Las Vegas, NV. – NFL football and the Super Bowl bring more Americans together than anything else. The most fabulous prize in American sports stands 21 inches high and is made of seven pounds of Tiffany’s sterling silver, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers will hoist the Lombardi Trophy as the confetti falls in Las Vegas, hosting their first Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium.
The NFL has played 284 games this NFL season. Before my prediction for the last game, here are some notes going into Super Bowl LVIII.
If you can’t get enough of American Singer–songwriter Taylor Swift, this is your Super Bowl. Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays for the Chiefs.
Swift led the NFL to its highest regular-season viewership among women since it began tracking in 2000.
The Taylor Swift Effect is real. Super Bowl Expected to See Three Health and Beauty Brand Ads.
· L’Oreal’s NYX Professional Makeup will make its Super Bowl debut with a new 30-second commercial celebrating the “power of women” in the “traditionally male-dominated” football industry, according to Campaign.
· e.l.f. According to Adweek, cosmetics will air its first national Super Bowl commercial and is planning a star-studded spot featuring singer Meghan Trainor, actor Gina Torres, and others.
· And Dove will advertise in the Big Game for the first time in 18 years. The new #KeepHerConfident commercial will promote body confidence in girls “to keep them playing the sports they love,” according to the personal care brand.
At one point during the playoffs, Taylor Swift generated an equivalent brand value of 331.5 million for the Chiefs and the NFL, according to Apex Marketing.
If you are tired of Swift, “Shake it off.”
With an Average Get-In Price of $8,427, Vegas is setting Super Bowl Ticket Records. And the NFL and betting have become one in harmony. Super Bowl LVIII is expected to illustrate how the league has fully embraced sports betting despite years of public opposition from Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Super Bowl game itself. Allegiant Stadium, home to the Las Vegas Raiders 65,000 capacity for the Super Bowl 72,000 capacity.
Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII, Rihanna reveals she is pregnant performing at halftime
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy were in elementary school the last time an NFL team won consecutive Super Bowls. When the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 6, 2005, to secure a second straight title in Super Bowl XXXIX, Andy Reid was on the Eagles’ sideline in a 24-21 loss. This time, Reid, Mahomes, and the Chiefs have an opportunity to break the longest stretch of seasons without a repeat champion in NFL history. Eight repeat winners were over the first 39 Super Bowls, but none over the last 18.
Kansas City moved quickly to hire Reid as head coach on Jan. 7, 2013. Since that day, over 11 seasons, the Chiefs have not experienced a losing campaign. No other NFL team has an active streak of winning seasons over five years. Reid has led his team to Super Bowls in four of the past five seasons after the franchise went 49 straight years (1970-2018) without a Super Bowl berth.
Nineteen years ago, Kyle Shanahan had just ended his first season as an NFL assistant coach with Tampa Bay. And after watching his father, Mike, win consecutive Super Bowls (1997-98) as head coach of the Denver Broncos, the younger Shanahan, with a victory this week, would make that father-son tandem the first such duo in the NFL to win Super Bowls as head coaches.
Since Allegiant Stadium opened in 2020, the Chiefs and 49ers are a combined 5-0 at the facility. Kansas City is 4-0 all-time in Las Vegas, including a Week 12 victory over the Raiders earlier this season. The 49ers, meanwhile, won their only regular-season game at the stadium, a 37-34 overtime triumph over Las Vegas in Week 17 of the 2022 season.
At age 28, Mahomes will become the youngest quarterback in history to start a fourth Super Bowl two years faster than the previous youngest, 30-year-old Tom Brady in 2007. With a victory, Mahomes would join Brady and Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman as the only quarterbacks to win three Super Bowls before their 30th birthdays.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has raised the stock of the defense over the offense this season. Sunday features one of the best defensive matchups in Super Bowl history. During the regular season, Kansas City allowed 17.3 points per game, second in the league behind Baltimore. San Francisco’s defense (17.5) ranked third.
Niners running back Christian McCaffrey and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis are the only players in league history to average at least 110 scrimmage yards per game in both the regular season and postseason (minimum 75 and five games, respectively). Remember that McCaffrey was not on the 49ers rosters when these two teams met in Super Bowl LIV.
McCaffrey led the league with +349 rushing yards over expected during the regular season and was the top running back with 239 receiving yards from non-backfield alignments. McCaffrey also became the first player since 2017 to lead the NFL in rushing yards before contact (510) and after contact (949).
San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy entered the league as the final choice in the 2022 NFL Draft, held in Las Vegas. Since that day, Purdy has a .808 winning percentage as a starter, has passed for 9.2 yards per attempt, has compiled a 47-14 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and owns a 111.2 passer rating – all the best marks in the NFL among quarterbacks with minimum of 20 starts (including the postseason).
The key to victory in Super Bowl LVIII could be in the middle of the field. When the nearest defender was a linebacker, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce led all NFL tight ends during the regular season with 393 receiving yards, according to Next Gen Stats. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Fred Warner allowed only a 61.9 passer rating as the nearest defender in coverage this season, the lowest among NFL linebackers.
A key matchup to watch is 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa against Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor. Taylor allowed the longest average time to pressure among all offensive tackles with at least 300 pass-blocking snaps this season (3.97 seconds, including playoffs). Bosa, who primarily lines up at the left edge position, needs 11 pressures in the Super Bowl to set the single-season pressures record since 2018. His 104 pressures entering Sunday ranks fourth-most in that span. Bosa pressured Mahomes nine times in Super Bowl LIV.
49ers left tackle Trent Williams continued to be a stalwart protecting the blindside of his quarterback, Purdy, allowing zero sacks. He has allowed the 5th-lowest pressure rate (7.3%) among the 36 left tackles with over 300 pass-blocking snaps this season (including playoffs). Williams is also still a mauler in the run game. The 49ers have run to the left side of the formation on 59.5% of carries with Williams on the field, averaging 5.5 yards per carry on those runs.
Those are key preview points going into Super Bowl LVIII. For both teams, it is about something other than how much you are getting paid or where you are drafted. The best players will play in the game.
The 49ers are favored to win by -1.5.
Taylor Swift gets her ring and we will remember “All to Well.”
Kansas City 27 – San Francisco 49ers 24
NFL Communications contributed Next Gen Stats to column
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