in Atlanta and head coach here in San Francisco, his teams have been outscored 46-0 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Only three teams in NFL history have blown 10+ point fourth-quarter leads and two have them have featured Shanahan.
His fourth-quarter Super Bowl drive chart? Three plays and a fumble, six plays and punt, four plays and punt, five plays and punt, three plays and punt, seven plays and turnover on downs, two plays and an interception. He is a brilliant play-caller but was confused situationally on Sunday, once at the end of the first half where he bizarrely didn't call a time out just in case his offense failed and gave it back to Mahomes and, more damagingly, in the fourth quarter when - for the second Super Bowl on his watch - he abandoned the run.
That was forgivable in Super Bowl 51 because Atlanta couldn't run it a lick against New England but not on Sunday… the Niners were controlling things on the ground but got away from what got them there. Shanahan will deal with talk of his Super Bowl meltdowns all offseason and pretty much until he wins the big one.
There are so many people around the NFL who will be delighted for Andy Reid this Monday after the season finale. Big Red had to wait 21 years and picked up the Vince Lombardi Trophy with win number 222 - it was the longest wait for a Super Bowl success for any head coach in NFL history.
I don't think we can claim Andy Reid had all the answers in Miami because the team was floundering in the third quarter, but he and his quarterback came up big down the stretch. Reid is heading to the Hall of Fame one day but before that, I think he and this team will be back here again. He may be 61 years of age, but it feels like Reid is just getting started in terms of big-time success.
I spoke about it for two weeks but I felt all along that there was a reason the 49ers took the ball out of Jimmy Garoppolo's hands after he was intercepted by the Minnesota Vikings midway through the divisional round. Sure, they were pounding it on the ground, but I also felt that Garoppolo throwing eight passes in the NFC Championship Game signalled a lack of trust.
I think any lack of trust was well placed because Garoppolo melted under the bright lights of the Super Bowl as he discovered that it is very different indeed when you're not holding Tom Brady's beer as his backup while he sorts out the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons.
Jimmy G had the lowest fourth-quarter passer rating in Super Bowl history with 2.8 and he badly missed a game-winning touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders, who had a step and a half on Rashad Fenton. When you have a $137million contract and was once the highest-paid player in the league, you have to make that throw. San Francisco are in good shape, but I wonder if Garoppolo can be more than a game manager.
When we look back on this game in years to come, we will all talk about that clear and crisp Miami night when Mahomes led Kansas City back from the dead and began his Super Bowl run. But the history books should also note that Damien Williams had quite the return to South Florida.
Williams played four seasons for the Dolphins from 2014-2017 and never looked like this touchdown-hungry back who has found the end zone six times in this playoff series and a record 10 times overall for the Chiefs. Williams grabbed our attention with his two late touchdowns but he was actually pretty effective all night long as he rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown and added four receptions and another score.
When the final piece of confetti falls to the ground and the parades and celebrations have ended, the Chiefs can take pride in being the first team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl after trailing by at least 10 in every one of their playoff games. They trailed Houston 24-0, Tennessee 10-0 and 17-7 and San Francisco 20-10.
While their opponents may have rested on their laurels, the Chiefs cannot afford to do that in this offseason and have some vital business to take care of. Mahomes is likely to be signed to a long-term contract that will see him become the league's first $40million-per-year quarterback and then it's going to be about who else can be kept around and fitted under the salary cap.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones was a menace throughout this game and remains one of the premier interior players in the league. He is about to become a free agent and keeping him in house should be the number two priority… after the inking of Mahomes to a historic, record-breaking and well-deserved new deal.
