Shanahan explains decision to let the clock run at the end of first half instead of calling timeout pic.twitter.com/2LU2OKsvYz
— KNBR (@KNBR) February 3, 2020
It happened again.
Kyle Shanahan’s worst nightmare came true on Sunday night, when the 49ers blew a 10 point lead with seven minutes to go, and somehow lost Super Bowl LIV by 11 points. Three times in NFL history a team has blown a fourth quarter lead. Shanahan, who infamously blew a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI, has now done it twice.
Criticism of Shanahan is likely to come regarding two conservative decisions he made Sunday night. The first came at the end of the first half, when Shanahan, armed with three timeouts and the game tied at 10, elected to let the clock run for an entire minute before Kansas City punted. After running Raheem Mostert behind the left side of the line, Shanahan burned another 30 seconds off the clock before throwing the ball twice.
Ironically the second pass, a 42-yard bomb to George Kittle, would’ve put the 49ers in field goal range with 14 seconds left. It was called back, however, on a questionable pass interference call. The 49ers kneeled and the half concluded.
Shanahan was asked why he didn’t try a more aggressive approach, especially considering the 49ers were set to receive the ball at the start of the second half.
“They had three timeouts and it was 10 to 10,” Shanahan said. “The last thing we’re going to do there is allow them to get the ball with three timeouts left, especially with their quarterback and the offensive speed, and go down and score before the half. Felt real good at 10-10, especially with us starting with the ball. I thought it played out alright. I thought we should have got points, but they end up calling that PI on (George) Kittle.
“If we would’ve gotten an explosive run on the first one we would have (called timeout). I want to say we got a four-yard run so we let the clock run a little bit to get it down, but no we were good with that situation, we’d do it every single time.”
The second questionable decision centered around settling for a field goal on 4th and 1 on the Kansas City 24-yard line on the following possession. Shanahan explained it was a tough decision.
“It was. Thought about it for a little bit there, probably would’ve of it was less than one (yard), I thought it was closer to two. Robbie’s automatic, and our defense was playing pretty good at that time.”
Ultimately, the 49ers were still in a position to win the game, extending their lead well after both of those decisions were made.
Yet the record books will show that Shanahan’s team again blew what looked like sure victory at the end of a Super Bowl. And he will be criticized for those decisions until his team leaves with a Lombardi Trophy.