SANTA CLARA -- San Francisco 49ers safety Jimmie Ward has watched the Super Bowl a lot. From the time the game ended on Sunday night through late Wednesday morning, he said he had already viewed the game film 10 times.
“I just like watching it,” Ward said, three days after the 49ers’ 30-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.
He likes watching it?
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“I’m a film type of guy,” Ward explained, “so I just watch the film and then I try to put myself in the opposing quarterback’s head: 'What is he thinking on this play?' ”
The play that everyone on the 49ers’ defense will remember was third-and-15. The Chiefs were down, 20-10, with 7:13 remaining, when Patrick Mahomes dropped back and looked deep for Tyreek Hill.
“It was the right call, a perfect throw and a great catch,” Ward said. “Me, being in the middle of the field, I really couldn’t get over.”
Ward said his main responsibility was to take away the deep throw to the middle of the field. Hill ran a post, then turned it into a corner route. Mahomes got rid of the ball a split-second before DeForest Buckner hit him.
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Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley was apparently responsible for deep ball on that side of the field. But he followed Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins toward the middle on an underneath route. Mahomes left his pass for Hill short, but Moseley was not in position to get back in time to defend the play. And Ward did not have time to reverse direction to range toward the sideline to break it up.
Moseley, who has yet to re-watch the video of the game, did not delve into the specifics of the third-and-15 play.
“Eventually, I’ll watch it,” Moseley told NBC Sports Bay Area. “Right now, it’s kind of hard. I’ll watch it in about a week and get the things corrected that need to be corrected.
“I don’t really replay it in my head. Things happen. You just got to learn from it and move on from it. They got us on a play. It was a great play call by them. Things have to be better executed and once we do that, we’ll be fine.”
The 49ers surrendered only one pass play of more than 20 yards through 3 ½ quarters, but the Chiefs’ team speed had its first real impact on that play in which Hill hauled in a 44-yard pass on the game’s most critical play.
Ward said he had to respect the speed of the Chiefs wide receivers to turn and run any time they broke into the deep middle.
“The only (way) I was going to play that better is if I would’ve guessed,” Ward said. “I didn’t have any choice. I had to open my hips because, 17 (Mecole Hardman) or 10 (Hill), even 14 (Watkins), you can’t let them run up on you. You have to flip your hips. If you don’t flip your hips, they’ll run past you.”
[RELATED: Ward wants to re-sign with 49ers]
It was a difficult end to the season for Moseley, who proved he is more than capable of being a starting cornerback on a Super Bowl team. He replaced Ahkello Witherspoon after an injury early in the season. Then, Moseley was back in the starting lineup in the postseason when Witherspoon struggled.
Now, Moseley heads into the offseason as the presumptive starting right cornerback for 2020. And he said he knows he room to be an improved player next season.
“I want to be a better me on the field,” Moseley said. “I just want to be a better teammate and do everything I can to make sure everything on the field is executed right, everything on the field goes right.
“It definitely gives me motivation. I’m ready to attack this offseason, and I’m ready to provide a lot more next year.”