SANTA CLARA, Calif. _ It's fitting the 49ers are playing Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl.
In a roundabout way, the only regular season game between San Francisco and the Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs led to their championship match up in Miami.
Mahomes, in September 2018, orchestrated five consecutive scoring drives to start the game as the Chiefs to jumped to an insurmountable 35-7 lead before San Francisco fought back to make the final score respectable at Arrowhead Stadium, losing 38-27.
But the story in that game wasn't Mahomes and his crisp 314-yard, three-touchdown performance early in his first full season as Kansas City's starter. It was the 49ers losing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the year with a torn ACL when he tried to extend a third-down scramble in scoring territory midway through the fourth quarter.
The injury derailed San Francisco's season. It happened fewer than three games into Garoppolo's massive five-year, $137.5 million contract, signed months earlier. The bet the team made on the unproven starter had to be put on hold. There was a feeling of emptiness in the locker room afterwards and high-ranking team officials were visibly shaken.
"We're really trying to take that next step. We're trying so effing hard to take that next step," dejected left tackle Joe Staley said.
