With the 49ers leading 17-16 in Cleveland on Sunday and 3:21 remaining in the game, Kyle Shanahan called three straight pass plays and the 49ers were only able to run 25 seconds off the clock before punting the ball back to the Browns for what would prove to be a game winning drive.
Shanahan provided more context during his conference call with the media on Monday afternoon as to why those plays were called.
“Well, you don't plan on throwing it three times in a row. You don't plan on getting intentional grounding on the first one. So, second-and-20 you run. I'm not really worried about time when you have a one point lead and three-something left. If you get a first down and everything, then time can become a factor. But regardless of the timeouts in the game you know you’re going to throw it one of those downs so you're not thinking totally about the clock. Yeah, you'd love to stay in bounds and love to do all that, but the clock's not going to matter until you get a first down. So everything's about trying to get a first down and they were blitzing us and stuff and we thought we'd have a really quick pass to Aiyuk on the first-and-10, which is exactly what we got. We just made a mistake in where we sent our back, which made Aiyuk covered on a hot, unblocked throw, which put Brock in a bad position where he had to just get rid of it. So we made a mistake on that play and then that's why we got intentional grounding. And when you're in second-and-20 and there's three minutes left, I'm not thinking of running out the clock. I'm thinking about trying to get a first down. We thought that the best way was with a quick pass to Aiyuk, which we did. It got us back in a competitive, at least down where we had a chance on third down, but we didn't get it. That's why we punted to them, thought we could stop them. They went down and got a field goal and then I was very thankful that there was more time on the clock.”
The 49ers did still have a chance to win after the Browns kicked a field goal to take the lead as Brock Purdy led his team down the field with completions to Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings, setting up a 41-yard field goal attempt that rookie kicker Jake Moody missed.
