Kyle Shanahan.

[HawkRiderFan]

I agree with the analysis that agreed not calling the timeout before the punt and not risk getting pinned. But no reason then not to get aggressive from the 20....unless there is something to not trusting his QB

 

[getnasty]

Not using his timeouts before the end of the first half isn't getting enough talk in my opinion. He had a chance to get the ball back with over 2 minutes but decided to just let the Chiefs run the clock.

First, he didn't have a chance to get the ball back with over two minutes. The two minute warning happened between second and third down when the Chiefs had the ball.

They failed to convert on third down with about 1:50 left on the clock on the 49 yard line.

In hindsight, because the Chiefs punt was a touchback, it's easy as pie to say that Shanahan should have called a timeout with 1:50 on the clock instead of getting the ball back with 1 minute on the clock.

That's all well and good but it's using hindsight. Back in the real world in real time when you don't have hindsight, the chiefs were about 1/4 of a yard away from pinning the 49ers on the 1 yard line with that punt. Basically, with a 1/4 of a yard difference, Shanahan becomes an idiot FOR calling a timeout instead of an idiot for NOT calling a timeout.

And as for why he wasn't expecting a touchback, it's because he's an NFL head coach and knows something that NFL fans don't know because they don't care about kicking and don't follow the game that closely: the biggest change in punting is that touchbacks off of punts have basically been cut in half in the last 20 years. They're just very rare.

What Shanahan was doing was being strategic and playing the odds. If you get the ball within your ten yard line with under two minutes left, your strategy is to try to just get a first down so you don't have to give the other team the ball back only 15 or 20 yards away from being able to convert a field goal. I didn't object to his thinking on it in the moment, and I don't object to it now, because in the moment I didn't have the benefit of hindsight.

If Colquitt barely pins them on the 1 instead of barely not pinning them on the 1 we're not talking about any of this. If Kittle doesn't get called for OPI down in the Chiefs redzone we're not talking about any of this either.

When the legitimacy of an argument about strategy comes down to an inch here or an inch there after the fact, I just don't think you have a good strategy argument to begin with.

I'm sticking with how I felt in the moment -- I understood the logic of what he was doing and thought it made sense -- because anything after that is using information that nobody had at the time to inform the decision (which just doesn't make any sense).

Why argue anything in the NFL then, literally every play comes down to inches. I undsrstand what your saying i just think being a offensive guy and realizing your playing a Chiefs team that is explosive that he should have more aggressive in that moment.

 

[Popeyejones]

Why argue anything in the NFL then, literally every play comes down to inches. I undsrstand what your saying i just think being a offensive guy and realizing your playing a Chiefs team that is explosive that he should have more aggressive in that moment.

Yeah, my point about inches isn't that plays come down to inches, but that it's that fact that makes after-the-fact strategy grandstanding so fruitless.

That there's been a sharp decline in touchbacks off of punts that know-it-all fans don't know about, and that Colquitt was a quarter of a yard away from downing the punt inside the one just gives texture to the situation -- it's my attempt to try to rip people back (not you, just generally) from their know-it-all hindsight and try to actually evaluate the decision in the situation in which it occured.

When I saw he wasn't calling a timeout my first thought was "why isn't he doing that", and before the punt happened I thought through the variables on it and decided I understood the decision. Part of that was the realization that the punt was from 50 and if it was fair caught the probability shifted to about 5% of the 9ers scoring, 60% of neither team scoring, and 35% of the Chiefs scoring before halftime. I also considered that the strategy made sense given that the 9ers, not the Chiefs were getting the ball back after halftime.

With the benefit of hindsight (and knowing the punt was a touchback) I'd like to take back that decision too, but you don't get to criticize people using hindsight, because they don't get hindsight when they make decisions.

My point about the inches thing was just how you flip a couple things that are easily flippable (punt downed at the 1 instead of in the endzone, Kittle not called for OPI) and magically all these hindsight geniuses don't have sh1t to say. :lol: That's very telling to me.

 

[Uncle Si]

Hindsight geniuses are armchair coaches.

However, you'd expect your head coach, one who is being constantly lauded for his ingenuity and planning, to have prepared for a number of different scenarios.

Instead, he looked frozen by the moment more than once. As did the DC, who seemed to enjoy the camera when things were going well but failed to dial up anything remotely challenging to Mahomes in the 4th quarter with the game on the line.

The Seahawks head coach gets a load of stick on here for his lack of preparation. It's almost comical. And yet his team is rarely out of a game, and almost always takes a loss down to the last drive.

Shanahan, and to a lesser degree Saleh, had their one plan and seemed to offer nothing when those things didnt work.

Those are your inches. It's not as simple as "well, if they down the punt inside the one, everything is as planned." those moments are happening on every play. The Head coach's living is made after those inches go against you.

Shanahan didnt respond.

 

[Popeyejones]

Shanahan, and to a lesser degree Saleh, had their one plan and seemed to offer nothing when those things didnt work.

What? I struggle to believe that we were watching the same game.

What, in your opinion, was the Chief's defensive strategy to open the game?

How did Shanahan go about attacking it?

Are you arguing the Chiefs didn't adjust? If they adjusted, how did they adjust?

And you're arguing that Shanahan didn't make an adjustment to this?

That gets us to about halftime. :lol:

 

[Uncle Si]

Shanahan, and to a lesser degree Saleh, had their one plan and seemed to offer nothing when those things didnt work.

What? I struggle to believe that we were watching the same game.

What, in your opinion, was the Chief's defensive strategy to open the game?

How did Shanahan go about attacking it?

Are you arguing the Chiefs didn't adjust? If they adjusted, how did they adjust?

And you're arguing that Shanahan didn't make an adjustment to this?

That gets us to about halftime. :lol:

You're arguing that everything was going to plan and then little inches threw a wrench in things, and that people calling this out are only using hindsight (duh). But this is where coaches make their living. Shanahan's adjustments, if any, proved incorrect.

You can easily trace the Chiefs adjustments as the 4th quarter opens on both sides of the ball. You can do this on your own, or we actually did watch different games.How did Shanahan adjust? How did Saleh adjust? They barely did, outside of throwing two more times than running, instead of vice versa, and hoping the front 4 would get that sack to kill drives.

Shanahan was once again caught like a deer in headlights at the end of the biggest game of his career. If you want to believe it was all about inches and Shanahan was just a victim of being on the wrong side of that, go on. He's your HC.

Coming on here week after week for the last 2 years to tell Seahawks fans how great this guy was, only to see him fail again in the biggest game, then try and blame it on inches, is just too far too convenient a narrative used to dismiss criticism.

 

[Popeyejones]

Shanahan, and to a lesser degree Saleh, had their one plan and seemed to offer nothing when those things didnt work.

What? I struggle to believe that we were watching the same game.

What, in your opinion, was the Chief's defensive strategy to open the game?

How did Shanahan go about attacking it?

Are you arguing the Chiefs didn't adjust? If they adjusted, how did they adjust?

And you're arguing that Shanahan didn't make an adjustment to this?

That gets us to about halftime. :lol:

You're arguing that everything was going to plan and then little inches threw a wrench in things, and that people calling this out are only using hindsight (duh). But this is where coaches make their living. Shanahan's adjustments, if any, proved incorrect.

You can easily trace the Chiefs adjustments as the 4th quarter opens on both sides of the ball. You can do this on your own, or we actually did watch different games.How did Shanahan adjust? How did Saleh adjust? They barely did, outside of throwing two more times than running, instead of vice versa, and hoping the front 4 would get that sack to kill drives.

Shanahan was once again caught like a deer in headlights at the end of the biggest game of his career. If you want to believe it was all about inches and Shanahan was just a victim of being on the wrong side of that, go on. He's your HC.

Coming on here week after week for the last 2 years to tell Seahawks fans how great this guy was, only to see him fail again in the biggest game, then try and blame it on inches, is just too far too convenient a narrative used to dismiss criticism.

Whut?

You claimed Shanahan had one strategy and never adjusted, and I asked you to explain what you thought that strategy was and how the Chiefs adjusted to make that strategy less effective, and where Shanahan didn't adjust.

You say opening of the fourth quarter but what were the adjustments the Chiefs made? Like, actually explain what you're talking about.

The claim that Shanahan never made any adjustments from the start of the game to the finish ignores why he went from attacking the edges and outside intermediate pass windows through the first and first part of the second quarter and then adjusted to attacking the deep middle and using traps and powers after that, and then started using RPOs and attacking the intermediate middle late through the third and 4th quarter.

If you want to argue that those were the wrong counter moves to make based of what the Chiefs were doing by all means have at it, but just declaring he wasn't making any adjustments as the game wore on is simply uninformed.

That Saleh didn't make any adjustments also doesn't make a lick of sense. If anything him adjusting AWAY from quarters to cover 3 coverages is what you should be criticizing him for, not just making up nonsense about him not adjsuting. :lol: :roll:

I just really don't see what you're talking about at all reflected in the actual game that I watched.

Re: other things you're conflating and making up:

(1) I never made any claim about everything going to plan. You just invented that out of thin air. Please don't.

(2) My comment regarding inches was about using hindsight to evaluate coaching decisions, nothing more, nothing less. That comment was exclusively in regards to not calling a timeout before the Chiefs fourth down in the second quarter, and the low probability of Colquitt's punt going in the endzone when punting from the 50, which changed all the math away from where you'd expect it to go, IMO.

(3) I don't believe Shanahan just on the wrong side of inches. Unless you're exclusively talking about Colquitt's punt (which you're clearly not) you're just making things up. From watching the game I believe the 49ers were doomed by (1) The Chiefs playing very well, (2) Moseley guessing wrong and abandoning his assignment on the 45 yard completion, and (3) Jimmy really crapping the bed in the 4th quarter by (a) missing open throws, (b) misreading coverages and not making the correct throws to receivers who had been schemed open, and (c) missing out on YAC through inaccuracy on the throws he completed. (Even Jimmy himself has acknowledged this yesterday.)

If a play is run and the play isn't there I blame the coordinator, full stop. If a play is run and the play is there but the QB misses the throw, or someone misses their block, or an RB hits the wrong hole I blame the player who made the mistake, full stop.


4) I've been "Coming on here week after week for the last 2 years to tell Seahawks fans how great" Shanahan is? You are fully just making things up. Stop it. Times I remember even substantively posting about Shanahan:

A) Disagreeing with Sports Hernia who thinks Schotty is a better OC than him. :lol:
B) Criticizing him and Lynch for the way they approach the draft.

I've spent the last two years posting about how great Shanny is every week? Show me the receipts or get outta here with the lies, man. It's just not true.

 

[Uncle Si]

Im referencing 9er fans as a whole, as you address Seahawks fans criticisms as a whole, all within the same posts. It's an easy connection to make, Popeye. Arguing with Seahawks fans about their criticism and ignoring why they are doing it is pretty simplistic. You can do better, atleast understand the flow of the conversation. I understand your perspective, you can try and see it from that of a Seahawks board, no? You're a terrific poster. I assumed you knew what I was referencing here.

My statement was also about the 4th quarter, as things fell apart on the 49ers. Figured that was easy to pick up on. There was little to no adjustment from either side of the ball by the 9ers, while the Chiefs changed up approaches on both offense and defense.

You can argue where the 9ers made these changes in the first and 2nd quarters, but again, you're arguing specifics in a general conversation and acting like it's making a point, and trying to use that to prove a point I'm not even talking about.

We can get specific about the 4th quarter if you want. Trying to be indignant about general statements though is a bad look. I am certain you have more understandings of each ot the 9ers play calls. I'm talking generally.

The Chiefs opened up in the middle of the 3rd quarter and started taking deeper shots. They set up Sherman for a few longer hits, and went with long developing plays despite the 9ers dropping 10 yards or more in coverage. Saleh did next to nothing to address this, got caught several times hoping the front 4 rush would pay off, and saw 21 straight points scored. He left Sherman to his own devices a few times and paid the price. You can point to a play here or there where things are different. but that's not exactly germane to a discussion about the general approach, is it?

On offense, the Chiefs threw players up at the line to stop the edge runs and bring pressure on the QB. They literally threw almost everything at the line of scrimmage. Shanahan's response was to leave the formations relatively the same but let JG try and throw as his receivers took the same, relatively long developing routes, now with pressure in his face.

I wont have the deep dive understanding of each play call. this is what I saw as the 3rd quarter ended and throughout the 4th. Maybe it was just my impressions.

So no, generally speaking your team did very little to nothing to stop a 21 point outburst while offering very little in return. And they lost. Deservedly. And for Shanahan, he lost again.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Don’t know why you are wasting your time Si.

Popeye’s “all in” on Shanny and his ego will never allow him to admit him may be wrong on him. The moment got too big for KS and he has “turtled” twice in Super Bowls. Prepare to be buried by walls of text and word salad of him fighting facts that are inconvenient to his mind set.

 

[Popeyejones]

Im referencing 9er fans as a whole, as you address Seahawks fans criticisms as a whole, all within the same posts. It's an easy connection to make, Popeye. Arguing with Seahawks fans about their criticism and ignoring why they are doing it is pretty simplistic. You can do better, atleast understand the flow of the conversation. I understand your perspective, you can try and see it from that of a Seahawks board, no? You're a terrific poster. I assumed you knew what I was referencing here.

So are all the "you" and "yours" in this quoted passage actually in reference to me or in reference to all 49ers fans so I should just ignore them?

Sorry, but I don't believe you. That you, in a conversation with me, can't keep track of what I've said versus some other 49ers fan is fine, but holding me accountable for what some random person has said doesn't make any sense.

If it did, I'd like for you to explain to me how in the world you've actually convinced yourself that Will Dissly is a better tight end than George Kittle. I think that's absolutely ridiculous of you. In all honestly I can't take you seriously because you think that.

Don't worry though! By "you" I meant Seahawks fans, and Sports Hernia arguing that Dissly is better than Kittle. :lol:

I don't hold you accountable for crazy things SH says just as you don't hold me accountable for crazy things Washinton 9er says. I think that's more than fair. :lol:

My statement was also about the 4th quarter, as things fell apart on the 49ers. Figured that was easy to pick up on. There was little to no adjustment from either side of the ball by the 9ers, while the Chiefs changed up approaches on both offense and defense.

Okay. Gotcha. Thanks. We substantively disagree.

The constant in Shanahan's approach, as I saw it, was to put the Chiefs (not very good) linebackers in conflict. He opened the game by trying to beat them to the edges with the Deebo sweeps, and to get them to over-commit on play actions (the passes to Juice) and outside the number short and intermediate throws.

In the second half the Chiefs corrected for this, and also expected Shanahan to start relying on powers and traps more, which is what he was trying to do, and what they were prepared for.

His adjustment to that, which makes sense, was to see that the Chiefs were now loading the box and splitting their linebackers more to protect the edges when not blitzing through the A and B gaps, so he went with play actions and RPOs and rubs to attack the intermediate middle which was now wide open.

It was, I believe, the right strategy, as evidenced by the fact that those plays were available to be had over, and over, and over again. In the fourth quarter Chris Jones just had two very good plays, and Jimmy just really, really, really sh!t the bed on hitting them (losing YAC due to very bad accuracy when he could hit them at all, and just misdiagnosing the defense and not even seeing them).

If you want to second guess this as the right way to attack what the Chiefs were doing I'm not opposed to that, but as a strategy I think the proof is in the all 22 pudding that it was a fine one, and the players (as in, the guys I root for) just really didn't execute. That's my read on what happened on offense.

Sou can argue where the 9ers made these changes in the first and 2nd quarters, but again, you're arguing specifics in a general conversation and acting like it's making a point, and trying to use that to prove a point I'm not even talking about.

Remember that your claim was that Shanahan never changed his strategy and this was his failing, so strategy changes in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter all matter to the claim. If he never changed his strategy he would have been running end arounds to Deebo all game instead of using them get a defensive adjustment he wanted before moving to something else, etc., etc., etc.

We can get specific about the 4th quarter if you want. Trying to be indignant about general statements though is a bad look.

I'm indignant about your statement that he never changed his strategy because I believe that to be untrue and to not reflect the game I watched.

I'm happy to be specific about my interpretation of the 4th quarter, as you see above, and now, below too. :lol:

The Chiefs opened up in the middle of the 3rd quarter and started taking deeper shots. They set up Sherman for a few longer hits, and went with long developing plays despite the 9ers dropping 10 yards or more in coverage. Saleh did next to nothing to address this, got caught several times hoping the front 4 rush would pay off, and saw 21 straight points scored. He left Sherman to his own devices a few times and paid the price. You can point to a play here or there where things are different. but that's not exactly germane to a discussion about the general approach, is it?

In the 3rd and 4th Saleh brought less blitzers, and stopped using quarters as much as he got more conservative and went back to his base Cover 3. This is an adjustment that I think we both agree was a bad one? My objection was to the claim that he didn't make many adjustments because he did, they were just bad adjustments. :lol:

(I also feel the need to give the Chiefs some credit here: they've come back from at least ten down in every round of the playoffs this year, and they're VERY, VERY good on offense).

On offense, the Chiefs threw players up at the line to stop the edge runs and bring pressure on the QB. They literally threw almost everything at the line of scrimmage. Shanahan's response was to leave the formations relatively the same but let JG try and throw as his receivers took the same, relatively long developing routes, now with pressure in his face.

Yeah, I agree with all of this except for the claim about relatively long developing routes, which save for the Sanders shot (on which Jimmy probably should have tried hit Bourne on wide open 15 yard crosser for the first down) I just didn't see that at all.

I saw him as attacking the 8-15 yard middle, which strategically I think was correct, and which just really, really didn't pan out.

So no, generally speaking your team did very little to nothing to stop a 21 point outburst while offering very little in return.

This is completely unrelated to your claim that I responded to and that we're talking about. We are fully in agreement that they didn't stop a 21 point outburst and that they didn't perform on offense either in making up for it, but it has nothing to do with anything about your claim that I responded to, which was about WHY this happened.

And they lost. Deservedly. And for Shanahan, he lost again.

Your half-assed attempt to rub salt in the wound has been duly noted. :snack:

 

[Uncle Si]

Don’t know why you are wasting your time Si.

Popeye’s “all in” on Shanny and his ego will never allow him to admit him may be wrong on him. The moment got too big for KS and he has “turtled” twice in Super Bowls. Prepare to be buried by walls of text and word salad of him fighting facts that are inconvenient to his mind set.

I was unclear as to what I was referencing. Hopefully that clarifies.

I am not invested enough to get into a play by play discussion about it. However, i made the post because he was confronting Hawks fans for "gloating" a bit, and I wanted to reference why they were (not him, per se, but fellow 9er fans, have been pretty arrogant about Shanahan all season).

And then the 4th quarter, not the game. The general consensus, atleast to the naked eye, is the two of them bricked it without making many attempts to adjust to what was happening.

Im no Stephen A. Smith, but i think i can yell as loudly about shit i barely know about as well as he does

 

[Uncle Si]

Yeah, I agree with all of this except for the claim about relatively long developing routes, which save for the Sanders shot (on which Jimmy probably should have tried hit Bourne on wide open 15 yard crosser for the first down) I just didn't see that at all.

So no, generally speaking your team did very little to nothing to stop a 21 point outburst while offering very little in return.

This is completely unrelated to your claim that I responded to and that we're talking about. We are fully in agreement that they didn't stop a 21 point outburst and that they didn't perform on offense either in making up for it, but it has nothing to do with anything about your claim that I responded to, which was about WHY this happened.

And they lost. Deservedly. And for Shanahan, he lost again.

Your half-assed attempt to rub salt in the wound has been duly noted. :snack:

Apologies for the cheap shot.. but that was far more than half-assed. I went full ass on that one.

I won't pretend to be as invested or as knowledgeable about the intricacies of the play calls as you are. However, just speaking from what i saw with my eyes as the game played out.

If you want to lay out how you think Shanny and Saleh made adjustments in that disastrous 4th quarter and they didnt work, i'm all for reading it. What I perceived was a coach who kept trying to win a game (from a very general view, mind) in the same way he typically did, then sort of panicked.

In terms of why i made the post, understand that I'm lumping your debates with Seahawks fans as you are lumping their sense of schadenfreude towards other 9er fans. It's almost like being in the Matrix, or Inception, but dumber.

 

[Largent80]

He's brilliant...... :lol:

 

[getnasty]

Why argue anything in the NFL then, literally every play comes down to inches. I undsrstand what your saying i just think being a offensive guy and realizing your playing a Chiefs team that is explosive that he should have more aggressive in that moment.

Yeah, my point about inches isn't that plays come down to inches, but that it's that fact that makes after-the-fact strategy grandstanding so fruitless.

That there's been a sharp decline in touchbacks off of punts that know-it-all fans don't know about, and that Colquitt was a quarter of a yard away from downing the punt inside the one just gives texture to the situation -- it's my attempt to try to rip people back (not you, just generally) from their know-it-all hindsight and try to actually evaluate the decision in the situation in which it occured.

When I saw he wasn't calling a timeout my first thought was "why isn't he doing that", and before the punt happened I thought through the variables on it and decided I understood the decision. Part of that was the realization that the punt was from 50 and if it was fair caught the probability shifted to about 5% of the 9ers scoring, 60% of neither team scoring, and 35% of the Chiefs scoring before halftime. I also considered that the strategy made sense given that the 9ers, not the Chiefs were getting the ball back after halftime.

With the benefit of hindsight (and knowing the punt was a touchback) I'd like to take back that decision too, but you don't get to criticize people using hindsight, because they don't get hindsight when they make decisions.

My point about the inches thing was just how you flip a couple things that are easily flippable (punt downed at the 1 instead of in the endzone, Kittle not called for OPI) and magically all these hindsight geniuses don't have sh1t to say. :lol: That's very telling to me.

Agreed that if Kittle doesn't get called were probably not talking about it but i still didn't think it was the right call.

Without knowing i bet there are more touchbacks then punts downed inside the 10 from where they were at on the field. Regardless i just think the mindset should have been were gonna get the ball at the 10 with 1:45 and 2 timeouts, let's go get a FG. If i'm playing the Arozona Cardinals the mindset is probably different. I sure the Jimmy G first half pick played a role in his decision making.

 

[Popeyejones]

It's almost like being in the Matrix, or Inception, but dumber.

:lol: :lol: (I honestly literally laughed out loud). :2thumbs:

And no worries on the cheap shot. I'm on a Hawks bored and don't mind. I was just being a smartass in noting it.

I don't have much more to add on what I think happened in the 4th than I've already said, TBH. And although I clearly feel some confidence in my interpretation of it I'm not naive enough to confuse my interpretation of it with truth or anything -- TBH the couple times I've started to watch clips again since Sunday it has just been too depressing so save for looking at particular plays I haven't even gone back through.

And just as we're winding down, it's not like I'm never critical of Shanahan: I've gotten run off the webzone more than once for criticizing Shanahan and Lynch with regards to draft strategy, and whenever it does go south for the 9ers, Shanahan being kind of an @sshole is going to be part of that story too. I also think he's too tempermental about players, and sometimes sticks with guys for too long and gives up on other guys too quickly. I also think he runs on second and long too much. :lol:

Despite all that, the critiques of him regarding this game in particular just don't hold much water for me.

They're about (1) playcalling on the last half of the fourth quarter (which I don't buy AT ALL-- the play calling was there and the execution just wasn't), (2) his strategy at halftime and (3) the decision to kick a FG on 4-2 from the 25 or so in the 3rd quarter.

I think #2 and #3 ARE very debatable, but in the moment I agreed with those decisions, so I choose to live with the fact that I understood them in the moment and agreed with them, rather than second guessing them.

 

[Popeyejones]

Agreed that if Kittle doesn't get called were probably not talking about it but i still didn't think it was the right call.

Without knowing i bet there are more touchbacks then punts downed inside the 10 from where they were at on the field. Regardless i just think the mindset should have been were gonna get the ball at the 10 with 1:45 and 2 timeouts, let's go get a FG. If i'm playing the Arozona Cardinals the mindset is probably different. I sure the Jimmy G first half pick played a role in his decision making.

Yeah, I don't know about TBs specifically from the 50 yard line, I just know that TBs off punts in general have been about halved in the last 20 years.

TBH if the 49ers didn't have the ball coming back to them after halftime I think he's more likely to call a timeout there.

Part of it could also just be that over the last three years I've seen what he has done in those situations a few times, so I've come to expect it (spread them out and run on first down and if you get a big run call a timeout and get aggressive, and if you don't just play ball control).

We also shouldn't forget that Kittle only had the chance to get called for OPI because KC was being insanely aggressive and called a timeout with the 9ers at 3rd and 5 with 20 seconds left on the clock. :lol:

They did that too, I think, because they also knew the 9ers were getting the ball back after halftime.

]

 

[Largent80]

Go Kyle Go.......You got this.

It's just a damn I ****** up moment, (except it will haunt you for years).

Watch Bevell videos for the offseason about what NOT to do and you will be fine....maybe.

 

[chris98251]

Shanahan needed Jimmy to play like a Franchise QB at the end of the game, prior to that he had him playing like Dilfer not to lose, prior two games he had what 18 passes ? Your Franchise QB in the playoffs isn't a guy that just throws 18 passes before the biggest game of his life and then through 3 quarters does the same thing till asked to be a franchise guy in the last 6 minutes.

Shanny doesn't trust Jimmy to win a game for him and put it on his back. That's the whole game in a nutshell.

 

[GeekHawk]

Jimmy GQ is what he is (and also ain't what he ain't). Meanwhile, Shanny gonna Shanny, and asked JGQ to be what he ain't in the end. If bevel was a head coach somewhere it would probably look a lot like the same thing. Somehow Shanny got an undeserved second chance, which bevel rightly didn't once Pete finally opened his eyes. Now that the many-first-round-picks bill is coming due, I'm afraid the future of the ninners will look a lot like the lambs last year, and the flash-in-the-pan tards before them.

 

[xray]

I don't know if "getting away from the run" is a valid criticism in this game. They definitely blew that in the NE Super Bowl, and I'll give people crap with that one anytime they bring up "put your foot to their throat!' and "don't let your foot off the gas!". But they started first downs with runs after they were up 20-10; it was more akin to the (often improperly used) "run, pass, pass, punt" criticism I see regarding the Seahawks.

Smith should probably go back and look at the play-by-play, he'd be surprised. But that doesn't make his money being analytical, just hotheaded.

They had a 10 point lead with 10 minutes to go in the game. They dropped back to pass 5 times and ran twice before the Chiefs had taken the lead back with 2 minutes remaining. I think you'd have a point if the Niners weren't averaging over 6 YPC on the ground. As it stands though, they have a run first team and the Chiefs defense could not stop them, so why put the game in Garopolo's hands?

I think that's the issue. Even if they didn't get first downs on the ground, they'd have taken off another 2:30 from the clock while giving their defense a chance to rest. By passing, they took all of the pressure off the Chiefs offense and put it on Garopolo and their defense. In other words, they did exactly what the Chiefs wanted them to do.

Agree knowone, 100%

Is that John Bonham in your avatar ? Nice choice. I was into Ginger Baker @ the time too.