Heading into yet another pivotal offseason, the San Francisco 49ers were sent home empty-handed after losing a heartbreaking overtime game to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Many questioned head coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision to receive the ball first because the game ended in overtime under the new rules, even though statistics showed that the odds of winning were almost same whether getting the ball or kicking first.
Heading into yet another pivotal offseason, the San Francisco 49ers were sent home empty-handed after losing a heartbreaking overtime game to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Many questioned head coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision to receive the ball first because the game ended in overtime under the new rules, even though statistics showed that the odds of winning were almost same whether getting the ball or kicking first.
Let me mention this first. “Brekky Purdy had a solid game,” stated Newton. “That’s not Brock Purdy up until that point, field goal versus touchdown.” How in the world did they get the ball first? Tony Romo brought up the point that you now have four downs, not three, to get what you need to know.
Newton identified two primary reasons why the coaching staff should have taken the fall for the defeat: the 49ers’ failure to go for a touchdown and the players’ ignorance of the rules.
Newton remarked, “The 49ers were just trying to get points.” “And that’s poor coaching, not Brock Purdy’s fault. The number of people who were exposed was excessive. They were ignorant of the actual overtime regulations.
We’re not realizing how bad this is. It is not Brock Purdy’s fault; it is the responsibility of Steve Wilks, Shanahan, John Lynch, and the 49ers organization that they failed to handle the rules. He performed well enough to help his team win. He wrote plays, and he wrote plays when people needed them.
As I previously mentioned, I don’t believe that choosing to receive was a poor choice. It wouldn’t have been a smart idea to send the 49ers defense back out onto the field for another possession since they were worn out.
My primary complaint, though, is with the decision-making process that followed the receive option. In the scenario where the 49ers would get the first opportunity in a sudden death after the first two possessions, Shanahan made the decision to accept.
He didn’t, however, apply Andy Reid’s logic to the situation since Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs was holding the ball the entire game rather than returning it to the offense.
Kansas City planned to attempt a field goal if the 49ers failed to score. The Chiefs were going for seven points if the 49ers scored three. And in the event that San Francisco scored a touchdown, Kansas City would attempt a two-point conversion attempt to win.
