That's just not true breh. We stopped running the ball and committed to the pass game in both SB against the Chiefs. And both times it bit us in the ass.
And of course, last year was the most egregious example as in the first three drives coming out of the half ended in a three & out we passed 8 times and rushed once. Sure, that one rush didn't gain a yard but those 8 passes resulted in -1 yard and 1 penalty. If anything, the Chiefs demonstrated they stopped our pass game, not our run game. And all of this was while we were leading the game. It wasn't until the Chiefs were up 13-10 that we started to run the ball like we were supposed to....and the Chiefs didn't stop shyt.
2020 will always have the indefensible call of barely using Mostert, who had 4 rush attempts in the 4th for 29 yards and only once got stuffed for a 1 yard gain.
Firstly, I'm only talking about the 2024 SB.
We had 28 rushing attempts in the game, which was only 1 less attempt than our regular season average, but only rushed for 98 yards compared to the 140 we averaged during the season. After that first drive where we started by running at will but ended in a run game turnover, Spags adjusted to a heavy defensive front and it confused the shyt out of our OL, and they struggled to run the ball the rest of the half. The 3rd quarter 8-1 pass/rush ratio was situational. Coming out of the half, Shanny called a run play on 2nd & 10 after the Mahomes pick but Banks fukked it up with a false start, so obviously we're forced to pass on 2nd/3rd & 15. We start the second drive of the 3rd quarter by taking an 8 yard loss on 1st down with a busted play, so obviously we're forced to pass on 2nd & 18 and 3rd & 11. On the 3rd drive we start with a run that gets blown up for 0 yards because Trent Williams gets his wig pushed back by a scrub. Run game is completely dysfunctional at this point and we need to put up points to give us some breathing room from Pat, so we pass on 2nd & 10 (incompletion because Purdy went for a deep shot instead of taking an open Deebo underneath) and then we're forced into passing on 3rd & 10. Then comes the muffed punt return and Chiefs immediately score, so we're down for the first time in the game, and need to go pass heavy to get back in it. Which actually worked because the next drive Brock goes 5/7, 60 yards and a TD, and starts the next drive with a 23 yard completion to JJ,
after which Shanny called 3 straight run plays. Those run plays were the most success we had in the run game since the first drive, so the only criticism I have of Shanny here is that he didn't call a run play on 2nd & 5, but we were up by 3 with 2:45 left in the game so I understand him wanting to get a first down to ice the game and figuring the best chance for that was behind the pass because the run game wasn't trustworthy for the vast majority of the game. Obviously we had 2 incompletions instead, so that didn't work out. In the overtime drive, Aiyuk false starts on 2nd & 10 so we're forced into passing again. We get a free first down after Chiefs penalty,
after which Shanny called two straight run plays. That whole OT drive we had a 50/50 run-pass split. And it worked, we probably would have won the game on that drive if the OL doesn't yet again fukk up protection on the 3rd and 4 at the KC 9 yard line.
TLDR: There's not really any point in which Shanny turn away from a successful run game to go pass heavy for no good reason. The Chiefs shut down our run with early adjustments and the OL couldn't handle it, which forced us into passing situations. Unlike the Eagles, we only had a double-digit lead for 1 drive in the game, and we don't have a QB that can execute designed runs like the Eagles do. If we were up by 17 points I'm pretty sure we would have seen more runs, even if they weren't working like the Eagles.
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