Explosive offense to meet tough defense for NFL title

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) ­­- Sunday’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV will decide the champion for the National Football League's (NFL) 100th season.

The game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida will mark the first time a Super Bowl will feature two teams with red as their uniforms primary colors meeting in a Super Bowl.

It will also be the first Super Bowl appearance for Kansas City in 50 years. The Chiefs will try to lift the Lombardi trophy for a second time after winning the title in January 1970.

For San Francisco, it is the seventh trip to the Big Game. The last time the 49ers played for the title was February 2013, They won five titles between 1981 - 1994.

If the 49ers win, they will join an elite list of teams that include the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots, which have six Super Bowl victories.

But to do that they would have to find a way to slow down the high-powered Chiefs offense that is trying to end the second-longest drought between Super Bowl victories for an NFL organization.

The New York Jets still are waiting to lift the Lombardi trophy a second time after winning 51 years ago.

Kansas City is expected to rely heavily on its passing game with its star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, 24, who threw 50 touchdown passes in 2018 to win the Offensive Player of the Year and MVP awards.

His head coach Andy Reid, 61, looks forward to winning his first championship after leading the Philadelphia Eagles in a losing effort in Super Bowl XXXIX.

On the other side, Kyle Shanahan is expected to rely on his lock ‘em up defense ranked first during the playoffs and second in the regular season.
Shanahan, 40, reached the Super Bowl in 2017 as offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons who blew a 28-3 lead in the second half against the Patriots.

Miami will host the pigskin showdown for the sixth time, with an average ticket price for the game-breaking records at approximately $8,000, according to online ticket marketplace TickPick.

The minimum price for the game stood at $5,000, and the highest could climb to $70,000, StubHub figures showed as of Tuesday.
Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau expects 150,000 out-of-state visitors to travel to the Super Bowl.

While the minimum price for hotels in the Miami area was $300 per night, a round-trip from Kansas City to Miami was around $400 and from San Francisco to Miami approximately $500 as of Tuesday, according to online travel agency Kayak.

In addition to those who can get a ticket to be inside the 65,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium, 193.8 million are anticipated to watch the game on TV, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Average expected spending stands at $88.65 per person with the total estimated at $17.2 billion -- both records in Super Bowl history if realized.
The U.S. National Chicken Council forecasts a record 1.4 billion chicken wings will be consumed during the weekend -- 27 million more compared to last year.

Fox Network will broadcast the game and is estimated to get as much as $5.6 million per a 30-second advertisement spot -- another Super Bowl record.

91 Super Bowl ads totaled up to 49 minutes and 31 seconds during last year's Super Bowl when CBS received $336 million.