Culture
49ers, Brock Purdy won't soon forget their missed opportunities in Super Bowl loss
LAS VEGAS — Patrick Mahomes was on the San Francisco 49ers’ minds even when they had the ball on Sunday.
Facing third-and-4 from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 9-yard line in overtime, Brock Purdy said he knew the 49ers couldn’t settle for a field goal because it would give Mahomes a chance to counter with the type of game-winning drive for which he’s become famous.
“You just don’t want to give him an opportunity to go down and win the game with a touchdown,” Purdy said.
That’s exactly what happened.
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The 49ers’ third-down play was a good one. It called for Jauan Jennings, a strong contender for the game’s MVP award at that point, to start inside, then cut quickly back to the near pylon. He did, shaking his defender in the process.
“It looked like Jauan killed him, won pretty good,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said afterward.
The problem is that no one blocked Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who’s both Kansas City’s best defensive player and someone who plagued the 49ers in their last Super Bowl meeting with the Chiefs. Right tackle Colton McKivitz put a hand on Jones, but moved to the outside to block defensive end George Karlaftis.
That gave Jones a free run at Purdy, who had to rush his pass and ended up throwing too far for Jennings. The 49ers settled for a 27-yard Jake Moody field goal and a 3-point lead. And that set the stage for what Purdy and the 49ers feared: A vintage Mahomes drive that went 13 plays, included a 19-yard Mahomes scramble and ended with a game-winning toss to a wide-open Mecole Hardman.
The score and resulting 25-22 victory left Mahomes with the MVP award and the 49ers exhausted, devastated and, for the second time in four years, ruing what could have been in a Super Bowl versus the Chiefs.
“When you have a good offense like the Chiefs do and what Mahomes can do, for us, it’s like, ‘All right we have to score touchdowns,’” Purdy said. “And we had opportunities to do so, I think. Shot ourselves in the foot just with penalties and the operations and stuff.”
For most of the game, the 49ers and Chiefs were virtual twins.
Both defenses were dominant early, taking the opponent’s best players out of the game. Defensive effort may have been an issue in the 49ers’ opening playoff games, but not on Sunday as players like Chase Young, Randy Gregory and Javon Kinlaw stepped forward with big plays that frustrated the Chiefs and held them to 6 points through nearly three quarters.
Mahomes’ favorite target, tight end Travis Kelce, had one catch for 1 yard at halftime. And Mahomes and Purdy had exactly the same modest passing total — 123 yards — at halftime.
The Chiefs defense, however, was even better at squashing their opponent’s star players. Receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel were held to three catches each on Sunday despite Samuel being targeted a game-high 11 times. Tight end George Kittle had a key catch on fourth down in the fourth quarter but was held to 4 yards total. That fourth-and-3 throw in the fourth quarter also was influenced by Mahomes.
“That isn’t probably something normally we’d do, but thought it was the right thing in that situation,” Shanahan said.
The only true offensive weapons for the 49ers were Jennings, who had a passing and receiving touchdown, and Christian McCaffrey, who had a combined 160 yards of offense.
Jauan Jennings, celebrating his fourth-quarter touchdown catch, may have been in line to win the Super Bowl MVP had the 49ers hung on. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
What’s more, the 49ers offense never could fully take advantage of Mahomes’ and Kelce’s modest starts.
Early in the third quarter, Mahomes was flushed from the pocket but found that Kelce was being blanketed by linebacker Fred Warner. He instead hoisted a pass to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling that was picked off by safety Ji’Ayir Brown at the Kansas City 44-yard line.
The 49ers had momentum, they had the crowd behind them and they had a perfect opportunity to build on their 10-3 lead. Instead Purdy threw an incompletion on first down, guard Aaron Banks committed a false start on second down and the 49ers had to punt the ball away.
“It was small things everywhere — all three phases,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “We did things that weren’t characteristic to what we usually do as a team and I think in the end that’s what hit us, and it was too much to overcome.”
The 49ers also dealt with more attrition than the Chiefs.
They lost linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the second quarter when, while running onto the field following a punt, he tore his Achilles tendon. Right guard Jon Feliciano was injured late in the third quarter while Samuel (hamstring) and Kittle (shoulder) had to leave the game for stretches. During one critical sequence late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers were without defensive starters Greenlaw, Brown and Deommodore Lenoir.
As the 49ers weakened, the Mahomes-Kelce connection grew stronger. The tight end’s 22-yard catch and run at the end of the fourth quarter — he beat Warner, who had been strong against him to that point — set up the field goal that sent the game into overtime, and Kelce finished with 93 yards to lead all receivers.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the loss,” Warner said. “Because we went into it saying that he wasn’t going to be the reason they beat us. And we were off on a couple of plays at the end there where he was running wide open over the middle of the field. That’s disappointing.”
Shanahan cited analytics as the reason he had the 49ers receive the ball to begin overtime. He figured the team that got the opening kickoff of the session might get a second possession.
“We wanted the ball third,” he said. “If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win (the game).”
The 49ers never got that chance. Their opening drive of overtime was their longest of the game — 7:38. That was followed by the Chiefs’ longest of the game — 7:19. The difference was that one ended in a field goal and the other in a touchdown.
After Mahomes’ big scramble into the red zone, tailback Isiah Pacheco ran for 3 yards and Mahomes hit Kelce for another 7 yards. That put the ball at the San Francisco 3-yard line with the clocking winding down in the first overtime.
The final blow came on a shotgun snap on which no one covered Hardman, who came in motion toward the formation but cut back to the outside. Both Warner and safety Logan Ryan were rushing toward Mahomes on the play.
THE CHIEFS ARE BACK-TO-BACK SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/ZzfhTyUXg9
— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2024
“I’m not sure,” Warner said of what went wrong with the coverage. “I’ve got to see it. I’m not sure who was supposed to be on (Hardman).”
The loss had a lot of the same themes as the one four years ago in Miami, including a blown lead and the inability to stop Jones and Mahomes in key moments.
The aftermath of this one, however, seemed worse. The locker room had a funeral-like quiet afterward. Shanahan gave only a brief postgame talk to his team, McCaffrey gave a clipped postgame interview and even the normally verbose Kittle’s session lasted just four minutes.
“Not a lot has been said,” Purdy said. “It just hurts. We have the team obviously to do it, to win the whole thing, and then to come up short like that. … The way things have been the last couple of years here, everyone wanted it so bad. So, I think we’re still trying to sort of gather our thoughts and everything right now. But everyone in that locker room loves each other, I’ll tell you that.”
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(Top photo of Brock Purdy being pressured in overtime by Chris Jones: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega
December 18, 2025
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
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