Credit To The 49ers Coaching Staff Who Apparently Didn't Prepare Their Team At All For The New Playoff Overtime Rules
Jamie Squire. Getty Images.The detail that goes into preparing for a Super Bowl is unmatched in almost any facet of life. I'd imagine there are legitimate military operations that are less thought out than a game plan heading into the Super Bowl. Each team has 2 full weeks to prep for the game. The coaching staffs can use those 2 weeks to go over any little detail, any little wrinkle, any little possibility that could come up in that game and make sure their guys are ready for whatever is thrown at them.
Apparently 49ers players had no idea there was a new overtime rule implemented for the postseason this year where both teams get to possess the ball before the game ends.
Mirror -- "You know what, I didn’t even realize that playoff rules were different in overtime so I assumed you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win," Juszczyk openly admitted after the game. "I guess that’s not the case, I don’t totally know the strategy."
Now first off, let me be perfectly clear about something. This is not a Kyle Juszczyk issue. These players have to use the 2 weeks prior to the Super Bowl to do everything in their power to get their bodies right to play in the biggest game of their life after already going through a grueling 17-week season. I'm sure Kyle Juszczyk would love the luxury of having enough down time to sift through all the new rule changes every year on his own, but that's not the case. So he needs a coaching staff to be the ones to present that information to him. Something the 49ers coaching staff clearly forgot to do during the whole 2 weeks they had leading into the game.
Think the Kansas City Chiefs would ever completely overlook a detail like that?
AP -- “There’s two ways: You kick it off or you receive it,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “I’m not sure there’s a right answer, necessarily. Ours ended up being the right one. That’s what we felt was the right thing to do.”
Reid’s comments suggest there’s no obvious consensus among coaches about what to do, but if the Chiefs had won the toss, they were prepared to kick off and play defense first.
“We talked for two weeks about new overtime rules,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “Give the ball to the opponent. If we score, we go for 2.”
That right there is why the Kansas City Chiefs are a dynasty. They're prepared for anything. They don't leave anything up to chance. Kyle Shanahan was thinking about a potential 3rd possession in overtime, meanwhile Andy Reid already knew the game was going to be over in one way or another after the 2nd. The Chiefs coaching staff had a plan, and the players executed. The 49ers coaching staff were caught off guard, and sent their players out there without even knowing what's going on.
Sidenote: Obviously there's the chance that San Francisco could have held Kansas City to a field goal, and then the 3rd possession would have come into play. But you're going up against Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. It's probably unwise to assume they're not going to shove it down your throat.