The Kansas City Chiefs knew what they wanted to do if Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium went to overtime. Fortunately, the San Francisco 49ers won the toss and got their wish anyway.
“We’ve been talking about it for two weeks,” Chris Jones told The Ringer’s Lindsey Jones. “How do we give the ball to the opponents? If they scored, at the end of the game we were two points ahead.
I coached it.”Super Bowl LVIII MVP Patrick Mahomes echoed Jones’ comments when he appeared on ESPN’s postgame coverage following the 25-22 victory. Mahomes told ESPN’s Chris Berman and Booger McFarland that if they had won the coin toss, the Chiefs would have punted the ball and would have known how many points Kansas City needed to score in overtime.
Coach Andy Reid McFarland demurred when asked if he was surprised by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision. But Reed confirmed the Chiefs aren’t going that way.”He’s a very smart guy, so there’s probably a reason why he does what he does,” Reid told ESPN. “Everyone has their own philosophy on this. I understand. I don’t know if there is a right way or a wrong way.
We thought you’d start first, but that’s neither here nor there. “We think so too, but he’s a great football coach.”Apparently bosses have agreed to the script. 49ers? no way.
San Francisco defensive end Arik Armstead and linebacker Kyle Juszczyk admitted after the loss that they were unsure about the new playoff overtime rules. In 2022, the updated rules state that both teams will have a chance to have the ball in overtime. If the receiving team punts on the first possession, the kicking team still wins possession without a timeout. If both teams score the same number of points on the first possession, the next score wins the game.
Shanahan told reporters he decided to start overtime because he wanted the 49ers’ chance to have the first possession in sudden death. The point is, even if the 49ers had punted the ball and got the extra point, the Chiefs could have scored a touchdown and tried to make it two points in the game. In this case, the 49ers never get a chance to get a sudden-death shot because the game is over. According to Jones, that’s exactly what Kansas City has planned.”I was right, but it could have easily gone the other way,” Reid told reporters after the game, according to The Ringer.
“But I thought it was the right thing to do. I would never ask Kyle because he’s great. But it was a choice I made and felt through training that it was important.
It’s reasonable to assume that San Francisco’s decision played a key role in the 49ers’ loss in Super Bowl LVIII.
