February 13, 2024
The San Francisco 49ers were the final NFC team standing after the Detroit Lions let them off the hook in the NFC Championship Game a couple weeks ago, and they therefore were the lone uneulogized team in our Hierarchy/Obituary series.
Normally, we end this series after the NFC Championship Game, but I think we can make an exception this year and kill off the Niners.
For a team that hasn't won a Super Bowl in almost three decades, the 49ers did a hell of a lot of talking over the last calendar year. They spent the entire offseason crying about last year's NFC Championship Game after they were thoroughly dominated by the Eagles, and continued to run their mouths into the regular season, when they tried to adopt an "us against the world" underdog mentality, despite being favored in literally every game they played this season.
Kyle Shanahan has now coached in three Super Bowls. His teams have blown double-digit leads in all of them:
He also blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Rams in the NFC Championship Game in 2021.
The Chiefs’ overtime plan worked out exactly how they had hoped—and it wasn’t by accident. Kansas City safety Justin Reid told The Ringer that the Chiefs had first discussed the new overtime rules as far back as training camp. Defensive lineman Chris Jones told me players were prepared for what to expect if the Super Bowl went to overtime.
“We talked through this for two weeks,” Jones said. “How we was going to give the ball to the opponent; if they scored, we was going for two at the end of the game. We rehearsed it.”
The 49ers did not do the same. Multiple San Francisco players said after the game that they were not aware that the overtime rules are different in the playoffs than they are in the regular season, and strategy discussions over how to handle the overtime period did not occur as a team. Defensive lineman Arik Armstead said he learned the details of the postseason rule when it was shown on the Allegiant Stadium jumbotron during a TV timeout after regulation. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk said he assumed the 49ers asked to receive when they won the toss because that’s what you do in the regular season, when a touchdown wins the game. “I guess that’s not the case. I don’t really know the strategy,” Juszczyk said.
Perhaps it only matters that Shanahan knew the strategy, one he came to with his assistant coaches and his analytics staffers. But given Shanahan’s history of heartbreaking postseason losses—this is his second Super Bowl loss as the 49ers head coach, and he was the Falcons offensive coordinator when Atlanta lost to the Patriots, also in overtime—it’s hard not to scrutinize such a critical decision.
To be clear, it does not "only matter that Shanahan knew" the overtime rules. The players very clearly should have been briefed on them, so that they would have known what to expect in key situations. For example, when the Chiefs were driving for their game-winning score, viewers watching at home panicked as the Chiefs were running a 1st and Goal play as the clock ticked down under five seconds. The Chiefs were in no rush to get plays off, knowing that the clock was basically irrelevant, as overtime would have simply gone into another quarter with their drive uninterrupted. Would the 49ers' players have handled that drive differently if they were the team on the offensive in that kind of situation?
The Chiefs were ready for what to expect in OT. It was malpractice by Shanahan for the Niners not to be as well. He has become one of the greatest choke artists in professional sports.
Shanahan aside, a lot of the Niners' players came up small in the biggest game of their lives.
• Christian McCaffrey: McCaffrey averaged 3.6 yards per carry, and his fumble cost the Niners points. And oh by the way, he had 417 touches this season after racking up 381 touches in 2022. The Niners put a hell of a lot stress on McCaffrey's body, and have nothing to show for it.
• George Kittle: 2 catches, 4 yards, 0 waves to the sky cam.
• Dre Greenlaw: In his last 41 games, Greenlaw had 8 unnecessary roughness penalties, 2 ejections, and was fined 4 times. He's one of the dirtiest players in the NFL, arguably the dirtiest. He tore an Achilles jogging onto the field. To correct Taylor Swift, Karma isn't "the guy on the Chiefs." It's that.
• Jake Moody: The 49ers spent a third-round pick on Moody, who had a PAT blocked because the ball's trajectory was way too low. That point mattered.
• Nick Bosa: 0 sacks.
• Arik Armstead: Armstead seems like a standup guy among a bunch of clowns on the Niners' roster, but we learned during the telecast that his nickname is "The Blueprint." That has to be the worst nickname I've ever heard.
• Chase Young: It looked for a hot second like Young was going to have the game of his life early on, but then he just kind of disappeared.
• Special teams: One of the biggest plays of the game was when a Chiefs punt took an unlucky bounce off of Darrell Luter's calf, which the Chiefs then recovered. This play of course gave homers something to blame the outcome on:
And without a tremendously unlucky break — a ball hitting off Luter’s leg — the 49ers would’ve beaten KC today.
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) February 12, 2024
Luck evens out and results speak for themselves. The 49ers have an impressive track record over the past 5 but KC has been better and stood in way of Super Bowl https://t.co/6p062sSsOq
Let's be clear about something here. That is a play that teams work on from the start of training camp all the way through until the end of the season. I couldn't tell you if Ray-Ray McCloud did a poor job of telling Luter to clear out of the way or if Luter just had bad awareness (maybe both?), but that is the type of play that should not be left to "luck." Get the hell out of the way.
It was noteworthy that the Chiefs finished in the top quarter of the NFL in all three phases in DVOA (8th in offense, 7th in defense, and 6th in special teams). The Niners finished 25th in special teams DVOA, despite employing arguably the best punter in the league. Special teams matter, and it's part of the reason the Niners lost, must like it was part of the reason the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl last year.
• The offensive line: The interior of the Niners' offensive line got torn apart by Chris Jones and the Chiefs' defensive line, and Trent Williams looked human for a change:
Mike Pennel vs Trent Williams
— Dominic White (@DomWWhite) February 12, 2024
Something the #Cowboys need to address desperately is the interior DL. pic.twitter.com/cvfDas7Rs3
On one of the biggest plays of the game, Jones was left unblocked, which caused an errant throw by Brock Purdy. A day later, starting RG Jon Feliciano, who left the game early with an injury, butted heads with Niners fans on Twitter about who was at fault on that play:
I know you know all, so u should know that’s not Colton’s guy…. https://t.co/l2siCwnMGW
— Jonathan Feliciano (@MongoFeliciano) February 12, 2024
Backup RG Spencer Burford woke up to those tweets, and was rightfully like, "Yo, what the hell man?" to which Feliciano was like, "Oh sorry I was drunk."
Lol.
• Brock Purdy: Purdy wasn't bad, but he also wasn't great. He was fine. But if you compare the way he played in the Super Bowl with the way Jalen Hurts played in the Eagles' loss to the Chiefs last year, for example, it isn't close. The idea that Purdy went toe-to-toe with Mahomes is ludicrous. And oh by the way, if you scroll back up and watch the third down play when Jones came free, Purdy should probably still hit that throw anyway, right? Or at least he could have given Jauan Jennings a fighting chance?
• And finally, Deebo Samuel: 3 carries, 8 yards. 11 targets, 3 catches, 33 yards. And there were other moments when Deebo was the first read on the play, but couldn't get open.
3rd-and-9 sack. Watch McDuffie vs. Deebo up top. pic.twitter.com/jhVYaX4rHV
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) February 12, 2024
Deebo played, dare I say, like trash?
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