Did the Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV, or did the San Francisco 49ers blow it? While most would agree that it was probably a whole lot of both, ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith believes it is the latter more than anything else.
"Oh, the 49ers blew this game," Smith said. "Make no mistake about it."
Smith put the loss on the shoulders of one person. Care to guess who that might be?
Actually, no. It's not quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the player Smith criticized all season. Surprising, right? Smith lays the blame almost entirely on head coach Kyle Shanahan, who the First Take host says "coached scared."
"I mean, you talk about a brother that just coached scared -- I mean, he coached like he was petrified," Smith said Monday morning. "Now, you can argue that Patrick Mahomes can give you a reason to be that way, but my goodness, you're up 20-10, Patrick Mahomes throws an interception. At that moment in time, you would think Kyle Shanahan, Mr. 28-3 ... You would think that this brother would learn his lesson."
Smith argues that Shanahan should have been just as scared of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as he was of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady back in 2017, and learned from his previous Super Bowl collapse.
"The running game was working," Smith argues. "For some, in this game against a Chiefs team that was ranked 26th against the run, with Tyrann Mathieu, the Honey Badger, acknowledging after the game, 'Thank God they stopped running the football,' what do you do? You run the football 22 times the whole game?"
You can watch Smith's entire rant below.