Kyle Shanahan has taken a large swath of the blame for the 49ers' 31-20 Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, a notion which Charley Casserly calls "ridiculous."
Appearing on The Sports Junkies Monday morning, Casserly was asked, "Do you fall on that part where you blame Kyle Shanahan? Because a lot of people are. If you look at the fourth quarter, with 12 minutes to go, they pick off (Patrick) Mahomes, they're up 20-10, and then they only run the ball five more times."
"No, I don't blame Kyle Shanahan. Honestly," said Casserly. "That's just piling on a guy, okay? First of all, in the Super Bowl in Atlanta, yeah, he should have run the ball three times. But the head coach is in charge of game management. He should have made him do it. And then Matt Ryan, he got sacked twice. He should have thrown both balls – he had guys open."
"But no, what happens last night is, for most of the game, the 49ers' secondary was able to do what they wanted to do," Casserly said. "Keep the receivers in front of them and then let the pass rush take over. The reality is San Francisco's pass rush protected a weak group of corners, period."
San Francisco took a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter and appeared to have a win in their sights. Until Jimmy Garoppolo imploded in the final minutes, the 49ers' offense stalled, and Kansas City came storming back with a 21-point fourth quarter en route to winning Super Bowl LIV.
A key turning point came with 7:13 left in the game, when Mahomes – on third-and-15 – found Tyreek Hill wide open for a 44-yard completion to put the Chiefs on San Francisco's 21-yard line.
THAT WAS COMPLETE pic.twitter.com/RDdgrCYJAm
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 3, 2020That paved the way for a Mahomes throw to tight end Travis Kelce in the end zone, where San Francisco drew a defensive pass interfernce penalty.
On the next play, Mahomes found Kelce for a one-yard dunk into the end zone to make it 20-17.
"So what happens is, on the big play to (Tyreek) Hill, a corner blows the coverage and you've got the guy running free against a safety," Casserly said. "Well, the safeties aren't gonna cover Hill. So that's the first big play. Now Kyle Shanahan has nothing to do with a blown coverage by a player. It was something that they had practiced and the player blew the coverage, okay? Again, weakness at corner."
After a San Francisco three-and-out, the Chiefs took the lead on their next drive, the big play coming when Mahomes found Sammy Watkins on a 38-yard pass that took the Chiefs from about midfield all the way down to San Francisco's 10-yard line.
.@SammyWatkins down the sideline! #ChiefsKingdom--: #SBLIV on FOX--: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app pic.twitter.com/pXzHTnnI9O
— NFL (@NFL) February 3, 2020Three plays later, they were in the end zone again for their second score in three-and-a-half minutes and a 24-20 lead.
"Then you turn it around, (Nick) Bosa had been killing (Kansas City) all night," Casserly said. "Well they finally give Bosa help by keeping Kelce in, and then luckily they bring Damien Williams over to handle the blitzing linebacker, and that's the play they beat (Richard) Sherman on. Because Sherman can't cover (Sammy) Watkins. It's too much speed, see.
"And then they go right back to Kelce, which they hadn't done enough, and Kelce gets a pass interference in the end zone because the receiver can't cover him, so it's bang-bang. So he has nothing to do with that."
"And then Garoppolo, the obvious one is he misses (Emmanuel) Sanders for a touchdown," Casserly said. "But he had a third down, I think and five (yards), and from television (George) Kittle's wide open. There's no question Kittle's wide open. Why Kittle wouldn't be the number one target on third down, I have no idea, but he takes the ball and throws it out in the flat.
"Shanahan had nothing to do with the loss at all. I mean, that's just ridiculous."
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