The NFL schedule makers didn’t do the 49ers any favor when they scheduled them to play the Chiefs in Week Seven, following Kansas City’s Week Six bye.
No coach in NFL history has been better at using the bye week to his team’s advantage than Chiefs coach Andy Reid, whose teams are 21-4 following their regular-season bye week. Reid’s .840 winning percentage after a bye is the highest for any head coach, among those who have coached at least 10 games after bye weeks.
Reid was 13-1 after a bye week as head coach of the Eagles, and he’s 8-3 with the Chiefs. Reid is only 1-2 in games when both teams are coming off a bye, but when his team is coming off a bye and the other team played the week before, Reid is 20-2.
That’s the case this week: The Chiefs had a full week off, while the 49ers played last week, although they played on Thursday night, so they are coming off extra rest too.
Despite Reid’s track record after byes, the Chiefs are 1.5-point underdogs at San Francisco on Sunday in a Super Bowl rematch.