The Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers went into overtime, with Kyle Shanahan's team wanting the ball first...and Kurt Warner wasn't a fan of the decision.
Shanahan stated per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport: “We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win.”
The 49ers would end up kicking a field goal to go ahead 22-19, but the flip side is that they were handing the ball back to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs who had scored on three straight possessions to end the game in regulation.
San Francisco gave the ball back to Mahomes, who knew he needed a touchdown and had four downs on each play to get it done. For Warner, he was asked if he would have wanted to get the ball first.
“Absolutely not,” Warner said on the Rich Eisen Show. “For me, I understand when you say we want the third possession of the game, but when I go into overtime there will be no third possession. Like my mentality is not playing for the next possession. My mentality is give me the football, tell me what we need to do and we’re going to go do it, we’re going to finish this thing right now. I’m not playing for a second possession in overtime.”
While some can understand Shanahan's decision given his defense had played well for the majority of the contest, he was allowing Mahomes a chance to go win the game knowing exactly what he needed.
Of course, with the new overtime rules, Mahomes would have been guaranteed a possession regardless, but he knew exactly what he needed to do to win, and as such, the playbook was open and he had four downs on each set to do it.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and while Shanahan doesn't have any regrets over the decision, it has certainly sparked a large debate in the aftermath.
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