San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan will likely draw significant criticism in the coming weeks for allowing another collapse in the Super Bowl — this time against the Kansas City Chiefs. The 49ers led 20-10 in the fourth quarter but allowed Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to score 21 unanswered points on the way to a heartbreaking 31-20 loss.

Shanahan will also likely draw criticism for not calling a timeout before halftime. San Francisco had all three of its timeouts left, but the coach opted not to use one, allowing the clock to drop from 1:47 to 59 seconds before the Chiefs punted the football back to the 49ers.


Some wonder if even general manager John Lynch agreed with the decision, as he could be seen motioning to take a timeout.


Shanahan was asked about the decision after the game.

"Yeah, they had three timeouts; it was 10-10," Shanahan explained. "The last thing we were going to do was allow them to get the ball with three timeouts, especially with their quarterback and offensive speed, to go in there and score before the half. I felt real good, 10-10, especially with us starting with the ball.

"I thought it played out alright. I thought we should have gotten points but then ended up calling that [pass interference] on (George) Kittle, so that took it away."

Shanahan was later asked if he considered calling an earlier timeout after receiving the football after the punt.


"Yeah, we did consider it, but where we got the ball and the fact that it was 10-10, and they had three timeouts--," Shanahan said. "If we would have gotten an explosive run on the first one, we would have. I want to say we got a four-yard run, so we let the clock run a little bit to get it down.

"But no, we were good with that situation. Very good. I'd do that every single time, especially with us starting with the ball in the third quarter.

"Once we realized we did get the first, then we did take out shot. We would have gotten points from that, but we had that unfortunate penalty."

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