That's what I'm thinking. Why in the world would you give the ball to Mahomes to go win it? With them knowing that they have 4 downs to convert every first down.

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Yeah, it made very little sense. Only justification is the 3rd possession benefit, but there's no guarantee it even gets that far and the 2nd team has a significant advantage in knowing what they have to do. You're giving Mahomes 4 downs to win as well as a possible 2PT conversion try (which they would have gone for if necessary).

It was a major coaching mistake.

Huh? If you have 2nd possession you know exactly how many points you need to win. And they have the first opportunity to seal the game with the ball in their hands [assuming the other team's drive doesn't end with a 2-point conversion.]

Plus the 2nd team knows if they have all four downs available. It's a big advantage to go 2nd.

Sure there was.

Shanahan's justification was one (though not the best one and IF that was your reasoning, you needed to go for it on 4th down).

The best one was obvious - his defense was GASSED. But/for running out of clock, the Chiefs score a TD in regulation to end it. Shanahan couldn't put that defense right back on the field because you know at that point the Chiefs are going to drive the field and score a TD. And yeah, knowing what you have to work with is nice, but now you've given the Chiefs defense two consecutive drives to get their breath and be ready to get physical with you again after THEY looked tired in the 4th.

I think it's largely a coin-flip decision either way. It didn't work out for them but honestly, I don't think kicking away would've either.

Technically it can. It's no different than college football rules. You play defense first, so that you can figure out if you need 3 or 7 after the opponent get their first crack at it. And if my defense is gassed, that sucks, but on the other hand, if they score a TD and get XP, I'd just go get the TD and attempt the 2 point to get it over with.

Yup. Not to mention it helps to know if you’re playing with 4 down territory. Would the chiefs have played more conservative versus us playing with some late down desperation? The 49ers sure as hell wouldn’t have settled for a FG knowing they had to match a TD.

It was definitely a mess up for shanahan

I don't care what they thought or who they are, they are irrelevant and not champions like the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah, it allows the 2nd team to play completely differently if they have to (having 4 downs to work with makes playcalling quite a bit easier) and gives them maximum control of the outcome of the game.

Well I, for one, am glad the Bills whined about the OT format to the point the league changed the rules to a system that benefits Patrick Mahomes even more than the sudden death they previously had.

We were saying our defense was gassed too. Mahomes needed a TD to finish this. If we only got a FG. We thought they would drive down and get the FG to win.

all of this

many times

Yeah, I'm not sure there's a world where Andy takes the FG to tie unless they're facing 4th and 6+ from the 35 (where even converting leaves you a fair distance yet to go).

It's why I say I'm not sure what Shanahan did truly would've mattered. If there was a mistake in OT, it was passing the ball on 3rd down and leaving yourself a longer 4th down play that convinced you to kick it.

Shanahan should've treated that gold zone scenario as 4-down territory, ESPECIALLY after CMC had that nice run on 1st down. That was his coaching failure - not taking the ball.

49ers players say they didn't know Super Bowl overtime rules
 

It’s silly to say it’s an obvious decision to defer. For one, you have to factor in your team. Defense was. And do you trust Purdy to get a TD under the pressure if he needs one on their OT possession?

And people are really overplaying the value of the Chiefs knowing what they need to do. This isn’t an end of game scenario. The Chiefs having the fourth down advantage pretty much ends after they get to the opponents 30 yard line unless they need a TD. If the 49ers didn’t score or just get a field goal then the Chiefs aren’t just automatically going for every fourth down in opponents territory.

And in this game specifically, where field goals were more prominent than TDs, a field goal by each team wasn’t that unlikely.

I would lean defer with Mahomes and our team but it’s definitely not a no brainer depending on the game circumstances and team you have.

I love that the new OT rules/strategy will get closely scrutinized.

Now the 9ers will push to have the overtime rules put back the way they were.