Even with the bye week, there isn’t a method that San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs are at their healthiest going into Tremendous Bowl LVIII. They’ve been popping pads in opposition to the remainder of the NFL for 19-20 weeks. Intensive remedy and rehab will likely be essential to get these our bodies again to optimum well being. Neither group will likely be at full energy on Sunday, but it surely’s the Chiefs who’ve misplaced two starters up to now month.
They had been with out first-team All-Professional guard Joe Thuney throughout their AFC Championship win in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens. He suffered a pectoral damage within the fourth quarter the earlier week in opposition to the Buffalo Payments. When Andy Reid talked to the media on Wednesday, he mentioned that backup Nick Allegretti might be going to get one other begin on Sunday, including that Thuney doesn’t have sufficient of his energy again but.
The Chiefs will likely be short-handed on the line of defense as effectively. On Wednesday, defensive finish Charles Ominehu was positioned on injured reserve after tearing an ACL in opposition to the Ravens. Ominehu missed six video games to start the season whereas serving a suspension for violating the league’s private conduct coverage because of a misdemeanor home violence arrest.
From Week 7 by means of the remainder of the season, he was one of many Chiefs’ simplest defensive linemen. In solely 11 video games he completed third on the group in sacks with seven, and was fifth in pressures with 12.
The one 49ers starter on IR is Talanoa Hufanga. Whereas that may be a large blow to their defensive backfield, Hufanga has been out since tearing an ACL throughout their Week 11 victory in opposition to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 49ers are much more acquainted enjoying with out their All-Professional than the Chiefs. Since he went down, the 49ers have misplaced solely two video games and a kind of was Week 18 once they sat a number of starters.
Irrespective of how refined offenses get — by the way in which, scoring is on a steady decline within the NFL — high quality play within the trenches will all the time be important in soccer. The Chiefs selected to allocate important sources to each their offensive and defensive traces. Their vast receiver corps took successful, however with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, they determined that protecting him upright and knocking opposing QBs on their keisters is one of the simplest ways to maintain the group at a championship degree.
With no Thuney or Ominehu, the Chiefs are down some manpower within the trenches. Fortuitously for them, the offensive and defensive traces are usually not the 49ers’ strongest place teams. Trent Williams is nice, however the remainder of the O-line is missing, and that costly D-line has been fairly a disappointment.
When two groups as evenly matched because the 49ers and Chiefs meet, profitable needs to be executed on the margins. A Deebo Samuel damaged sort out right here, a Mahomes pinpoint 30-yard move there, a single second can resolve a winner, and in Sunday’s case, a champion.
Accidents may be simply as impactful as a play that will likely be seen in Tremendous Bowl highlights for many years to return. Starters are listed on the high of the depth chart for a motive. In a tough wage cap league just like the NFL, the hole between the 1s and the 2s may be vast. Each the 49ers and Chiefs are coping with the attrition that comes with a protracted soccer season, however KC will likely be feeling that ache a bit extra come Sunday.
