How Super Bowl 58 unfolds between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs remains to be seen. Anything is in play. It could turn out to be a shootout. One team might dominate the other. It could even be a low-scoring affair.
The 49ers don't care how it goes, so long as they finally end up on top, unlike four years ago when a fourth-quarter collapse allowed quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to mount a comeback, ending San Francisco's Super Bowl hopes.
Hall of Fame quarterback and former NFL analyst Steve Young can't envision a shootout.
"I think both defenses will rise up," Young said Wednesday on Bay Area radio station KNBR. "I think the 49ers will not allow [a shootout]. I mean, they've just got to. That script has got to change. Look, I think both teams are capable of getting in a shootout and going 45-41. I think someone could score 45, but it's not going to be both. So someone could get smashed. I think that it's more likely that we can smash them and do something [like] 41-17. It's possible."
The 49ers looked dangerously close to being eliminated in each of their two playoff contests. It took a game-winning touchdown drive against the Green Bay Packers to get past the Divisional Playoff round. Then, in the NFC Championship Game, San Francisco had to erase a 17-point halftime deficit and receive a little help from some poor decisions by Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell to advance to Super Bowl 58.
Young believes for the Chiefs to beat the 49ers, the game might have to turn into a shootout.
"I think if they win, it would have to be a little bit of a shootout at the end," Young said. "Something tight, back and forth, Patrick doing something spectacular like what happened four years ago. I just can't imagine us getting into another jam where we get down like the Ravens [game] and then get put away. It's just unimaginable to me that, three weeks in a row, we put ourselves in that spot."
Former 49ers defensive end Charles Omenihu, now with the Chiefs, suffered a torn ACL in the AFC Championship Game and will not play in the Super Bowl. Young acknowledged the potential impact of that loss, believing it forces Kansas City to find other ways to create significant pressure on quarterback Brock Purdy.
Young affirms that they most dangerous defenses in the NFL are the ones that can create pressure using only their front four, and the Chiefs may not be able to accomplish that without Omenihu. Much of that has to do with the number of playmakers within San Francisco's offense.
"You bring the fifth guy against good offenses, you've put yourself at a huge disadvantage," Young explained. "And so the Chiefs have been able to bring four, and there's maybe a handful of teams in the league that can do that consistently, that can bring four and put you under duress, and that's what they've done.
"Now they've lost somebody, so I don't know if they can do it again, but that'll be the issue. If they have to put pressure on our passing game, they have to bring the fifth and sixth guy, then with all of the people we got going out, and all the talent that comes out of that huddle, no, that's not going to work."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Young below.