Super Bowl 54 will answer the ultimate football question

Two great teams playing in the Super Bowl is nothing special, but Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will answer the ultimate football question. Pass happy or ball control — what wins?

The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will meet in Super Bowl LIV next Sunday. There is nothing surprising about two 12+ win teams that had first-round byes meeting for the league championship. But each of these teams has a little nugget that makes them somewhat surprising participants in the season’s final game. We also get the ultimate answer to the ultimate football question of all.

What wins in the NFL? Super Bowl LIV is about to provide an answer, we hope. Is prolific passing with above-average defense the way to go? Or is great defense and ball control offense better? Mistake-free football is a given, as the Chiefs and 49ers aim to answer the NFL’s biggest quandary.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate Super Bowl LIV in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

For the Kansas City Chiefs, it was a midseason slide that made folks wonder whether they would even hold on for a division title, let alone make it all the way to Super Bowl LIV. For the month of October through the middle of November, the Chiefs lost four of six games. The slide partially coincided with an injury to Patrick Mahomes, although the injury could not be completely blamed.

During this midseason slide, Mahomes missed three games in favor of Matt Moore. However, Kansas City won two of the three games in which Moore played. Upon Mahomes’ return, the Chiefs lost again and then saw him throw for under 200 yards in back-to-back games. There was a reason for worry for sure. The team obviously righted the ship and hasn’t looked back.

There is a common refrain that teams want to enter the postseason hot. It is easy to say this and harder to define who is “hot enough.”

Does Kansas City qualify if its offense was sputtering through the second half of the season? Does it automatically qualify since it won six straight games to end the year? Does it matter that only one of those six wins came against a playoff team? Being hot is subjective, and folks were worried about Kansas City through the holidays.

In the NFC, San Francisco had no such obvious slide. Instead, what the 49ers had this year were low expectations. Entering the 2019 season, San Francisco was projected to finish third in its own division and by a pretty wide margin. Los Angeles was the toast of the town, expected to run away with the NFC West. It was followed by Seattle and then San Francisco. Prior to the year, I said this about the 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo:

"A healthy Garoppolo puts San Francisco in the playoff hunt thanks to a talented defense and skill player depth on offense. An elite Garoppolo pushes the team somewhere else."

Well, Garoppolo was not elite, but the team still pushed up a full level above playoff hunt. It is not uncommon for NFL teams to jump from worst to first or, in this case, third to first. But we shouldn’t gloss over the fact that San Francisco won four games last year and finished as the second-worst team in football. Regardless of what happens in the Super Bowl, the Niners went from second-worst to at least second-best. That is incredible.

It is hard to ever find trends to predict success in this league. Hell, we thought premiere passing offenses like Kansas City’s would rule the league until run-heavy dominated these playoffs like nothing we’ve seen in years. Not only did San Francisco surprise in its success, but the 49ers collapsed our entire baseline of projection.

This was a previously terrible team that relied on an essentially unproven quarterback and needs to run to win. This is not a blueprint of anything. This is nonsense. The NFL is a copycat league. Good luck trying to copy this formula… although it still may be easier than finding a Patrick Mahomes of your own.

Dan Salem:

The Chiefs and 49ers represent the two proven winning formulas in the NFL. Boil down what a team needs to have in order to win a ton of football games, and that is Kansas City and San Francisco.

There is nothing new here, except perhaps the destruction of the idea that the old ways are dead. They are not dead. Winning with defense, a dominant running game, and a quarterback who does not make mistakes is still one of two ways to win. The other is with a prolific passing attack and an above-average defense.

Both San Francisco and Tennessee won with the “old school” formula. Garoppolo rarely won a game, but never lost one for his team. Great defense and rushing took the 49ers to another level.

Kansas City nearly made the Super Bowl last season, but its defense was not quite good enough. This year the Chiefs’ defense consistently passed the eye test and was markedly better all around. Combine that with an exceptional passing attack and enough complimentary rushing, and we find Kansas City in Super Bowl LIV.

What is the common theme among our two Super Bowl combatants? Both played above-average defense.

Everyone hates to say it because its annoying and less than thrilling, but defense always wins championships. You will not win the Super Bowl with a bad defense. We are about to find out if a great defense (San Francisco) can stop an all-time great passing attack (Kansas City). Will the 49ers be able to control the time of possession? Will it even matter when the Chiefs can score in seconds? This Super Bowl matchup is particularly exciting for numerous reasons.

The ultimate question of football gets answered in Super Bowl LIV because we will once and for all find out if prolific passing is greater than ball control. Or not, because both the 49ers and Chiefs enter the Super Bowl red hot. Both are playing great football and both are about to smash into one another. Anything can happen. That is a beautiful statement.