Kyle Shanahan Doesn’t Regret his Super Bowl Calls Despite Second-Guessing Some of Them
The Super Bowl LI loss was a tough pill to swallow for the Atlanta Falcons. After blowing a huge halftime lead and losing to the New England Patriots in overtime, the team must have gone back and questioned everything they did, especially in the second half of the big game.
Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who was hired as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers the day after the Super Bowl loss, has focused only on the second half of the game; however, he doesn’t regret anything he called—he did, admittedly, second guess himself on some play, though.
“Mainly with the second half to watch through it,” said Shanahan Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine when asked if he’s watched much film from the heartbreaker. “When you see things live, you want to make sure watching the tape you confirm what you saw. It went pretty much how I thought. I haven’t gotten back to the first half yet. Other things have been more important.”
That’s fair. Turning around a garbage fire organization like the Niners will be difficult, but Shanahan is one of the better offensive minds in the league. Of course, you couldn’t tell from the second half of the Super Bowl. Nonetheless, Shanahan still believes he analyzed things correctly as they happened.
“But, no, the Super Bowl was a great experience. I know it didn’t work out the way we wanted. Every time it ends that way, you’re going to second guess everything that you did. I’m proud of what we did, why we did the things we did. One thing I learned from it is I hope that opportunity comes again because it’s a fun thing to be a part of. It makes you realize how special it is to get a win there.”
One big criticism that people had of Shanahan’s second half is that he didn’t run the ball enough. Again, Kyle agrees but disagrees at the same time.
“Yeah, I second guess just like all you guys do. Any time a play doesn’t work, you say, ‘Damn, I wish I called one that works.’ But the reasons for calling those, and why we did that and what we were thinking, I don’t second guess that at all.”
While I certainly wasn’t happy to see the Pats win, I must say watching two NFC South rivals of the New Orleans Saints loss two Super Bowls in a row is sort of fun. Too bad the Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers still suck.