One of the universal exercises around the NFL each week consists of watching film.
Teams facing each other on a particular week watch extensive tape on the opposition from previous games and matchups. That generally begins at the start of the week for the coaches and the entire team, and it branches off more specific cut-ups in position-group meetings.
For the 49ers (3-3) this week, preparing to host the 5-0 Chiefs on Sunday, the film study has taken on a more emotional, if painful, tone.
The 49ers had no choice but to watch the tape of the last time they played the Chiefs, eight months ago in Super Bowl LVIII, a crushing 25-22 overtime loss in Las Vegas.
“Everyone understands that we’ve lost the two Super Bowls to them,’’ 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters this week. “That can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape. That’s human nature. But you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games, that was last year.”
This marks the 10th time in NFL history there has been a rematch of the previous Super Bowl in the following regular season, and the defending champion is 6-3 in those games.
If that isn’t enough bad juju, since Shanahan took over in San Francisco in 2017, the 49ers are 0-4 against the Chiefs — including blowing double-digit leads in both two Super Bowl defeats.
The 49ers were up 10-0 in the first quarter in February, and had leads in the fourth quarter and overtime, but were overtaken by Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Again. Second time since the 2019 season.
“It’s definitely a little emotional,” 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa told reporters about having to watch the tape of last year’s Super Bowl loss. “But at this point, it’s just a game so we’re just looking at the tape, trying to learn from it. A lot of similarities from last year. A few new guys, but a really good defense and an offense obviously has No. 15 [Mahomes] back there. So always dangerous.”
San Francisco linebacker Fred Warner tried to rationalize the gravity of the matchup, saying this matchup is “probably not as dramatic as I’m sure everybody else is probably thinking.”
“[We’ve] moved on,” he said. “New season, new game, new teams, new players.’’
Though there hasn’t been a lot of dramatic change with the Chiefs, the 49ers are quite a bit different than the team that lost in February. In the offseason, they fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and replaced him with Nick Sorensen, and hired former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley to an assistant head coach role to help with the defense.
Injuries have also ravaged the Niners this season. They will be missing running back Christian McCaffrey (Achilles tendinitis), defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (torn triceps), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (torn Achilles), safety Talanoa Hufanga (torn wrist ligaments), offensive lineman Jon Feliciano (knee) and kicker Jake Moody (right ankle).
All of those players started in the Super Bowl except for Hufanga. Other former 49ers — defensive linemen Arik Armstead and Chase Young as well as safety Tashaun Gipson Jr. — signed with other teams in free agency.
One of the key matchups will take place in the trenches. Perhaps the most glaring reason the 49ers lost the Super Bowl was their failure to block Kansas City defensive tackle Chris Jones, who wreaked havoc in key moments of the game. San Francisco’s rookie right guard Dominick Puni will be largely tasked with Jones on Sunday.
“He’s one of the best D-tackles, if not the best one in the league, so I’m excited for it,” Puni told reporters.
Be careful for what you wish for.
The most visible marquee element to this game will be the two quarterbacks, Mahomes and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy.
Purdy is coming off a strong performance, throwing for 255 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers in last week’s win at Seattle.
As if the above-mentioned challenges for the 49ers weren’t enough, the Chiefs enter the game coming off their bye week, and you know what that means? Kansas City head coach Andy Reid has a 21-4 career record in the regular season following his team’s bye, the best of any head coach (minimum of 10 games) since the bye was instituted in 1990.
“You think about that stuff going into it, but in terms of the way it plays out in the game, it really has no correlation, and you try to make sure that it doesn’t,” Shanahan said.
By kickoff Sunday, it will mark 252 days since Kansas City won its third championship in four years, and second at the 49ers’ expense.
“It’s not like we can get payback for losing the Super Bowl,’’ San Francisco left tackle said after the Seattle win. “That ship has sailed.”
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