The Super Bowl Of Space: How The 49ers & Chiefs Take Advantage Of Speed

The pre- and post-snap motion, plus the blocking from Jusyczyk, the offensive line, and George Kittle create enough space for Brieda to hit top speed. Here’s the hole Brieda hit:

San Francisco wasn’t always automatic in creating space against 8-man boxes — they only created positive Expected Points Added on 33.7% of such attempts, per Sports Info Solutions — but the idea of manipulating the defense translated to other parts of the offense.

Against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, the 49ers found success creating open field space for the running game. On Raheem Mostert’s 36-yard touchdown run, the 49ers ran a trap play to the opposite side of a trips bunch against a six-man box. With most of the defense playing for a pass to the right, the 49ers ran to the left and with well-executed blocking, Mostert had a free path to hit top speed on his way to the end zone.

Kansas City didn’t have nearly as expansive of a run game but they kept themselves from disadvantageous situations on the ground. No team ran into light boxes on a higher percentage of their rushing attempts than the Chiefs did in 2019.

Kansas City didn’t have nearly as expansive of a run game but they kept themselves from disadvantageous situations on the ground. No team ran into light boxes on a higher percentage of their rushing attempts than the Chiefs did in 2019.

The Chiefs’ extension of the run comes from their screen game. Andy Reid has been known as a screen savant, though Kansas City didn’t rely heavily on screens in 2019. But Kansas City’s screens were often well-placed and well-timed. Only the Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks had a higher touchdown rate on screen passes in 2019.

Of course, where both these teams shined in creating space came in the passing game. Before the season started, we looked at how NFL teams were getting better at limiting throws into tight windows. The Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes were the best example. This season, Mahomes only threw into tight coverage (described as a yard or fewer of separation) on 12.2% of his attempts, which was the third-lowest among qualified quarterbacks. Unlike some of the other quarterbacks who avoided tight window throws, Mahomes’s attempts actually went down the field.

Creating open throws for deep passing is an aspect both the Chiefs and 49ers excelled at throughout 2019. Jimmy Garoppolo and Mahomes ranked first and second in receiver separation on deep throws this season, per Next Gen Stats. This benefitted each quarterback in a different way.

Mahomes went deep often but, while dealing with injuries throughout the year, wasn’t as accurate as he had been in 2018. Per SIS charting, Mahomes threw a catchable pass on just 46.8% of his attempts that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, which ranked 28th among 34 quarterbacks with at least 20 such attempts.

But Mahomes also completed 46.8% of his deep attempts, which was the third-highest rate among those quarterbacks. The Chiefs went deep often enough and created enough open throws that Mahomes could still be off a majority of the time, yet still complete enough passes to be among the most productive deep passers in the league. (Mahomes led all quarterbacks in EPA on deep attempts during the regular season.)

On the other hand, the 49ers used that separation to allow Garoppolo to only go deep when the play was open. Garoppolo only threw deep on about 7% of his passing attempts, but he led the league in on-target percentage (71.9%) and completion percentage (59.4%) on those throws. No other quarterback with at least 20 deep attempts completed over 49% of their attempts (Gardner Minshew was second at 48.9%).

The 49ers relied heavily on play-action for these types of attempts. 49% of Garoppolo’s deep attempts came with a play fake and there is no better schemer of play-action shots than Kyle Shanahan. It can lead to wide-open shots like the 61-yard touchdown from George Kittle against the Packers in Week 12.

Both teams have also used pre-snap motion so well to create openings. Take the 20-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs had trips to the left against a single-high safety while the Titans had double coverage against Travis Kelce as the isolated receiver on the right. Pre-snap movement from Mecole Hardman from the middle to the inside slot showed man coverage and his post route held the safety in the middle of the field. That created a one-on-one matchup for Hill, who was able to get behind his defender for an open touchdown.

One Shanahan staple used to create open space on a pass is Leak. Basically, it’s a play-action pass with a rollout that gets the defense to flow to one side of the field while a receiver “leaks” out to the other side with a free half of the field to run.

This has often been referred to a “tight end throwback” because the leak player has traditionally been a tight end. The big tight end, who started the play blocking, was usually the last player the defense expected to run free and the design allowed for a huge gain. This season offenses started to use wide receivers more often in that role. Both the 49ers and Chiefs took a play that is designed for a wide-open throw and added in another uncoverable layer of speed on top of a play already designed to gain a chunk of yards.

In Week 2, San Francisco used Marquise Goodwin as the leak player against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The previous week, the Chiefs had used Sammy Watkins on the play and also used Tyreek Hill later in the season.

This year’s Super Bowl will showcase players with a ton of speed and two of the best coaches at creating space to get the most out of it. The score is expected to be close and this could be the most wide-open Super Bowl matchup in more ways than one.