Under somewhat different conditions, the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs advanced to Super Bowl LVIII.

After the least impressive regular season of Patrick Mahomes’ career, the reigning champion Chiefs defeated a number of AFC heavyweights,

winning twice as road underdogs to get to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.

The 49ers, who are ranked #1 in the NFC, had to withstand two remarkably inconsistent home games in order to beat teams that were favored to win by at least a score.

All of this points to a rematch of Super Bowl LIV in 2020, which Mahomes and the Chiefs won 31-20 after overturning a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

The 49ers, with their star-studded offense, and the NFL’s greatest quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, square off in this year’s contest.

It stars Kyle Shanahan of San Francisco and Andy Reid of Kansas City, two of the best offensive coordinators in the league.

It has two strong defenses that let up less than 18 points per game throughout the regular season.

Given all of those parallels, it makes obvious that Las Vegas, the site of the Super Bowl on February 11th, would consider the game to be somewhat of a pick’em.

The DraftKings sportsbook reports that the Niners were -2.5 favorites when they began, but the line moved to -1 overnight.

So how did we get here?

The Chiefs, who are well-known for their potent offense,

rode a defense this season that included shutdown corner L’Jarius Sneed, pass-rushing lineman Chris Jones,

and coach Steve Spagnuolo to an 11-6 record and the third seed in the AFC.

But offensive problems raised questions about Kansas City’s potential to make the playoffs.

The Chiefs finished 15th in the league with an average of 21.3 points per game.

An unsettling collection of wide receivers without a top option was a factor in the team’s NFL-high 44 drops.

With just 984 receiving yards, Travis Kelce had the fewest in eight years, raising questions about whether the 34-year-old great tight end was regressing.

Towards the close of the regular season, when Kansas City lost four of six games between Nov. 20 and Dec. 25

and failed to score 20 points in each of those losses, a deep playoff run seemed particularly unlikely.

But things turned so differently in the postseason.

Overcoming bitter cold in Kansas City, Mahomes passed for 262 yards and ran for 41 in a victory over the Dolphins in the first round;

in the divisional round, he and Josh Allen exchanged touchdowns to defeat the second-seeded Bills in Buffalo;

and on Sunday, in the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore, he did just enough to defeat Lamar Jackson and the top-seeded Ravens, 17-10.

Mahomes hasn’t thrown an interception in the postseason after tossing a career-worst 14 in the regular season.

His postseason QBR of 90.2 is significantly higher than his regular season QBR of 63.0.

With little more than two minutes left in the Ravens game, his clutch 32-yard pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling on third and 9 sealed the victory.

With 17 career playoff games under his belt—the equivalent of an entire regular season

Mahomes now has a 14-3 record, has completed 67% of his passes, and has thrown for 4,802 yards and 39 touchdowns against seven interceptions.

After a quiet regular season, Kelce made a statement in three straight postseason games with at least five receptions for 71 yards.

On Sunday’s opening drive, he scored his third touchdown of the playoffs on a contested touchdown catch.

Isiah Pacheco, a running back, tops all players in the postseason with 254 rushing yards. He has three goals in the games.

Additionally, the Chiefs’ defense is playing better than ever, allowing the elite offenses of the Dolphins, Bills, and Ravens to score only 13.7 points per game on average.

The seasoned Chiefs are playing some of their finest football of the year overall.

If the team wins, it would be the fifth time in NFL history that a team has won three Super Bowls in a five-year period.

The other three teams that have accomplished this are the Steelers (1976–1980), the Cowboys (1992–1995), the Patriots (2001–04), and the 2014–18 team.

“You don’t take it for granted,” Mahomes remarked. “You never know where to look or how many opportunities you’ll have.

After everything we’ve been through this season, it’s really great to be doing it with these guys, guys coming together. It’s truly unique, but as I warned them, the work is not finished.

Right now, we have to get ready to take on a strong football club in the Super Bowl in an effort to win that ring.”

The Niners, who with a victory would tie the Patriots and Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles with six, would also be playing for history.

After a strong regular season in which they ranked in the top three of the NFL in both scoring (28.9 points per game) and defense (17.5),

San Francisco entered the playoffs as the NFC’s top seed and the favorite to easily win the conference.

After the 49ers were eliminated in the wild-card round, the second-seeded Cowboys and the 10-winning Eagles

who started the season 10-1, both lost in upsets, it seemed like their route would be simpler.

However, San Francisco struggled against seventh-seeded Green Bay in the divisional round

needing a botched 41-yard field goal by Packers kicker Anders Carlson in the fourth quarter

a Christian McCaffrey touchdown with 1:07 remaining in the game, and a foolish interception by Packers quarterback Jordan Love to win 24–20 and move on.

Even worse was the team’s 34-31 victory over the Lions on Sunday. Detroit had a 24-7 lead at the half, but San Francisco won a comeback of sorts.

After a Lions defender tipped the ball off his head, Brandon Aiyuk gained 51 yards on a scoring drive.

Josh Reynolds of the Lions fumbled two important passes.

Jahmyr Gibbs committed a crucial error. Additionally, Dan Campbell, the coach of Detroit, called several bold plays on fourth down that were unsuccessful.

With four players (McCaffrey, Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle) who have accumulated more than 1,000 scrimmage yards, the Niners may have the deepest roster in the NFL.

The defense is led by prominent players like Arik Armstead, Nick Bosa, Chase Young, Fred Warner, and Javon Hargrave.

Although he hasn’t performed as well as he did in the regular season, quarterback Brock Purdy produced several crucial plays on Sunday with his right arm and legs.

The 49ers still appear more insecure than they have in months.

The Super Bowl rematch, which takes place next month, will be the ninth in the history of the big game.

Kansas City’s Mahomes, Kelce, Jones, and Reid will face San Francisco’s Samuel, Kittle, Bosa, and Shanahan.

The two most notable newcomers to the game this year are Purdy, who would become the first Mr. Irrelevant to win an NFL Super Bowl as a quarterback, and McCaffrey, who the Niners acquired in 2022.

Shanahan stated, “They’ve been doing it for a while,” in reference to the Chiefs.

It appears that since we first met them in [2020], they have visited every year.

We have been working very hard to return to that instant. We’ve been close several times before, but this time we succeeded.

Take advantage of these two weeks to get ready and make sure the game is fantastic.”