49ers’ Super Bowl overtime confusion lands squarely on Kyle Shanahan’s shoulders

His team was unprepared Sunday for the new overtime rules, some of the 49ers players didn’t even know the rules had been changed two years ago. He made a critical strategic mistake in starting overtime. He now has blown 10-point leads in three Super Bowls.

Kyle Shanahan has lost his halo as a bright, inventive young coach. Instead, it is fair to wonder if he is up to the task of handling the pressure contained in critical moments in the most important game of the season.

For a team that began the season as the most talented in the NFL, because it was assembled by intelligent leadership, the 49ers now have to endure and examine the embarrassments they caused by forgetting how they got to the Super Bowl. By not checking ALL the boxes.

Fairly or not the onus of that embarrassment falls squarely on Shanahan, now labeled by some - and I’m quoting here - “the biggest choke artist of all time.” At the very least he has some ‘splainin’ to do.

Chris Jones, Kansas City’s All-Pro defensive line, said the Chiefs were running drills in training camp on how to adjust to the new overtime rules established in 2022. On the other hand. ...

Arik Armstead, the 49ers defensive lineman, learned of the new rules during a television timeout in the fourth quarter. Said fullback Kyle Juszczyk who assumed overtime rules hadn’t changed: “I guess that’s not the case anymore. I really don’t know the strategy.”

Responding to criticism that became louder and louder over the years, both teams in playoff overtime now get a possession, an equal opportunity to score as opposed to a playoff game ending after the first team’s score. It was widely hailed as progressive which is silly because it is so obviously logical. Ah, but this is the NFL and its ego has difficulty accepting it’s not perfect.

Not being informed is like stepping on glass to an NFL player schooled since training camp on preparation, thoroughness and ready for all possibilities off script. What? Who? Where? When? No player wants to think like that in the biggest game of their season.

Worse still is what happened next. The 49ers won the coin toss and Shanahan elected to keep the ball. For his players, all of whom played in college, this was confusing. In college, if a team wins the coin toss, it almost always elects to go on defense in overtime. Puts pressure on the other team’s offense. A field goal might be necessary.

Maybe a touchdown. Or a punt. The offense that gets the ball first in overtime has a cloudy, undefined objective.

However, when the other offense gets the ball its intent is clear. The need is obvious. A score has been posted. A field goal? A touchdown? The objective has been set. Athletes at all levels need goals, welcome them, and are inspired by them. In football, that’s why it’s called “the goal line.”

It’s the Michael Jordan approach. Michael always wanted to take the last shot. It’s how champions think.

Sunday, the 49ers drove to a field goal. Good. The bar had been set. The Chiefs knew what was needed and knew how to respond. And they did with a Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

What made Shanahan’s decision even more mystically stupid - he gave the best quarterback of his generation the best chance to beat his team. WITHOUT having a chance to respond. Shanahan somehow forgot what this Superman does with any game on the line.

Mahomes is 9-2 in the postseason when trailing by at least seven points. In his career, Mahomes has had 14 fourth-quarter comeback victories. But at halftime Sunday the Chiefs trailed 10-3. Mahomes was intercepted when he threw into double coverage. Kansas City’s offense was stagnant. Mahomes looked like someone’s third-string backup.

Then he turned on the switch. Sometimes it seems Mahomes is bored and needs a carrot at the end of a stick. He was responsible for 399 of the Chiefs’ 455 yards of total offense, 66 of them on the ground.

But this was the guy that Shanahan was comfortable with having the football and the Super Bowl on the line? With the 49ers having no chance to respond? Shanahan gave the Chiefs, not the 49ers, the best opportunity to win Super Bowl 58.

Baffling for such a smart guy, someone savvy and experienced, who preaches preparation. After the game, Shanahan spoke in cliches. The 49ers are hurting right now. It’s so painful. We had the team. Didn’t go the way we wanted. We gave it our best. Just came up short. We’ll be ready for next year.

But will they? How will they be better? The 49ers had the Offensive Player of the Year. They had the brick wall on defense. The 49ers were seen as having the most talent in the NFL, with more players who were game-breakers than any other team. And Brock Purdy was not a one-hit wonder.

The 49ers have everything. Except maybe the coach. Is Shanahan on his way to becoming the updated, modern version of Marv Levy? Levy was the coach of the Buffalo Bills in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. His quarterback was Jim Kelly. The Bills won six consecutive division championships. For a while, the road to the Super Bowl always seemed to go through Buffalo.

Yet Levy was in four Super Bowls and never won. Levy was elected to the Hall of Fame as was Kelly. Respected to the point he was revered, Levy will always be judged as an exceptional coach. Yet Levy never won a Super Bowl. That sentence always made him flinch, for a Super Bowl champion is the uncontested arbiter of greatness.

Levy was one of only two coaches to have a winning record (17-6) against Don Shula, who won more games than any NFL coach. The Raiders’ Tom Flores (6-1) was other. No matter. Levy is seen as a second-tier coach.

Shanahan is 0-3 in Super Bowls (one as an offensive coordinator). He is the first coach in NFL history to blow two double-digit leads in a Super Bowl. And the first Super Bowl coach whose team didn’t know how to play overtime.

What happens next to the 49ers and Shanahan is unknown. But what is known is this: It’s not enough anymore to say the 49ers sure look like a Super Bowl team. We’re way past that.

To comment write to bobpadecky@gmail.com.