Imagine you are in the 2024 Super Bowl. A former Chiefs defender earns MVP as the 49ers beat Patrick Mahomes and K.C.
It seems like we just barely had time to blink, and now it’s Super Bowl. As you might expect, people in Las Vegas are getting more and more excited for this game among the 49ers of San Francisco as well as the Kansas City Chiefs.
The team led by Patrick Mahomes wants to win its third straight title in five years. The Niners, on the other hand, want to get back at K.C. for losing Super Bowl LIV and win their first playoff game since 1994.
While we wait for the game to start, let’s meet our football needs in the virtual world with CBS Sports’ traditional Madden NFL 24 Super Bowl simulation.
If you’ve been reading our posts for a while now, you know that these types of simulations are very important.
This computer game has picked the Chiefs, the Rams, and the Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl three times in a row.
This summer, we also ran our first full-season simulation for the 2023 season. Some strange things didn’t happen, but that simulation got a lot of things very, very right.
That comprised the Packers beating the Cowboys throughout the playoffs, the Eagles not making it past the first round, and the Chiefs making it to the Super Bowl.
But this is where the game and this most recent (and, I’d say, official) Super Bowl simulation are different.
Kansas City won the Lombardi Trophy in the first simulation of the year. In this new one, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 10–6 in Las Vegas to win it all.
This quote, which is often attributed to Albert Einstein even though there is a lot of proof that he never said it, is a good reminder that things need to change to move forward or be successful.
Despite this, Patrick Mahomes is once again the underdog in the playoffs. Should we think something different will happen? Are the Cleveland Chiefs going to win again and surprise everyone for the third time in a row?
Before the game, the Chiefs were -190 moneyline underdogs or 4.5-point underdogs at ESPN BET against the Baltimore Ravens.
Patrick Mahomes had never been a bigger underdog in his career. This happened a week after they were -130 underdogs in the divisional round against the Buffalo Bills.
In the history of the Super Bowl, Mahomes is the only quarterback who has done better as a favorite. In those games, he went 10-1-1 against the spread, which was the best record of any qualified quarterback during that time.
His almost perfect 10-0-1 out cover rate is also the best within the Super Bowl era. Eleven of those games were played away from home. Most of those teams, though, were favorites to move on in their playoffs.
The last six playoff games Mahomes has started have all been wins. He is one win away from tying five Hall of Famers (John Elway, Troy Aikman, Joe Montana, and Terry Bradshaw) for the second-longest streak in the history of the Super Bowl. Only Tom Brady’s 10-game streak from 2001 to 2005 was longer.
The Chiefs went to the championship game as an underdog. They are the ninth team within the last 20 years to win both the divisional semifinals and the conference championship. In the last eight years, those teams have won the big game six times.
Bucky Brooks is a former NFL player and scout who knows a lot about the league and writes that in his notebook.
In today’s installments, he looks at each of the remaining playoff teams for traits that could make a difference…
The NFL playoffs have come down to the final four teams. Two No. 1 seeds are competing against No. 3 seeds to see who will represent both the AFC and NFC in Super Bowl LVIII.
Based on their regular-season and playoff records, all of the teams are seen as elite, but each has particular advantages and disadvantages.
These things will decide who wins on Championship Sunday and, in the end, who lifts the Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas on February 11.
Let me take some time to look over each team’s roster before the conference championship games. I’ve found one key strength and weakness, or trump card as well as Achilles’ heel, for each of the title contenders.