Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:
Originally posted by genus49:
Here's the thing in the playoffs - it just takes 1 game.
People want to claim the Chiefs had a down year, they did. But this was the best defense by FAR that KC had under Mahomes.
Anyone blaming the loss on Kyle is taking the lazy way out. To me the team was prepared, they came out with a ton of energy and they were making plays. But one thing a coach cannot control is how players perform. You can prepare them, you can scheme them but in the end they have to make the plays.
We lost this game for many reasons and yes Kyle had a hand in that but he's down the list of why we lost. CMC fumble - how is that Kyle's fault? Punt fumble, which to me was the biggest reason we lost the game, how is that Kyle's fault? Even the two injuries in the game proved to be absolutely critical. Greenlaw getting injured not only zapped the energy on defense but allowed Kelce to wake up and in turn Mahomes. Greenlaw stays healthy for the whole game and we're talking about going back to back Champs right now. Even Feliciano's injury had key impact on the game. Burford comes in and makes key mental errors including on a would be TD in OT. We get that one and who knows what happens. At minimum we have a chance to defend a POSSIBLE 2pt conversion and have a chance to win it.
Now Kyle gets blame. KC adjusted and went more with man coverage, something that Deebo isn't so great against and we still went with a heavy Deebo gameplan but the plays were still there to be made if our guys execute.
The critical 3rd and 5 at the 2 minute mark - we pick up the first down and we're able to attempt a game winner with little or no time left. The playcall was there. Unfortunately as good as Brock was against the blitz/pressure all year KC has great players as well and they disguised it well and Brock went to Jennings vs Aiyuk. He throws to Aiyuk and it's very likely 1st down with 1:57 left in the game and KC is forced to use their 2nd timeout. Run on the next play and at worst we're forcing KC to use their last timeout with 1:50ish to go. 2 more runs and the clock is possibly under or around a minute left assuming we don't pick up the first down and get it down into single digits to kick.
Long story short the idea that we lost because of Kyle is dumb. He's got things he has to learn from in this one but winning a SB takes a lot of effort and a good amount of luck. Mike McCarthy won a SB. He's nowhere near the HC that Shanahan is and losing close games to a dynasty team, no matter how their offense looked should not be used a major slight on a HC. They've got HOF bound players and coaches. Their defense was excellent and ours faltered in the waning moments of the game.
You learn, grow and hope to not repeat the same mistakes again. And for anyone who thinks Kyle stopped running the ball...that was not an issue in this game.
you claim the bold, yet this is an actual headline, from cnn: San Francisco 49ers players admit they didn't know new Super Bowl overtime rules following loss to Chiefs.
Biggest red herring out there is the OT rules thing.
Someone explain to me what is gained by the team knowing about the rules prior to the game vs just finding out from the coaches before OT kicks off?
If they knew the rules ahead of the game would they have tried to score a TD instead of a FG only? Would they have tried to prevent KC from scoring a TD more?
I understand that part of it isn't a great look for Kyle but how does it change the game? The players have a job to do. They didn't do it. Burford did his own thing on a playcall that would've gotten us the TD on the opening possession. The defense which got to rest for that offensive drive had a job to do - don't let KC score a TD. Would knowing the OT rules gotten better play out of them?
This is my point...we're doing mental gymnastics to try to act like Shanahan lost this game when players should be held accountable just as much and in some cases more so!
