How the 49ers are going to win Super Bowl LIV

Here’s how Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers can win Super Bowl LIV.

After a relatively stress-free jaunt through the NFC playoffs, the San Francisco 49ers enter Super Bowl as slight underdogs. Vegas set the opening line at 1.5 points and it hasn’t moved over the last two weeks. That speaks to how even this matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs is on paper.

The game gives us fascinating matchups on both sides of the ball. There are so many strategic questions to ask: How will the 49ers deal with the Chiefs never-ending cache of offensive firepower? How will Kansas City’s defensive front attempt to slow down San Francisco’s creative run game? You can dissect this game a million ways, but, for the 49ers, things really aren’t all that complicated from the 30,000-foot view. If they can do these three things, a sixth Lombardi Trophy will be headed to San Francisco…

1. Pressure Patrick Mahomes with a four-man rush

That’s really what this game comes down to. If the 49ers can’t get home with a standard rush and have to start sending extra guys to get to Mahomes, the Chiefs will score a billion points. As good as the 49ers secondary has been this season, they cannot be expected to run with Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelce for five seconds every play. And here’s why blitzing to get that pressure isn’t a viable option…

Mahomes is awesome against any scheme you throw at him, but he becomes a superhero when opponents blitz him. The 49ers didn’t blitz a whole lot during the regular season, but defensive coordinator Robert Saleh does get more aggressive on third down. For him to be able to get to those intricately choreographed pressures, the 49ers defense will have to win on first and second down.

2. Relentlessly attack Kansas City’s linebackers

Anthony Hitchens. Damien Wilson. Reggie Ragland.

When Kyle Shanahan was installing his game plan, I’m sure those names (or their jersey numbers, at least) were said repeatedly. According to Falcons TE Austin Hooper, who played under Shanahan in Atlanta, the 49ers coach will sometimes gameplan around a certain defender whom he sees as a weak link.

Against the Chiefs, he’ll have at least three options. Hitchens and Wilson are poor run defenders who struggle to shed blockers and make plays at the line of scrimmage. And their eagerness to attack the line of scrimmage can get them in trouble on play-action fakes. Shanahan’s game plan will likely be based on attacking the middle of the Chiefs defense. As long as the players can replicate that plan, the 49ers offense will move the ball and put up points.

3. Shorten the game

The longer Mahomes and the Chiefs offense are on the sideline, the better. Now, this doesn’t mean the 49ers should just run the ball over and over again. There are other methods of controlling the clock without going run-run-pass on every series. Shanahan knows this. He also knows how to design plays that create easy throws for his quarterback. Expect to see a lot of screens and play-action designs that free up a pass-catcher close to the line of scrimmage. Anything to keep the 49ers offense on the field and Mahomes off it.

In order to make that happen, Jimmy Garoppolo will have to be on his game. And by that, I mean he’ll have to be accurate, which he has been in 2019. Shanahan’s play designs will take the mental burden off of the quarterback and allow him to just be a thrower. If he makes the throws — and the 49ers run game performs as well as we think it should against a mediocre run defense — San Francisco will control the clock and, possibly, the game.

[jwplayer NDfhp14o-q2aasYxh]