While most of the talk leading up to Super Bowl LIV surrounds the high-octane Chiefs’ offense against the stingy 49ers’ defense, the matchup between the 49ers’ offense and the Chiefs defense may wind up being the story.
That puts 49ers head coach and offensive play caller Kyle Shanahan and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the spotlight.
Kansas City is going to put up points, and the 49ers defense will get some stops, but how well can the Chiefs and their defense slow down San Francisco’s offense?
To get a better idea, we dug into prior matchups between Shanahan and Spagnuolo. They squared off six times between 2009 and 2017, with each holding various titles on different teams along the way. Spagnuolo was the Rams’ head coach, Saints defensive coordinator and Giants’ defensive coordinator in that span. Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the Texans, Washington and Atlanta, and the head coach for the 49ers.
For various reasons these meetings don’t tell the whole story for Sunday, but the success Shanahan has had against the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator indicates San Francisco has an advantage when they have the football.
Here’s the breakdown of each of their six matchups, with the running total stats for Shanahan’s offenses in those games.