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On Tuesday morning’s installment of NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, the hosts talked about the matchup between the San Francisco 49ers rushing offense and the Kansas City Chiefs defense in Super Bowl LIV.
Peter Schrager — the show’s resident Chiefs partisan — laid out the case.
“What makes the 49ers rushing attack so unique is that you don’t know if it’s going to be Raheem Mostert one week or if it’s going to be Matt Breida one week or it’s going to be Tevin Coleman,” said Schrager. “And Kyle Juszczyk blocks as well as any fullback in the league — and you’ve got George Kittle, who is far and away the best-blocking tight end in the NFL.”
But Schrager said it wasn’t just that.
“You have all that — and then you have this genius play-caller and his assistant Mike McDaniel — and it makes for a very very difficult situation.”
"The @49ers have a special running attack; unlike any other. We'll hear about it until SBLIV. But the @Chiefs D heard this all last week. Derrick Henry was supposed to run for 300 yards and wear a crown as he high-stepped to Miami, right? Nothing new." -@PSchrags |@ArrowheadPride pic.twitter.com/axOFMoEuB8
— GMFB (@gmfb) January 21, 2020
After painting a picture of a dominating 49ers rushing offense, Schrager then moved on to the defense it will be face.
”And yet, we spent four days — maybe five — last week on the show, talking about Derrick Henry, talking about how unstoppable he is, how he’s going to run all over the Chiefs. And how did the Chiefs defense respond to that? Well, Henry got his touches early — and then they bottled him up. It was truly a test of strength last week against this rushing attack.”
Schrager said it looked like a repeat of last week’s situation.
”All I heard about was this offensive line from Tennessee — Taylor Lewan and what Rodger Saffold’s doing — and [the Chiefs] got to Derrick Henry.
“So although I think this San Francisco rushing attack comes at you in a way that Derrick Henry can’t replicate — this is a rushing attack that comes from 40 different places; you don’t know who to stop and how it’s designed — I do think there’s a confidence factor walking in, [where the Chiefs are] saying, ‘Oh, here we go again! We can’t stop the run? Guess what? Not only did we stop the run, we stopped the greatest running back in the history of the playoffs and we put him in his place and held him under 70 yards!’
“Frank Clark talked that talk last week,” concluded Schrager. “Guess what? He backed it up. And I wouldn’t be shocked if the Chiefs were feeling the same way.”