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If you put a microphone in front of a player’s mouth in the heat of the moment or while emotions are raw, you’re going to get raw answers. Because Super Bowl LIV didn’t turn out the way the San Francisco 49ers wanted it to, the team acted exactly how you’d expect them to. Upset, worn out, and frustrated with questions. That wasn’t the case for the Kansas City Chiefs, who made it a point to call out two prominent Niners.
Watkins
Richard Sherman gave up a 38-yard reception late in the game to Sammy Watkins that proved to be costly.
Patrick Mahomes' 38-yard deep completion to Sammy Watkins came against Richard Sherman as the nearest defender in coverage.
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) February 3, 2020
Sherman has allowed a deep completion in back-to-back games after having allowed 0 deep completions during the regular season.#SBLIV | #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/pe623Nfz73
Sherman was beaten on the release by Watkins, and the ball was on the money from Patrick Mahomes. If the route looks familiar, that’s because the Green Bay Packers completed and identical route against Sherman in the NFC Championship:
Aaron Rodgers' 65-yard completion to Davante Adams is the first deep completion (20+ air yards) allowed by Richard Sherman as the nearest defender this season.
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) January 20, 2020
Sherman vs Deep (Entering Today): 7 targets, 0 rec allowed#GBvsSF | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/ngevG7I3KX
Sherman has been playing on an island for most of the season.
In a postgame interview, Watkins said, “Man, shout out to Davante Adams,” referencing the play above. More of Watkins: “I just knew it was one-on-one [coverage], I thank Davante Adams, man because I [saw] him kill [Sherman] on inside release.” A reporter asked Sherman about the route after the game, to which Sherman responded, “he made a play.”
Jimmy G shade
Frank Clark likely still hasn’t stopped talking. He made it a point to call out Jimmy Garoppolo after the game:
“We knew the challenge of the check downs. You paying the guy $140 million, $130 million, whatever he’s getting paid, man. He’s gotta throw the ball. Obviously, he didn’t do that. They threw for about 200 yards on check downs. That ain’t enough to win a game against us. You can’t tell us nothing.”
The irony is that Clark’s lone play didn’t happen until the last play when the 49ers had the ball. He’s doing a whole lot of talking for something that didn’t do much for about 50 plays.
Clark wasn’t the only Chiefs defender to throw shade at Jimmy G. Safety Tyrann Mathieu said postgame, “we were grateful they got out of the run and started to throw the ball.” Mathieu is a great player, but he did not have a great game. The 49ers play-action passing game had the Honey Badger all out of sorts. Garoppolo made a handful of costly mistakes when it mattered most, so it’s easy to point the blame on him. That’s ignoring a lot of good he did during the game. When your mind is made up that someone is a bad player, as the Chiefs clearly did, they were always going to come out and talk trash after the game.