There was a prop bet this week that offered 100-1 odds if Kyle Shanahan was part of another collapse in a Super Bowl the size of the one the Atlanta Falcons went through against the New England Patriots in LI.
Well, you won’t cash if you made the bet, but Shanahan is on the brutal side of another Super Bowl disaster. The then-offensive coordinator saw the Falcons lose 34-28 to the Patriots after blowing a 28-3 lead in LI.. His San Francisco 49ers blew a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs scored 21 straight points in the fourth quarter to post a 31-20 victory Sunday.
Shanahan has been a part of the only teams to lose the Super Bowl in the last 10 seasons when scoring first. The debacle between the games Shanahan was involved in totals 52-0 when you factor in the Falcons’ 25-point lead and the 10-point advantage the Niners blew at Hard Rock Stadium.
Once again, the question has to be asked: Why didn’t Shanahan stay with the running game? He took a lot of criticism for his play-calling in Super Bowl LI and he is going to find himself under the microscope again after LIV.
Is Kyle Shanahan's team blows another double-digit 4th quarter weed after being the team to score first in the Super Bowl I don't know how he's going to ever get past it
— Akiva Cohen (@AkivaMCohen) February 3, 2020
Raheem Mostert was making solid yardage on the ground, yet Shanahan quickly had Jimmy Garoppolo throw passes on second down when the 49ers were in position to run the ball, eat some clock and put themselves in a better position to control the game. The 49ers rushed for 141 yards overall, gaining 6.4 yards per carry. They went to the ground only 22 times despite the success with Garoppolo putting the ball up 31 times for 219 yards.
Garoppolo actually said he had joked with his coach about what happened to the Falcons.
Jimmy Garoppolo told me he and Kyle Shanahan have joked about 28-3 a few times and have had some weird conversations about it, too. pic.twitter.com/qdXKRLQgCi
— Andy Nesbitt (@anezbitt) January 30, 2020
Shanahan was asked about Atlanta’s failure during the lead-up to Super Bowl LIV.
“I don’t think there’s anything to run away from,” Shanahan told reporters Wednesday. “I thought we played a pretty darn good game. We were up 28-3 in the fourth and we all know that we did not play well in the fourth, did not coach well. I’m not going to run from that.”
The Niners’ coach would have been better off with his offense running the ball rather than risking a repeat of the ultimate collapse in Super Bowl history. This one wasn’t 25 points but it is every bit the failure.