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

How is this even possible?

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/49ers-...20Super%20Bowl.

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

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs capitalized on the NFL's postseason overtime rules to once again beat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.

While several Chiefs players and coaches said they had a prepared strategy in the event that the Super Bowl went to overtime, multiple 49ers players admitted they were not even aware of the rules.

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

Sunday night's game was the second of 58 Super Bowls to be tied after regulation. It was the first played under new overtime rules that ensure both teams get a chance to possess the ball before the game ends -- unless the first drive in OT ends with a safety. This differs from the rules governing overtime in the regular season, where the game ends if the first team to possess the ball scores a touchdown.

After winning the overtime coin toss Sunday, the 49ers elected to receive the ball to start the extra period. But their 13-play drive ended with Jake Moody's 27-yard field goal and set the stage for Mahomes, who orchestrated his own 13-play drive punctuated by a game-winning 3-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman that sealed the Chiefs' 25-22 victory.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said he and his analytics staff discussed overtime possibilities before the game, but Armstead and fullback Kyle Juszczyk both said that overtime strategy was not discussed with 49ers players leading up to the Super Bowl.

"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."

They must've been asleep when the world erupted in anger at the Bills being denied a chance to win in OT against the Chiefs so the league changed the rule.

Poor coaching.

There’s no good justification for taking the ball first.

I almost wonder if Shanahan didn’t know or remember, and then made up that analytic shit to justify it.

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.

Eh, I'm not sure taking it first is as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. The computer says there isn't much change either way, and taking it first can end up giving you a 2nd possession.

A very poor understanding of the rules is reflective of poor coaching. It is also a bunch of sourpuss drama queen athletes deflecting from their own shortcomings.

Someone needed to pull a fire alarm in their head to wake them up when Overtime started.

Exactly!

Sorry Whiners, you aren't the Bills, the league doesn't change rules or reschedule games if you make sad faces on TV

Mitch and Danan were commenting on it's better to kick off as it's easier to win.

Just because it wasn't discussed with the players doesn't mean it wasn't discussed. The decision isn't something most of the players would have a say in anyway. I thought it was odd that they took the ball, but I figured it was likely because their defense was gassed.

The justification is that if both teams score 3 or 7 in their first drives, you have the ball with an ability to win it with a FG.

That obviously needs to be balanced against deferring and knowing the minimum of what you need.

I’d probably favor deferring but it’s close.

They slept through that meeting because the fire alarm went off at 6am.. lol

Receiving it wasn't the worst decision, however, with the rationale Shanahan used not going for it on 4th was inexcusable.

I mean I guess you could argue you get the 3rd possession that's sudden death, but I doubt it would ever get to that in a playoff game.

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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.

Once again....Shanahan passed when he should have been running.

A lot of players are dumb. Like, real dumb.

I'm more surprised with their coach's decision than any player not knowing the rules. He basically handled us 4 down knowledge. That's huge.

The 49ers were just like pete

Not my problem

I thought I saw a clip from Mahomes visiting the postgame desk where he said we may have kicked to start overtime too. Anyone else?

Whine me up and turn me lose

That’s why we’re the Chiefs and they’re the losers. F em

Not sure I agree.

I can see the logic behind it. The rules are that both teams have the opportunity to possess the ball 1 time. After that if the score is still tied then it's back to sudden death. The Chiefs defense was gassed. So you take the ball first and go score. Then the Chiefs score. Now you have the ball to go win it with a FG. The problem is, if you take the ball first you need to treat it like TD or bust and they kicked a FG like the 5.

And they had us. It was a damn good playcall. In fact, it was very similar to our playcall that won the game ironically.

They called their own version of corndog and had the perfect matchup. They forced us to put Sneed and McDuffie at the top by bunching Deebo and Aiyuk. They kept killing us by going to Jauan Jennings and Shannahan matched him up on Watson.

They completely forgot to block Chris Jones. I have no idea why but Chris Jones ran free untouched and ruined that play, which is inexcusable. If they simply block him for even a second, that's an easy first down and they get the TD.

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What?

It is like a new game and is played until someone wins. It could take several possessions, taking it first was not an advantage in that regard. It's not like the regular season where it could end up in a tie.

The only advantage I see in taking it first is putting tremendous pressure on the other team if you score, but the Chiefs have a QB who feeds off pressure.

Jones said Andy's plan was to go for 2 if SF got a TD. Wow!

Well I think we all saw the play he would've run there...

Sure looks like he was saving that play for a 'gotta have it' moment. Because damn that was as easy as stealing. And it seems like just about everyone involved in it knew it was going to work.

the whole time I was thinking: Has Shanahan ever watched a college FB game???
NO ONE ever takes the ball first.

Deferring is the obvious choice because you want to maximize your own control of the outcome and play with as many downs as possible offensively. Sure, the Chiefs might not use all four downs once they get within FG range, but going 2nd at least gives them the option to do so (which would matter a hell of a lot more on an early Mahomes Chief era team which had some horrible defenses, but matters nonetheless; although it's not like we were stopping Purdy/the 49ers from scoring on either of their last two drives).

It's a pretty easy decision and it is one that Shanahan botched.

I also probably would have gone for it on 4th down in FG range last night in OT, particularly once we got inside the 10. Not sure if Andy would have done so, but our defense was pretty gassed by that point in the game and the 49ers were moving the ball on us.

I think there are pros and cons, like any situation.

Taking the ball gives you the benefit of having first position if it comes to sudden death. It also gave their defense a much needed breather (they had just finished regulation on defense).

Cons are obviously giving your opponent the added benefit of knowing what’s necessary to win. Knowing that we needed to go for it on 4th down if we were out of field goal range was huge for us.

I just want to thank Buffalo for whining 2 years ago to get the OT ruled changed to allow us to win another Super Bowl. Somehow I don’t think this is what they had in mind.

Lessons learned from the 2019 AFCCG. Always be super aggressive in overtime. Because both defenses will be gassed at that point.

Shanahan is full of shit

there is one justification in Shanahans mind..


he thought our D was gassed... so he pressed. he made the D take the field ..

he sacrificed deferring to Gas our D... its that simple

now he's making excuses

If tied after each team having one possession, the third possession is huge. But I think the strategy to go secong and plan on going for two if both score TD's is what you have to do. Think both teams were gassed and the offense did have the advantage late game.

As long as you did not lose ground. The only thing probably stupid penalty would have brought the field goal into play.

From the Mike Sando Athletic piece:

“Another coach questioned whether the 49ers even accounted for the rule in making their decision to receive the ball first.

“Kyle not having a dedicated game strategist on staff screwed him,” this coach said.”

The only justification is if you score a td first then the other team does too. At that point you get the opportunity to win with any score. I guess you have to have confidence that you're going to score a td.

Looking back, the 9ers defense had just been on the field in regulation.

It's not a bad idea to give them some more rest.

Although I don't agree with taking the ball, I can understand it.

Except the Chiefs said they were going for 2 if the 49ers scored a TD and the Chiefs answered with a TD.

Which makes sense. You go for 2 to win the game with Mahomes. Otherwise, you're putting an even more tired defense back on the field.

The scenario Shanahan describes was never going to happen anyway.

That said, it's the first ever NFL game under these new rules. Not much precedent outside of college football for how to strategize.

Honestly, at this point, it doesn't matter if the 49ers knew it or not. The fact is that Kyle Shanahan just cannot win the big one when it really comes down to it.

He was the OC when the Falcons had the lead and lost Super Bowl 51.
He was the HC when the 49ers had the lead and lost Super Bowl 54.
He was the HC when the 49ers had the lead and lost Super Bowl 58.

That's called a "trend".

Boom.

Shanahan's rationale makes perfect sense, unless the other team has Mr. Clutch under center.

Oops.

don't forget the D! he thought he was gonna get 7 against our "gassed D"

we stopped him.TWICE .

they had to settle for 3

the D came through.

People keep saying the Bills let us win this game. I don't see how that's true. The Bills change would only have come into effect if the 49ers had scored a TD on the first possession. Since they scored a FG, normal OT rules came into affect.

The rule I didn't know was that if the clock went to 0, another OT period would have started until the Chiefs' possession was done (unless they tied it with a FG).

I've seen that postseason pattern. He's a Shanaheimer.

Maybe they should have been waking up a little earlier in the morning to go over the rules. Took the head ref 10 seconds to explain it during the coin toss.

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Shannon on point

They changed the rules to stop Mahomes LMAO

Wow here's the video from Baldy. They completely forgot to block Chris and he ran free. If they simply have someone in front of Chris they likely score. Not only was Jennings open, Aiyuk got open in the end zone bc Sneed slipped

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/49ers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@49ers</a> final offensive play of the season should have been a TD to <a href="https://twitter.com/THE2ERA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@THE2ERA</a> . Gotta get the pass protection right to get that done. Cant turn <a href="https://twitter.com/StoneColdJones?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StoneColdJones</a> free! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BaldysBreakdowns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BaldysBreakdowns</a> <a href="https://t.co/0o5W3nuajf">pic.twitter.com/0o5W3nuajf</a></p>&mdash; Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaldyNFL/status/1757069181923594583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Chris said he thought it was a screen because of how they didn't block him at first.

Wow.

It's basically Jimmy G missing Sanders deep all over again. They had a huge chance to win if they just block Jones. Another haunting missed opportunity for the 49ers.

Pay Andy anything he wants.

You have to take into account how many times you get a 3rd possession and get the ball back as the 49ers. Its probably quite a bit especially in a defensive oriented game. many times it goes 0-0, 3-3 or 7-7 and now its sudden death and Niners get the ball. I believe they made the correct decision in terms of a win probability model. I have not studied this scenario as it is new though.

I did like what I heard when Big Red said they were going to go for two had the Niners scored 7 first.

Jimmy G had protection and just missed the throw.

Purdy was staring down 280 pounds of pissed off Jones schlong bearing down on him.

Keep changing the rules. Patty doesn’t give a ****.

Just be real, Kyle Shanahan choked again.

If you don't know the rules then you aren't a pro.

Right. Chris Jones said the same thing. He wasn't having any of that excuses shit.

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Right. There is a lot of noise about the decision. It's not it. Our guys were made for that situation. Mahomes, Jones, Kelce et al were going to lock in and execute. Their guys win by getting schemed open and the other team makes mistakes. And it almost worked. They had us dead to rights, but it got tight and our guys came through.

1. **** all things Shanahanarat. I'd love to destroy the guy, but he's assembled a hell of a good team and he coached a good game. But he got Mahomesed. Just like Allen, Lamar and Hurts. They played good enough to win, but ran into the best ever.

2. Can you imagine what their team could be if they hadn't biffed up that Trey Lance pick? YIKES.

3. These guys were ****ing good. It's common for us to shit all over teams that Mahomes Mahomes-es. These guys were ****ing incredible and probably beat everybody else, save maybe the Ravens - I didn't watch them get obliterated by the Ravens. But that effort probably beats everybody in the league not named Chiefs. Can you imagine that pass rush against Buffalo? Miami? Those receivers against the Ravens secondary? LOL. They were ****ing good and almost beat us. What we did to win the game was nothing short of incredible.

Yeesh. I didn't see them hack up that protection that bad. You could tell the Right Tackle was like, "Hey wait come back!"

The 49'ers staff should contact RealSNR or Fish or The Franchise or Bearcat or The Guardian or one of the other know-it-alls on CP so they can put them on their staff and pay them for 100% correct advice on all things, like the Wizard of Oz.

If we played the Lions, Campbell wouldn't have punted or attempted a FG the entire game.

The center pulling to his left on that protection seems damn odd to me. If Jones had been on that side it would make sense but he wasn't.

Should Purdy not stand in and take the hit? The throw is there.