Raise your hand if you called a Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl prior to the season.
You're lying.
Amazingly, the final four teams in this year's NFL playoffs totaled just 31 wins in 2018. Granted, three of the four are playing with different quarterbacks — due to either starting QB injuries or replacement — but it's not like the masses were expecting 13 regular season wins from the Niners simply from the reinsertion of Jimmy Garoppolo.
In any case, with the unexpected matchup in Super Bowl 54, it's worth a look back at where both teams came from to start the year and what kind of history we could be in store for in two weeks.
Super Bowl 54 Odds, Betting History
Kansas City Chiefs
Opening Super Bowl odds: +600
Longest mid-season odds: +1000 (Oct. 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 26, Dec. 3)
Of the four teams that played on Sunday, the Chiefs were certainly the least surprising — at least according to how the betting market felt back in September.
PointsBet opened Kansas City at +600 prior to Week 1, which ranked second to the preseason favorites, the Patriots. After suffering what looked like a major setback to Patrick Mahomes and with the unexpected regular season performance put forth by the Ravens, the Chiefs fell to +1000 on a few occasions throughout the season, but never further.
San Francisco 49ers
Opening Super Bowl odds: +4000
Longest mid-season odds: +4000 (Sep. 3, Sep. 10, Sep. 17)
To get the best 49ers odds of the season, you had to be an early believer. An 8-0 start for San Fran en route to a 13-3 regular season had the Niners' Super Bowl chances increasing steadily throughout the year.
If they do pull off the victory, they'll tie the 2017-18 Eagles as the most unlikely preseason Super Bowl winner since the 2001-02 Patriots.
