SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Kyle Shanahan’s play calls from his first trip to the Super Bowl have been heavily scrutinized.
That was to be expected after the Atlanta Falcons, with Shanahan in his second and final season as their offensive coordinator, blew a 28-3 lead to the New England Patriots and lost in overtime three years ago in part because they were unable to run out the clock or add to the lead.
Shanahan is back in the NFL’s title game in his third season as coach of the San Francisco 49ers, which has led to a rehashing of that game in Houston – even if Shanahan has put it far behind him.
“Not much at all anymore, to tell you the truth,” he said this week when asked if he still goes over that game
“You do it every second. The days after were real tough. Losing a Super Bowl is extremely tough for everybody, especially when you lose one when you have a 28-3 lead. The way it came down on me personally, I didn’t react to that, the way people would expect, because there were definitely parts in that Super Bowl that I would love to have back and stuff I was very hard on myself, but the whole narrative of if I would’ve just ran it, we would’ve won – I know that wasn’t the case.”