Super Bowl 2024 bold predictions: Patrick Mahomes cooks NFL’s top zone defense, Brock Purdy fails vs. blitz

Super Bowl LVIII features the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, and the San Francisco 49ers, the NFC’s top seed. No matter which team wins, it won’t be surprising, and the spread of 49ers minus-two, according to Sportsline’s consensus odds, reflects that. 

Without further ado, here are five bold predictions for some things that could occur in the Big Game on Sunday that could be categorized as bold.

Patrick Mahomes cooks 49ers strong postseason zone defense  

The reigning Super Bowl MVP is in the zone, even by his ahead-of-the-curve expectations. He hasn’t thrown an interception in six consecutive postseason starts, the longest streak by a quarterback in playoff history when having thrown a minimum of 20 passes in each playoff game. The end result of each one of those matchups were the Chiefs celebrating a win. As a result, the 28-year-old Mahomes is set to become the first quarterback ever to start his fourth Super Bowl before age 30. 

Patrick Mahomes’ postseason performance since 2022

CategoriesStatisticsNFL Rank In Span*

W-L

6-0

1st

Comp Pct

70% (142-203)

1st

Pass TD

11

1st

TD-INT

11-0

1st

Passer Rating

107.6

3rd

* Ranks among 14 QBs with 50 or more pass attempts in last two postseasons

Mahomes also shredded the 49ers secondary the last time these two teams played, a Chiefs 44-23 win at San Francisco in Week 7 of the 2022 season. He tossed three touchdowns and racked up 423 passing yards while completing 25 of his 34 passing attempts. That led to a career-high 12.4 yards per pass attempt overall for Mahomes in the victory.  

He particularly feasted on their zone coverage, averaging 15.1 yards per pass attempt against it, the highest rate by any quarterback in a game versus any team in the last four seasons including playoffs, among 1,430 quarterback games with at least 20 pass attempts against a team’s zone coverage. Sure their defensive coordinator at the time was current Houston Texans…


Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/super-bowl-2024-bold-predictions-patrick-mahomes-cooks-nfls-top-zone-defense-brock-purdy-fails-vs-blitz/

Author : Garrett Podell

Publish date : 2024-02-09 15:18:30

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