Did the 49ers' comeback playoff wins over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions set San Francisco up for success in Super Bowl LVIII? Former 49ers safety Eric Reid believes so.
In speaking with NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan on Radio Row, Reid detailed how the 49ers overcoming second-half deficits in back-to-back playoff games aids their chances against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
"I definitely think it helps the team," Reid told Maiocco and Lee Chan. "You don't want to have your first adversity to be in the Super Bowl. You need to know how to handle it. They've overcome those regular-season losses, they've overcome those postseason deficits.
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"It's great to have those experiences because it could happen in the Super Bowl. You go down 14 [points], what are you going to do? But it just happened, and they bounced back.
"So I think it will be to their benefit, but we'll see what happens."
San Francisco pulled off a late thriller with a game-winning drive in the final minutes of its divisional round playoff win over Green Bay, which turned out to be a mere teaser for the historic comeback they would put together the following week against Detroit.
The 49ers' season was on the ropes at halftime of the NFC Championship Game when San Francisco faced a 17-point deficit before roaring back with 27 unanswered points to snatch a 34-31 victory from the jaws of defeat.
San Francisco 49ers
That first-hand experience could prove invaluable against a Chiefs team that famously rattled off three consecutive playoff wins when trailing by double-digits when these two teams last squared off in Super Bowl LIV during the 2019 NFL season.
Heading into this matchup, the roles now have switched from the last championship fixture between these teams, with San Francisco coming off the heels of a double-digit comeback in the conference title game while Kansas City dispatched the Baltimore Ravens by multiple scores, the opposite of how these two teams entered Super Bowl LIV.
Reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes always poses a significant threat, appearing in his fourth Super Bowl in just his sixth season as the Chiefs' starting quarterback. While Kansas City's offense has taken a step back relative to their performance in recent years, its defense is among the best in the NFL, finishing the 2023 season ranked second in points and yards allowed.
Between the big play threat Mahomes and the offense present on any given play and the staunch defense that stymied a high-powered Baltimore Ravens attack in the AFC Championship Game, San Francisco's margin for error is extremely thin in this Super Bowl matchup.
While the 49ers would undoubtedly like to avoid having to string together a second-half comeback for a third consecutive week, their track record over the last two games, at a minimum, indicates this is a team that you can't count out until the clock hits zero; no matter how bleak it may seem in the moment.
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