In the immediate aftermath of Super Bowl LVIII, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan explained that he opted to take the ball after winning the coin toss to start overtime because he wanted to have the third possession of the game, with the next score winning it all.
On Tuesday, at their end-of-season press conference, Shanahan and G.M. John Lynch elaborated on the decision-making process, along with the extent to which it had been shared with the players in the days preceding the game.
Here’s the question, via the transcript provided by the team: “Some of the players after the game said they did not know the new rules for overtime. And Brock [Purdy] just said that he kind of went to quarterbacks coach Brian Griese right at the start of overtime for a refresher of the rules. Do you think it was important for the players to know the new rule as it pertains to overtime in the playoffs?”
Here’s Shanahan’s response, also from the transcript: “Well, yeah, I mean we did say and we told everyone as we were waiting for the coin toss, hey, review everyone with them, make sure they’re sure before we go out. So, we asked the position coaches to do that, but I didn’t cover it in a meeting on the Super Bowl week.
“I don’t think that changes anything. We did it with our analytics department. We decided that going into the playoffs, I think you guys know how I’ve explained how I make decisions with that stuff in the past. I take all the information I can get, especially ones I haven’t been in, and our analytics felt that was the best way to go. But as you guys know, I don’t always just go with that. I take into account what they say, what they think is right, and then I go off my gut in the heat of battle and I knew what they felt going into it. And when I think about that during the moments I have to make the decision, I think the type of game it was did match what they felt was the best way to do. It did seem more like a field goal game. And our defense had been out there for a real long time right before that. So, I didn’t feel at all to override that at the time.”
To summarize, the 49ers decided before the playoffs even started that the right move was to take the ball to start overtime. Shanahan saw no reason to do otherwise, given that: (1) it was a field-goal game; and (2) the defense was tired.
Lynch chimed in with this: “I think it was [an] 11-play drive that we just closed the game with. And when you’re playing [Patrick] Mahomes, you’re chasing him a lot, so there’s a lot of effort that’s expended. I think the context from there is you need some time to get fresh. And so, all those things play into it and those were sound decisions.”
That’s fine, but here’s another factor. You were facing Patrick Freaking Mahomes. You know what he can do in the clutch. We all know what he can do in the clutch. Why not make him go first, flying blind with three-down football while trying to score? Then, if he gets a field goal or a touchdown, you know what’s needed to continue the game or to win it — and you give your own quarterback a chance to do something special on the second drive.
While Shanahan already knew everything he needed to know about Mahomes, he didn’t know that the Chiefs planned to go for two, if the two teams had traded touchdowns. Also, no one knows what the Chiefs would have done if they’d faced a fourth down in field-goal range, after the 49ers had taken a three-point lead. It’s possible that the Chiefs were committed to avoiding sudden death entirely, with a goal to get six if the 49ers had scored three, and to get eight if the 49ers had scored seven.
All things considered, it’s definitely a close call. Against other teams, it would have made much more sense to take the ball. Against Mahomes, it made less sense to put the ball in his hands with a chance to win the Super Bowl.
They did. And he did. It wasn’t a fluke. It was Mahomes doing the things we know Mahomes does, especially when the stakes are the highest.
Here’s one thing we know. The next time a team wins the overtime coin toss while facing the Chiefs in the playoffs with the wind and weather not an issue, they’ll make Mahomes go first. We’ve already seen what he can do when he goes second.
Nobody should be surprised that he did it.
