Super Bowl LI is one of the most memorable championships in NFL history.
The New England Patriots infamously came back from a 28-3 deficit in the third quarter to defeat the Atlanta Falcons. Jokes flooded in regarding the Falcons’ inability to seal the game and a lot of the blame was pointed toward offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan for his late-game decisions.
Shanahan joined the “Flying Coach” podcast with Peter Schrager and discussed the final minutes of the game. Shanahan said a failed second-and-10 running play led to a more aggressive approach.
“So we threw it to Julio, he caught that. I ran it the next play, got it to second-and-10, and I was like, ‘I’m going right to Julio,'” Shanahan said, transcribed by The Score.
“Right when we snapped it, the coverage took it away, so it was the wrong call. And I wish we didn’t take a sack, but no one was open, and we ended up taking a sack. And right then I was like, ‘Oh my god, why did I just try to end it?'”
The following play was a holding call that led to a punt by Atlanta.
“Yeah, I wish I called a different call on that one play,” Shanahan said. “I don’t want to go to the final (thought process on) everything. You’re down, you get into the two-minute (drill), you throw the ball six plays straight, but that one right there, and I think it would have been different.”
I’m not sure we’ we ever heard Kyle Shanahan go through the final minutes and the play calling decisions of the Falcons Super Bowl loss to the Patriots.
He does here.
And then McVay discusses Seattle’s decision to throw and not run w/ Marshawn on Malcolm Butler INT. @ringer pic.twitter.com/UZOSJ9HAnI
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) July 7, 2021
On that night, everything worked out perfectly for the Patriots to mount the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
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