49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said | last race | Forum

When Atlanta United reached Saturday's MLS Cup final Carlos Hyde Jersey , the 2-year-old soccer team moved to the cusp of a truly rare accomplishment.The last big league championship in this city was captured on Oct. 28, 1995 , when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians 1-0 in Game 6 of the World Series.In case anyone is counting, that was 8,442 days ago.Even taking into account minor leagues and fringe sports, only four teams have claimed titles since Atlanta became a big league city with the arrival of the Braves from Milwaukee in 1966 (followed a few months later by the Falcons, an NFL expansion team).United goalkeeper Brad Guzan said the team is aware of Atlanta's long history of sporting heartache and what a title would mean to the entire state."We know about it. We hear about it," he said on the eve of the championship game against Portland. The MLS Cup "is not just for us as a team, as a club, as an organization. It's for the city of Atlanta. It's for the state of Georgia. We know we've got a couple of bigger causes."A recap of the city's pro sports heartache:BASEBALLBefore the Braves moved south, the minor league Atlanta Crackers won numerous pennants and league titles, earning the nickname "Yankees of the Minors."The Braves are known for their postseason failures.The lone World Series title came during an unprecedented run of 14 straight division titles. Atlanta lost four times in the World Series 鈥?most notably, in 1991 with a 1-0, 10-inning defeat to the Minnesota Twins in Game 7, and in 1996 to the New York Yankees when they blew a 6-0 lead at home with a chance to take a commanding series lead.The Braves are currently mired in a streak of nine straight postseason series losses.Beyond the big leagues, a Triple-A team in suburban Gwinnett County lost in its only finals appearance in 2016.FOOTBALLThe Falcons have been to the Super Bowl on two occasions.Both times Juan Thornhill white jersey , they came up short.Their most notorious setback was just two seasons ago , when Atlanta built a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter against New England. Tom Brady and the Patriots rallied for a 34-28 victory in overtime, the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.The city once had an Arena Football League team. In their lone ArenaBowl appearance, the Georgia Force lost 51-48 when Colorado kicked a field goal on the final play of the game.BASKETBALLThe Atlanta Hawks, who moved to the city from St. Louis in 1968, have never advanced to the NBA Finals. Their best season came in 2014-15, when they posted the best record in the East but were swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference final .The Atlanta Dream have reached the WNBA Finals three times.The result: three losses 鈥?each time via sweep.HOCKEYAtlanta is the only city to lose two NHL franchises: the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980, while the Thrashers bolted for Winnipeg in 2011.Neither won a postseason series.The Flames made the playoffs six of their eight seasons in Atlanta, but lost in the opening round each time. The Thrashers were swept in the lone postseason appearance of their 11 seasons.Atlanta fared better on the minor league front. The Knights won the now-defunct International Hockey League's Turner Cup in 1994.But the ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators, who play in suburban Gwinnett County, have yet to win a title. They fell to Alaska in their only trip to the Kelly Cup finals in 2006.SOCCERThe Atlanta Chiefs could be classified as the city's first major champion, capturing the inaugural North American Soccer League title in 1968 with a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Toros.Perhaps it was more fitting that the Chiefs lost in their only other trip to the finals, falling 2-0 at home to the Dallas Tornado in the deciding game of a best-of-three series in 1971.The Chiefs lasted a total of 10 seasons with two different franchises, going out of business for good after the 1981 season.In between the Chiefs and United's launch in 2017, Atlanta had teams in several lesser-known men's leagues 鈥?with very familiar results. The Ruckus lost in the 1995 A-League final. The Silverbacks were beaten in the title game of both the USL First Division (2007) and a revived version of the North American Soccer League (2013).And let's not forget: the Atlanta Beat lost twice in the championship game of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA).The league lasted only three seasons.OTHER SPORTSSince titles are so hard to come by in Atlanta, we'll mention the city's indoor lacrosse team.The Georgia Swarm won the 2017 National Lacrosse League title with a 2-0 sweep of Saskatchewan.Hardly anyone noticed.Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at s://apnews/search/paul%20newberry The Kansas City Chiefs break huddle and line up in a traditional formation: Patrick Mahomes settles under center Juan Thornhill Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys , Kareem Hunt is in the backfield, tight end Travis Kelce joins wide receiver Sammy Watkins on the right side, and Tyreek Hill and Demarcus Robinson head to the left.Then, from a defensive perspective, all hell breaks loose.Mahomes is suddenly dropping into the shotgun, careful he doesn't run into Hunt, who has moved from the left side to the right. Hill has run all the way across the field and lined up on the right, just as Kelce has raced in the other direction to line up on the left.The defense thought it had everyone covered. Now, mismatches abound as linebackers try to cover Kelce and safeties are forced to match up with the Chiefs' speedy wide receivers.That play against Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago wasn't just a gimmick. That's standard stuff in the Chiefs' basic offense, a seemingly seamless melding of Andy Reid's old-school West Coast system and the new-school spread offenses that have changed the college game."That play calling was something I've never seen before," said Jacksonville safety Tashaun Gipson, whose top-ranked defense was torched in a 30-14 loss at Arrowhead Stadium last Sunday."I've played Andy Reid, and maybe it was the Browns or it was Jacksonville 2016, and he didn't pull out all the stops," Gipson said. "But this game plan, man Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys Stitched , and I can't say it enough 鈥?and again, I'm not trying to discredit any guys over there 鈥?but I've never seen a team do that to us consistently."In fact, Gipson said, "they had their way with us all game."They've had their way with just about everybody the first five weeks, piling up a franchise-record 175 points. Mahomes has already thrown for 1,513 yards, shattering the Chiefs mark for five games, and a 300-yard passing game at New England on Sunday would give him a team-record five straight.Kansas City (5-0) has scored at least 30 points in each of its games."If you try to play zone coverage against them, they've got the guys to beat zone. They have the guys to beat man. So you have to pick your poison," Gipson said. "We came here with all this hype, talking about how good we are as a defense, myself included, and we got drug out there. Straight drug."What the Chiefs are doing this season is hardly a flash-in-the-pan attack, though. It's the culmination of years of tinkering, beginning with Brad Childress' work as "spread game analyst" and incorporating bits of the college-style spread attack to what the Chiefs were doing last season.But while Alex Smith could pull off run-pass options, or do things in the quarterback-run game Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys 2019 , it wasn't a perfect fit. That came when Mahomes took over as the starter this season.Mahomes is a product of the Air Raid system, basically a spread offense on steroids. He is accustomed to a flood of targets all over the field, quickly identifying where the matchup problems give the offense an advantage, and delivering the ball so that his playmakers can make things happen.Plus, Mahomes has the arm strength to make any throw on the field."He's not afraid to let it loose," Broncos offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said. "When you have the arm strength that he has, he can fit the ball into those small windows."Most of the time, though, the Chiefs are able to give him garage doors.That's because they have the personnel to make all those creative formations work. Kelce is athletic enough to line up anywhere on the field, Hunt has excellent hands for a running back, and Hill and Watkins have the speed to beat anyone in a one-on-one matchup.So, for example, the Chiefs can line up without anyone in the backfield, forcing defenses to change their personnel and alignment. Then the motion games begin, and Kelce or Hill or someone else could end up in the backfield, creating confusion and mismatches."There's not much we can do once we make our call and (Mahomes) comes out in his formation Juan Thornhill black jersey ," Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. "Once he goes empty, he knows what he's got. That makes it tough."Or downright impossible, it sometimes seems."Watching Andy for a long time, he always has some neat, cool things," 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I don't know where they come from. He's in there looking up a lot of stuff because they do some unusual things. Sometimes I'm predicting it came from a high school team, maybe a college team. They know how to spread the field. They know how to run all those jet sweeps and do all the RPOs."Shanahan said the foundation remains the West Coast offense, and the Chiefs are still capable of beating teams with basic stuff. Just look at how they've put away games late in the fourth quarter, when they've leaned on Hunt and some old-fashioned, smash-mouth football.But none of that catches people's attention like the flashy stuff."Over these last four years or so, they've really added an element of the misdirection and stuff. It's been an issue, not just because of the plays, but the people with the plays," Shanahan said. "They have the speed at every angle to run those things and really put defenses in a bind."NOTES: SS Eric Berry (heel), FS Eric Murray (ankle) and OLBs Justin Houston (hamstring) and Tanoh Kpassagnon (ankle) remained out of practice Thursday. RB Spencer Ware was out for a personal matter.