Around this time of year, just about everyone with any background in the NFL gets asked the same question: What’s your prediction for the Super Bowl?
Former 49ers quarterback and NFL analyst Trent Dilfer recently gave his take, and the Super Bowl champion clearly has a lot of confidence in Kyle Shanahan and the Niners come Sunday.
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“I like the Chiefs, I want it to be a great Super Bowl,” Dilfer said on Fox Sports 1’s “The Herd.” “But I’m looking at this thing on tape, and the 49ers, this could be like those 49ers wins in Super Bowls against the Dolphins, against the Broncos, where it gets out of hand early and it’s not even really a game.”
The oddsmakers in Las Vegas seem to disagree, as they’ve tabbed the Kansas City Chiefs as 1-point favorites for Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium.
Two of the franchise’s five Super Bowl titles did end in blowouts, as San Francisco vanquished the Miami Dolphins 36-10 in Super Bowl XIX and obliterated the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV.
The two quarterbacks that opposed the Niners’ defense in those lopsided contests, Dan Marino and John Elway, both already had NFL MVP honors under their belt (Marino 1984, Elway 1987). Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, like Marino, was an MVP in just his second NFL season in 2018.
San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco’s defense also dominated those two Super Bowl runs, similar to the way defensive coordinator Robert Saleh’s group has performed in two postseason games this year. That 1989 group held the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams to a combined 13 points leading up to the Super Bowl, while the 2019 edition allowed 30 combined points to the Vikings and Green Bay Packers.
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Kansas City has shown that it can’t be counted out of a game, no matter how much an opponent might jump out ahead. Mahomes and the offense rallied from a 24-0 first-quarter deficit to beat the Houston Texans and a 10-0 deficit in the AFC Championship Game to knock out the Tennessee Titans.
While there will be a litany of takes between now and kickoff in Miami, fans should make sure to find a spot in front of a screen and take in what looks to be an incredible matchup in Miami.
Programming note: NBC Sports Bay Area feeds your hunger for 49ers Super Bowl coverage with special editions of “49ers Central” all week (8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 9 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Saturday).
Also tune in at 1 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday for a two-hour special of "49ers Pregame Live" with Laura Britt, Donte Whitner, Jeff Garcia, Ian Williams, Kelli Johnson, Greg Papa and Grant Liffmann. That same crew will have all the postgame reaction on "49ers Postgame Live," starting immediately after the game.