Kyle Shanahan’s last Super Bowl left him hurt and scarred. The result? He vows not to ease up again if his San Francisco 49ers find themselves out in front in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday.
Three years ago in Super Bowl LI Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. At one point they led 28-3 against the New England Patriots.
However, in one of the most astonishing sporting comebacks ever, Tom Brady led the Patriots back to a fifth Lombardi Trophy triumph in overtime. Shanahan didn’t come out of it well. His second-half play-calling took a beating from some of the critics.
The 40-year-old is now the head coach of the 49ers. This time, he is hoping, he’ll win his a first ring when his men face the Kansas City Chiefs in Miami on Sunday.
“Everyone asks me what I learned from that Super Bowl. I wish I could say there was some easy answer that would have fixed us not blowing that lead,” Shanahan said on Tuesday.
“I wish I’d called differently”
“I go back and I’m hard on myself on everything. I remember the plays. I wish I called differently, especially a second-and-11 pass once we got down there [near the end zone] that led to a sack. That was about it.
“You realise when you’re playing good teams against good quarterbacks that you can never relax.
“No matter what situation I’ve been in since then – and you can ask our players, our coaches – I freaked out at [defensive coordinator Robert] Saleh when he tried to take the starters out against Minnesota
“We were up like three scores (ahead) with two minutes to go and I freaked out. Then I did the math and I thought it was alright.”
Getting away from that game, another of Shanahan’s regrets was not drafting quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the man the 49ers defence will most likely have to stop if the Niners are to win Super Bowl LIV.
Shanahan was appointed the 49ers head coach just prior to the 2017 NFL Draft when Mahomes came out of college with the 49ers owning the second overall pick. Mahomes was there for the taking
“I shouldn’t have waited”
Shanahan believed San Francisco should rather have waited and instead pick-up Kirk Cousins in the following year. He passed on future Chiefs star Mahomes, later trading instead for his current starter Jimmy Garoppolo.
On Mahomes, the 2018 MVP and arguably the NFL’s best quarterback right now, Shanahan said: “I didn’t look into him, obviously, as much as I should have. But there’s always a risk with that when you spend a first-round pick on a quarterback.
“With the situation we were in, we didn’t want to be that risky, especially with the second pick in the draft. We didn’t study (Mahomes) as hard as we should nave. He ended up being one of the best players in the league, along with a couple of other quarterbacks that year. He’s extremely talented.”
On Tuesday the New Jersey sportsbooks had Mahomes as their favourite to win the MVP award for the season’s biggest game. FanDuel, for instance, had him at +110 as against the +250 for Garoppolo.
Raheem Mostert, the Niners running back was next at +850 and with the Chiefs wide receiver Tyreen Hill at +1700.
Mahomes also came out tops in the dozens of quarterback prop bets being offered by FanDuel for the Bowl final.
Mahomes for example, is the favourite (-280 as against +210) to pass the most yards, but Garoppolo is favoured to be the first QB to be sacked (-130 as against +100).
And talking about prop bets, FanDuel, unlike some other New Jersey sportsbooks, is continuing to offer then on things like the coin toss (-110, either way) or on the color of the first Gatorade dunked over the winning coach (clear -150 ; red and yellow/green/lime -225; blue –425 and Orange -450)
And the odds on the game itself? Its close, but the Chiefs at -128 as against +112 are the clear favorites to win their first Super Bowl this century. They last won in 1962, 1966 and 1969.