Tremendous Bowl mismatches: Two chief considerations for Kansas Metropolis

DVOA (Protection-Adjusted Worth Over Common): A way of evaluating groups, models or gamers in a comparative style. It takes each play throughout the NFL season and compares every to a league-average baseline based mostly on scenario.

EPA (Estimated Factors Added): The measure of a play’s influence on the rating of the sport. It represents the distinction between a crew’s “anticipated factors worth” (the web level worth a crew can count on given a specific mixture of down, distance and discipline place) earlier than and after a play.


49ers RBs & TE George Kittle vs. Chiefs LB Damien Wilson

Why Niners have the sting: San Francisco runs a lot of its passing recreation by means of backs and tight ends. Within the common season, 1,816 of San Francisco’s 4,029 receiving yards (45.1 %) and 164 out of its 331 receptions (49.5 %) got here from non-wide receivers.

The 49ers have each purpose to distribute targets this fashion, because the non-wide receivers are extremely environment friendly catching the soccer. Among the many 62 backs with at the least 20 targets, two 49ers ranked within the prime six of yards per goal — Kyle Juszczyk (1st, 10.0) and Raheem Mostert (sixth, 8.2). Tevin Coleman additionally ranked within the prime half, putting 26th (6.0). At tight finish, Kittle is unstoppable, main the place with a median of three.1 yards per route run within the common season.

Why Wilson will wrestle: In his first season with the Chiefs after 4 seasons with Dallas, he struggled in protection. Wilson ranked 81st out of 87 certified linebackers within the common season with a median of 1.49 yards allowed per cowl snap. He significantly struggled masking speedy RBs, giving up a big portion of Kansas Metropolis’s league-leading 951 receiving yards to working backs. Houston’s Duke Johnson and Minnesota’s Ameer Abdullah victimized Wilson for receiving scores.

How Niners do it: Juszczyk is San Francisco’s unsung hero. Few groups also have a fullback on their roster, and those that do do not have one with Juszczyk’s skill. Along with his elite blocking expertise, he has nice versatility as a pass-catcher. He can deal with screens, flats, quick curls and even deep routes out of the slot, as seen on the next play. Shanahan often unleashes Juszczyk and the remainder of the backfield for chain-moving performs. On this play, Juszczyk traces up slot proper and releases deep down the sector, going uncovered as Jimmy Garoppolo finds him for a 49-yard achieve.

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