So a huge topic the day after for this Super Bowl has been about blame. Who is to blame for the San Francisco 49ers blowing a 20-10 lead in the 4th quarter? We have so many people pointing fingers at someone. So I would love to hear the thoughts of the PW people.


- Jimmy G.
We will start things off with the QB. A man who once backed up the stone cold killer, the GOAT, 6 time SB Champion, Tom Brady. The handsome one. So here he is in the Super Bowl. Finally getting his opportunity for his own moment. It would be his 3rd ring but his 1st that he earned. So let’s focus on a few things that transpired.

1- In a 10-10 ballgame, the 49ers decided not to use their timeouts even though Jimmy G was having himself a solid completion % day. It wasn’t until they got a huge running play AFTER a Chiefs timeout that he was given an opportunity to air it out for an opportunity to take the lead before the half. Granted he made the completion to Kittle but unfortunately the extension of Kittles arm and the selling from Sorensen got the play called back. So how is that Jimmy Gs fault? Well it leads to ‘trust in their QB.’ If the Chiefs got the ball with that amount of time before the half, knowing they are getting the ball back to start the 2nd half, do you think they let all that time run off the clock before attempting a pass? Hell no. Why? Because Patrick Mahomes gives the team hope that they can at minimum get into FG range. But the fact that Jimmy G has not done enough for his coaching staff to give them that hope must mean a lot for their highly paid QB.

2- So we fast forward to the 4th quarter. After Mostert breaks a 5 yard run on 1st down with a lead, Jimmy G completes another play action pass to Kittle for a huge first down. This must be the time where the Niners can seal the deal. They follow with a 1 yard run by Mostert and once again goes to the play action and that’s where his pass gets tipped at the line of scrimmage by the monster Jones. Okay so here comes 3rd down and a false start. Now it’s 3rd and 14 and now Jimmy G has to make a play with his arm right? Wrong. He can’t find anyone and runs for 2 yards and gets shoved into oblivion. Is it because he can’t make the big play? Can he not attempt anything on such a crucial point of the game? I guess we find out that answer a little later.

3- By now the Chiefs have taken the lead and scored 14 straight points. Jimmy G has the moment any QB can dream of. Having the perfect play call and having a WR 3-5 yards ahead of the nearest defender. In a throw that, to this point, defines his career, he overthrows a wide open Emmanuel Sanders by a good 3-5 yards. The play that may have ended any hope for the 49ers happened on that play. He is then sacked on a 4th down play which basically ends their game. He gets another possession with the game basically gone and he throws an interception on his second deep pass of the game. A complete disastrous 4th quarter for a QB who had a chance to become a legend. No play might be bigger then that overthrow to Sanders. He was unable to defeat Patrick Mahomes on a bad Patrick Mahomes day. He was unable to put the dagger in the game.

3 big moments will define what Jimmy G was as a QB in this Super Bowl. Everything else is null and void.


- Kyle Shanahan
Before I start this one, let me make it clear; THIS IS MY PICK.

So let’s start off with the obvious stat. Kyle Shanahan has now gone to 2 Super Bowls. He has been a part of his team losing 2 games that they had a 96% or higher chance of winning. He has been outscored 40-0 in 4th quarters in Super Bowls. 46-0 if you count overtime. How is that even possible?

Well one stat that has been talked about a lot is his pass to run differential is about 3 times more passing then rushing in 4th quarter games where they have a lead! Some admire him for always going for the kill in the 4th quarter by passing but it has now come to the point where he is just failing and outcoaching himself.

Everyone on this forum, including myself, assumed after that 4th quarter Mahomes interception sealed the game. Everyone assumed that Shanahan was going to just run the ball and drain that clock. Instead he overthought himself and didn’t want to risk Mahomes getting the ball. So he called pass play after pass play after pass play until it was too late to go back to the run. Instead of having your D get to rest and you getting Mostert the ball, 2 weeks after running for over 200 yards and 4 TDS, you start passing!

I have this crazy theory. I believe that Pete Carroll called a pass play from the 1 yard line in the Super Bowl so he can basically hand the Super Bowl MVP to Russell Wilson by giving him the GW TD throw. I wholeheartedly believe that he did not want Marshawn Lynch winning the MVP and having Beast Mode being the memory of the 2nd Super Bowl.

Is that what Shanahan was trying to do with Jimmy G? Was he trying to cement Jimmy as the hero of SF? I don’t know. Because then we can rewind the game and go to the end of the 1st half where he really didn’t want Jimmy G trying to execute a final drive before the half. So to me it sounds more like Shanahan coached the game scared and completely overthought every decision.

In my opinion, Kyle Shanahans Super Bowl record and 4th quarter scores speak for themselves. This is who Kyle Shanahan is at this point. Offensive genius? The man who turned the SF program around? None of that matters. Not when you let your boys down by being unable to score a single point in 2 Super Bowl 4th quarters.


- Richard Sherman
Boy did Revis enjoy this game or what? Richard Sherman was absolutely absurd in this game. He’s had a pretty good postseason so far, but in this game, he had a bad game. The big bomb to Sammy Watkins was just a replay to me of what Davante Adams did to him in the NFC Championship game. The Adams play was with a big enough lead where it didn’t stick to anyone’s mind or affect the end result. That play to Sammy Watkins gave the Chiefs the field position to take the lead.

Then in the controversial Damien Williams rushing TD, it’s Richard Sherman who makes the final contact on Damien Williams. Enough to get him to get out of bounds but not enough to actually stop him from reaching into the end zone. Poor tackling? Weak tackling? Great play by Williams?

The Kansas City Chiefs gameplan was to pick on Richard Sherman all game long and they did. The highest completion % against any defensive player this game were against Richard Sherman. How the mighty have fallen.


- The Chiefs just won.
Of course you can just ignore the big decisions and plays the Niners failed with. You can just tell yourself that the 49ers didn’t lose the game but it was the Chiefs who just won it.

The game showed Andy Reid going for it on 4th down and getting it. Had they failed, he would be getting the criticism as a continuous choke artist today. Instead it worked and he came out looking ballsy and awesome.

Patrick Mahomes won this game with his arm AND his legs. Everyone still screaming for Damian Williams to win MVP don’t understand what the MVP really means. The MVP of this game was Patrick Mahomes 100%. Williams had a great game, but without the plays Mahomes made it wouldn’t have mattered. He took some huge hits to get that extra yard this game. Completely showing the difference between him and Cam Newton. Do you all remember Cam tumbling in the Super Bowl and stepping away from the ball as people started jumping on the floor for the ball? I do. Cam played scared. McNabb choked on the final drive. Patrick Mahomes did not. These are not me going for ‘black QB comparison’. This is me talking about QBs who could run better then Mahomes but were too scared to sacrifice their bodies in the big game. Mahomes also hit Hill on a 45 yard bomb. Watkins on a bomb. This dude ran in the 1st TD of the game. Just an MVP like performance helping lead 3 straight postseason comebacks.

Their defense stepping up HUGE in the 4th quarter after The Honey Badger went off on the defense on the sideline. Chris Jones getting his hand on 2 passes in the 4th quarter. I don’t care what anyone says. Chris Jones was the best defensive player on the Chiefs in this night. I would go as far as saying 2nd best in the game behind Bosa. It was truly an unbelievable performance by him and a hell of another ‘FUCK YOU’ to Dee Ford.

However, like Honey Badger and Suggs said after the game, “Thank God they stopped running the ball.” When the defensive players are saying that on the opposing team, then something has to give.


So what do you guys think? Who do you blame?

Kyle Shanahan hands down. Honey Badger's comment of "Thank God they stopped running the ball" says it all. Running the ball is a huge part of the Niners' identity and for Kyle Shanahan to get away from it when he had a 10 pt lead with 9 minutes to go is just mind-boggling. Don't even get me started on his AWFUL clock management before half-time, especially considering Jimmy G was red hot at the time. Overall just a pathetic coaching performance.

Feb 4, 2020 5:04:59 GMT thereallt said:

Kyle Shanahan hands down. Honey Badger's comment of "Thank God they stopped running the ball" says it all. Running the ball is a huge part of the Niners' identity and for Kyle Shanahan to get away from it when he had a 10 pt lead with 9 minutes to go is just mind-boggling. Don't even get me started on his AWFUL clock management before half-time, especially considering Jimmy G was red hot at the time. Overall just a pathetic coaching performance.

Yep. Don't think anything else needs to be said. They put themselves in a position where they handed Mahomes the ball twice and dared him to do it, and he did it.

I put down that the Chiefs just won it because they outplayed the Niners down the stretch. I get that there was at least one play while they were ahead (2nd and 5) where running made some sense, but otherwise they were either down with little time or in a third down situation and it’s not like the 49ers have had zero passing game this season.

The Chiefs scored three tds in 7 minutes. I’ll give them the credit.

If you watch the 49ers going into the tunnel after the loss, you hear Tevin Coleman shout to himself “One fucking play”. That has to be the Emmanuel Sanders overthrow by Jimmy G.

Clock mismanagement was always Andy Reid’s problem but Shanahan mismanaged the shit out of the end of both halves. Yes the Chiefs scored 3 TDS in 7 minutes but look at that statistic. The 49ers defense had to go on the field for 4 drives in 7 minutes, including that final kneel down and throw away.

Feb 4, 2020 15:26:22 GMT KING KID said:

If you watch the 49ers going into the tunnel after the loss, you hear Tevin Coleman shout to himself “One fucking play”. That has to be the Emmanuel Sanders overthrow by Jimmy G.

Clock mismanagement was always Andy Reid’s problem but Shanahan mismanaged the shit out of the end of both halves. Yes the Chiefs scored 3 TDS in 7 minutes but look at that statistic. The 49ers defense had to go on the field for 4 drives in 7 minutes, including that final kneel down and throw away.

Well the last two were caused by having to rely on Jimmy G. against a Chiefs defense getting pressure, that’s not on Shanahan.

Chiefs just won. Kyle Shanahan made some mistakes but the 49ers defence should have been good enough to make up for those. Andy Reid and the Chiefs offence figured them out and crushed them late in the game.

It’s one thing to make a mistake, it’s another to make the most out of those mistakes in a high pressure situation. I give the Chiefs all the credit there.

Feb 4, 2020 19:16:29 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

It’s a coaching problem for 49ers. With about 7 minutes left.. the 49ers were passing the ball (mostly incompletions). Should have been running the ball and running the time out. But nah. I commented on the party thread it was the worst coaching decisions I’ve seen outside of Seattle passing on the one yard line.

They had three plays in the final 7 minutes with the lead. A run that gained five yards, a pass that was knocked down (on a play where the Chiefs were so set up against the run that Terrell Suggs was in pass coverage on Kittle) and a pass that was essentially thrown away.

Other than that, running time out wasn’t really a good idea.

The blame on Shanahan has got way over blown. He didn't have a brilliant game but all the "HE BLEW IT" talk is hot take analysis personified. The major mistake was not using the timeouts before half time, and passing on the chance to put up a double score with them receiving the second half kickoff.

There really wasn't much wrong with his playcalling down the stretch. He stayed fairly aggressive (if they'd run and been forced to punt everyone would have gone mad with him playing conservatively) and there were a number of nice play designs where Garoppolo either didn't see an open receiver (usually Kittle) or didn't make a good throw. On top of that (and the part that most overlook because you won't get Youtube clicks hooting and hollering about) is how the Chiefs pass rush got on top of the 49ers o-line in the fourth quarter.

And the 49ers pass rush slowed down about the same time.

Shanahan for poor management with a lead, Jimmy for absolutely shitting the bed on an easy TD to take the lead back (amongst other plays), the defense for giving huge chunk plays (especially who ever it was that teabagged Kelce in the endzone), but mostly...the Chiefs just outperformed them. Mahomes was making plays all game, but just got shook because the pass rush getting home; as soon as the rush started being handled, they couldn't stop him.

Feb 4, 2020 23:03:24 GMT mikec said:

And the 49ers pass rush slowed down about the same time.

Did you notice anything that the Chiefs did differently to achieve that? The only thing I can find about it online is that after the deep ball to Hill (where they nearly got to Mahomes - and it was only because he backpeddled to buy a little extra time) there was only two more pressures on the 13 dropbacks following which was a much lower rate than prior to that play.

I might go back and watch that stretch again when I get some time and see if there were any adjustments. 

I just think their defense got gassed out having to chase Mahomes and that offensive speed core on that many drives in 7 minutes.

I don’t care what anyone says. Jimmy G makes that pass to Sanders and putting the Niners up with a little over 1 minute left and SF probably wins. Add in the boost of confidence that the D is given to win the game after that and Andy Reid having to clock manage the final 70 seconds and you probably get a replay of McNabbs final drive against NE in the Super Bowl with Reid losing again.


That was the biggest play of the game by KC D and it had nothing to do with them. The second biggest was Clark getting his hand on the ball on the 2nd and 5 play action pass and 3rd was the 4th down sack on a play that should’ve been whistled dead with the time clock hitting 0. 

And you just can’t ignore that Shanahan has been outscored 40-0 in 4th quarter Super Bowls. There’s something off about him in that 4th quarter with a lead. He chokes. Plain and simple.

Feb 5, 2020 5:23:59 GMT @admin said:

Feb 4, 2020 23:03:24 GMT mikec said:

And the 49ers pass rush slowed down about the same time.

Did you notice anything that the Chiefs did differently to achieve that? The only thing I can find about it online is that after the deep ball to Hill (where they nearly got to Mahomes - and it was only because he backpeddled to buy a little extra time) there was only two more pressures on the 13 dropbacks following which was a much lower rate than prior to that play.

I might go back and watch that stretch again when I get some time and see if there were any adjustments. 

They did one thing that I was hoping they’d do earlier was went no huddle on the drive to get them within 3 which kept them from rotating as much and always works well against pressure, but otherwise I believe it was Warren Sharp that was going on podcasts to tell people that the 9ers pass rush was typically worse the longer a game went on and the more passes they had to defend.

Feb 5, 2020 11:05:47 GMT KING KID said:

And you just can’t ignore that Shanahan has been outscored 40-0 in 4th quarter Super Bowls. There’s something off about him in that 4th quarter with a lead. He chokes. Plain and simple.

The 28-3 loss was on the coaching staff, this one wasn’t. Like you said, his qb doesn’t miss a pass by a yard or two and they still probably win.