Some 49ers Players Didn't Know What Kyle Shanahan's Plan For Overtime Was In Super Bowl LVIII

Super Bowl LVIII was an incredibly even matchup. Both teams committed two turnovers, both defenses played outstanding football, and each coach executed excellent game plans. While you certainly can say that San Francisco had too many miscues on special teams, those still didn’t automatically doom the 49ers.

But as I was watching the game, one decision from San Francisco stood out as particularly puzzling to me. After winning the overtime coin toss, the 49ers elected to receive the ball.

Under the old overtime rules, where a team would win if they got the ball first and scored a touchdown, this would make sense. The 49ers could have won the game with a touchdown and prevented Patrick Mahomes from getting the ball.

Kyle Shanahan (with headset) wanted the ball to start overtime. His plan didn't work out. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

But under the new rules, each team is guaranteed to get a possession, even if the first team finds the endzone. With that in mind, I found it odd that San Francisco wanted the ball so badly, since it put all the pressure on themselves to get points.

But Kyle Shanahan was willing to take that risk, saying he felt confident his team could force Kansas City to play under pressure instead.

"It's just something we talked about," Shanahan said in his post game news conference. "None of us have a ton of experience with [the new overtime rules]. But we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys (his analytics department). 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. So got that field goal, so knew we had to hold them to at least a field goal and if we did, we thought it was in our hands after that."

The 49ers Players Didn't Know What Shanahan's Plan Was For Overtime

I still don’t necessarily agree with this, but then again, I’m a fan who’ll never have to face the pressure decisions Shanahan faces each week. He thought out his plan, talked about it with his analytics gurus, and communicated that with his players.

Except, did he?

After the 49ers' crushing loss, several players told the media that they didn’t really know the strategy heading into overtime, or the new rules in general.

"I didn't even know about the new playoff overtime rule, so it was a surprise to me," defensive lineman Arik Armstead said. "I didn't even really know what was going on in terms of that."

Okay, so one guy didn’t refresh himself on the rule book updates as well as he should have. Not a great look, but you can live with it.

But what you can’t live with is your players not knowing what the game plan was for overtime in the most important game of your career. Unfortunately, that was the case for San Francisco.

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk spoke with reporters after the game and said the teams were mentally unprepared for the strategy after regulation ended.

"You know what? I didn't even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime," Juszczyk said. "I assume you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win. I guess that's not the case. I don't totally know the strategy there. We hadn't talked about it, no."

That Admission Is Not A Good Look On The 49ers Coaching Staff

Now, of course, you just want to score a touchdown if possible, which is a fairly simple strategy.

But even so, Juszczyk revealed a massive oversight on San Francisco’s part. Shanahan and the staff did not adequately prepare the players mentally for what to do in case the game reached overtime. That’s a mistake you can not afford to make.

Frankly, it's fair to question if Shanahan even knew what he was doing in overtime. Despite his comments above, it appeared that even he didn't know what the rules were in overtime, which could have affected his decision-making. 

Starting at the 34-second mark of this video, he revealed he thought scoring a touchdown on the opening drive would win the game.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid knows that, and he prepared his players accordingly. 

"We've talked about it all year," Reid said. "We talked about it in training camp about how the rules were different in regular season versus the playoffs. Every week of the playoffs we talked about the overtime rule. We knew what our game plan was -- had we won the coin toss, whether we want to defer or not, and what our plan was from there."

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl thanks to a Mecole Hardman touchdown (Hardman is being hugged by Mahoems, 15). (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

So it sounds like even Shanahan got outsmarted in a fairly simple element of a game plan in the most important game of his life. That's a rough look to say the least.

Who knows if San Francisco would have gotten a different outcome with better planning? But one thing’s for certain.

Shanahan and the 49ers coaching staff did not get themselves or the team adequately prepared for a title game against the best team of this NFL era. And it certainly did nothing to help their cause.