Oh no. Oh nooooo. Kyle Shanahan, what are you doing?
The San Francisco 49ers head coach has addressed why he wanted his team to start overtime in the Super Bowl with the ball — his idea was, if they scored and the Kansas City Chiefs matched, the Niners would get the football in a sudden-death situation.
Now, that’s all fine and good in theory (if your team knows the new-ish playoff overtime rules, and some of his players admitted they didn’t). But the team that possess the ball second has some advantage — they know if they need a field goal to tie it back up or a touchdown to win. It’s four-down territory all the way, too, which means play calls can be more diverse.
It’s one quote in particular that has Shanahan being roasted after the Super Bowl: “We wanted the ball third.”
Here’s a sampling:
#49ers coach Kyle Shanahan goes deep on his decision to receive the overtime kickoff in the Super Bowl loss:
“We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win.” https://t.co/btmVykezpY
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 13, 2024
"we wanted to ball third" just doesn't make sense. i don't care what anyone says. https://t.co/desZsVbZje
— Denny Carter (@CDCarter13) February 13, 2024
What hate? If anything, I’m amazed there isn’t more scrutiny of Kyle Shanahan. I see a lot of apologists out there. But, as a Bay Area native, I’ll tell you that George Seifert (w current NFL OT postseason rules) said “we wanted the ball third,” there’d actually be hate. https://t.co/vYw815AHea
— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) February 13, 2024
Except the Chiefs were gonna go for two (and I think most teams would) so there is no third possession.
— The System (@tealtalk) February 13, 2024
“None of us have a ton of experience with it, but we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys, and we just decided we wanted the ball third.”
-Kyle Shanahan pic.twitter.com/9MTyaY37tG
— DFAntastic (@PhillyTradesman) February 12, 2024
“We wanted the ball third.” 🥴
— Michael Drew 🍻🍻 (@MikeDrewWhat) February 13, 2024
“We wanted the ball third” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/LrBhzdiYSL
— Dan (@Captain_Dan95) February 12, 2024
