and it takes near flawless football if you're going up against a defending champion; you can't expect to win putting the ball on the ground and in not converting when you do get a turnover, not to mention ill timed penalties by some of your best players.

In all, it's kind of amazing the Niners were in the game at all; they did almost everything wrong to expect to win, and they nearly did. And some of the biggest errors were by their best players. Add that to the refs "letting them play" (which I've long been against and think is stupid; brings me back to the Ravens trying to get a holding call in the endzone in the Super Bowl after the 12 season and the refs taking forever to throw a flag, even though every single member of their team blocking was trying to get the call to get the safety and free kick) and you've made it so much tougher on yourself.

"How to lose a championship in stupid ways." It could be a rom com starring Kate Hudson or something.

4 yards total...they held him into block so much. That was a real surprise...some were saying he was bracketed a lot, but not with our elite CB's.

The Chiefs fumbled five times. I also don't remember Richie James's fumble. Sheesh! The Chiefs lost the Pacheco fumble but recovered the other four.

Interestingly, perhaps, two of the drives that involved a recovered Chiefs' fumble ended in a turnover anyway. The Chiefs recovered the Rice fumble, but then lost the Pacheco fumble later in that same drive, and they recovered the Mahomes fumble but then he threw an interception a couple of plays later. Twice, then, they basically just got to a more favorable turnover (marginal for the INT, but very much so for the Pacheco fumble).