Cowboys defense should study how the Chiefs contained the 49ers in the Super Bowl

The Chiefs showed in the Super Bowl that stopping San Francisco is in fact possible.

The Kansas City Chiefs won their second straight Super Bowl on Sunday, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime. Despite the exciting finish, the game started off slow, with the defenses from both teams playing extremely well. The 49ers held a 10-3 lead at halftime, holding Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes without a touchdown in the first half. While the 49ers defense played a good game, what Cowboys fans should really take away from the showdown was how well the Chiefs defense played against Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco offense.

Throughout the 2023 regular season, the 49ers were arguably the most explosive offense in the NFL. They averaged 6.6 yards per play (league-high), converted 47.5% of their third-down attempts (fourth-highest), and scored a touchdown on 67.2% of their red-zone trips (league-high). In the Super Bowl however, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo only allowed 5.3 yards per play, held the 49ers to a 25% conversion rate on third-down, and allowed one touchdown in two red-zone trips for the 49ers.

The Chiefs defense did an incredible job limiting big plays from the 49ers best offensive weapons. They held WR Brandon Aiyuk to 49 receiving yards, WR Deebo Samuel to 33 receiving yards, and TE George Kittle to just four receiving yards. They also did their job in limiting RB Christian McCaffrey in the running game. They allowed just 80 rushing yards on 22 attempts, resulting in an average of 3.6 yards per carry.

In the video below from Brian Baldinger breaking down the Chiefs defense, he shows how the they did a great job containing the 49ers offense. They often rushed five defenders, while running tight man coverage and setting up a QB spy. This put pressure on the receivers to make plays against Kansas City’s talented secondary, and didn’t much mobility for Brock Purdy outside the pocket.

The famous “Shanahan offense” has been something the Cowboys have struggled to defend as of late. This offensive is a west coast scheme that is very efficient in the outside zone run. Shanahan has mastered this to the point he has mixed in modern passing concepts which allows him to use his various weapons in the receiving game. This offensive scheme uses a lot of pre-snap motion and shifts to distract the opposing defense away from the center focus of the play. Shanahan’s scheme uses a lot of misdirection and play-action rollouts. The success that the 49ers have had offensively has led many teams across the league to take pages out of Shanahan’s playbook, implementing things into their own offense.

Mike Zimmer and the Cowboys defense should spend a lot of time watching Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup, and breaking down how they can defend this offensive scheme in 2024.