San Francisco 49ers: 5 X-factors to beating Chiefs in Super Bowl 54
4. Running game
There’s no secret that the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs both contain two high-caliber passing attacks led by a pair of dominant quarterbacks in 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. San Francisco holds the firepower of Garoppollo and a passing game that can hurt opposing defenses with the deep ball to break a game open.
On the other side of the field, Mahomes and Kansas City consist one of the more flashy offenses throughout the NFL that can air things out at any given moment.
But outside of those two passing attacks on both sidelines, perhaps a bigger X-factor for the 49ers going into the Super Bowl against the Chiefs will be their ability to run the ball on the ground through the four quarters.
In the two postseason games up to this point in the year, San Francisco’s running game has been one of the biggest keys to it being able to reach the big game on Sunday, playing large roles in both playoff victories over the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers.
The 49ers run game has recorded an average of 235.5 yards per game on the ground along with six rushing touchdowns in two playoff games, both of which are by far the best out of all the postseason teams.
It will once again be important this week for San Francisco to continue that trend and to keep the running attack going, especially while going up against a Kansas City defense that has struggled defending the run this year.
During the regular season, the Chiefs allowed opposing offenses to average 128.2 rushing yards per game, which ranked seventh-worst in the league.
In their only two playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have given up an average of 89.5 yards on the ground per game, which is an improvement but is still an area Kansas City has experienced some struggles in.
Although the two quarterbacks for both teams will likely attract a bulk of the attention in the game, the San Francisco running game and its success will be a big x-factor in Miami.