49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has explained why he chose to receive the football after Sunday’s Super Bowl clash vs. the Chiefs went to overtime.
The decision has been under scrutiny given the recent postseason rule changes.
A few years ago, teams would always opt to receive the ball in overtime as the one scoring the first touchdown in the period won the game. That is still the case during the regular season but things changed after the 2021 season as the NFL made an alteration so both teams would have an opportunity to make a drive.
Shanahan appeared to stick by his decision while speaking to reporters, explaining the team had already decided that they would go for the ball if they won the coin toss in an overtime situation.
“It’s just something we talked about,” he said, per NFL.com. “None of us have a ton of experience with it. But we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys. We just thought it would be better. We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win. Got that field goal, so knew we had to hold them to at least a field goal, and if we did, then we thought it was in our hands after that.”
After securing the toss, the Niners were unable to get into the end zone but went ahead by three in the period. The Chiefs would seal the win with a Mecole Hardman touchdown after a clutch drive from Patrick Mahomes.
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“It was two real good teams. It went back and forth throughout the whole game,” Shanahan added. “Both teams played their A- s off. They got it done.
“We’ll take some time. We’ll get over this. And come back next year ready to go.”
