Midway through the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LVI, when the Niners were up 20-10 over the Chiefs, and when the San Francisco 49ers looked like they were on their way to winning their sixth Super Bowl title, it didn’t seem to matter that many were questioning Kyle Shanahan’s first-half thinking as he appeared to waste the last two minutes of the first half.
The Niners missed a chance to at least try to score and would have had the ball with about a minute and half left in the first half if he had used a timeout after the Kansas City Chiefs were forced to punt. After they got the ball, back the 49ers ran twice in a row before, finally, with 20 seconds on the clock, the Chiefs called a timeout.
Playing it safe against the comeback-capable Chiefs proved to be prophetic for some tweeters. Not saying it would have made the difference, but against KC you need to score as many points as you can, or at least try to, and the Chiefs’ 21-point fourth-quarter rally proved that.
TouchdownWire’s Barry Werner analyzes Shanahan’s failures in the Super Bowl.
Smart move by Kyle shanahan not building a superbowl lead in the first half that he can be acused of blowing later
— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) February 3, 2020
Sure looks like 49ers GM John Lynch wanted a timeout taken sooner… pic.twitter.com/lXaj5daZB5
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 3, 2020
Shanahan terrified of Jimmy G. Not calling a timeout because they are fine going into the half tied
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) February 3, 2020