The San Francisco 49ers led the Kansas City Chiefs 20-10 with less than seven minutes to play in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday. They had allowed just one Kansas City touchdown on the night – and none since the first quarter.
Nevertheless, the Chiefs erupted for 21 points in the final 6:13 to win 31-20.
If Niners fans are looking for someone to blame for this meltdown, well, Tiki Barber believes Kyle Shanahan would be a good start.
“I’m putting this on Kyle Shanahan,” Barber said on Tiki & Tierney. “We know how this all played out. You’re up by 10 points in the fourth quarter. You throw a challenge flag on a 19-yard completion to Tyreek Hill – you get it just before the snap of the ball, it’s an incomplete pass, which sets up 3rd-and-15 and it’s like, man, you’ve got them dead to rights.”
Then Patrick Mahomes found Tyreek Hill for a 44-yard completion. Travis Kelce scored from a yard out to make it 20-17, and then the Niners got the ball back.
And they went three-and-out for the first time all night.
“You’re Kyle Shanahan, and you are this master innovator and offensive manipulator – the same stuff we heard about Sean McVay a season ago,” Barber said. “This is the most important drive . . . and you go three-and-out for the first time in the entire game. That’s on Kyle Shanahan. You can point to execution, you can point to whatever it is. That’s on Kyle Shanahan for not dialing up the right play. There’s so many things he could have called. But when it came to crunch time, must win, got to respond – Kyle Shanahan dials up a three-and-out. And we all know what happens from then on.”