LAS VEGAS — For the second time in 4 years, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan walked right into a deathly silent locker room with the tough job of discovering the phrases to consolation a workforce that had climbed to inside a step of the NFL mountaintop solely to return up brief.
Very similar to after his workforce coughed up a 10-point fourth-quarter result in the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LIV, Shanahan got here to the identical conclusion following Sunday evening’s 25-22 time beyond regulation loss to those self same Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVIII.
“There’s nothing totally different to say,” Shanahan defined. “I do not care the way you lose, whenever you lose Tremendous Bowls, particularly ones you suppose you possibly can pull off, it hurts. However I feel whenever you’re within the NFL, I feel each workforce ought to harm aside from one on the finish. We have gotten fairly rattling shut, however we have not pulled it off, and we’re hurting proper now.”
Sunday evening’s loss was painful not only for the truth that the Niners once more had a double-digit lead they could not hold on to or that they’d a pair of pricey particular groups miscues or that operating again Christian McCaffrey fumbled away a promising opening drive. It harm for all these causes however much more so as a result of it is the newest in a collection of devastating close to misses which might be changing into a late-January and early-February custom in San Francisco.
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The Niners have superior to at the least the NFC Championship Sport in 4 of the previous 5 seasons. They’ve gone to the Tremendous Bowl in two of these campaigns. They’ve misplaced double-digit leads in each Tremendous Bowls and an NFC Championship Sport, with a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles with out a wholesome quarterback for many of that sport combined in.
It is San Francisco’s third consecutive Tremendous Bowl loss since its final win following the 1994 season, making it the fifth workforce to lose three straight Tremendous Bowls together with the Buffalo Payments, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals. The Niners are additionally now 0-4 in opposition to the Chiefs underneath Shanahan, essentially the most losses with out a win versus any opponent underneath his steering.
There was loads of success for the 49ers to make it deep into the postseason regularly. However the lack of ability to show these into championships has left a constantly bitter style within the 49ers’ mouths.
“We have been so shut so many instances that there is solely so many extra alternatives that we have now,” defensive finish Nick Bosa stated.
Sunday’s defeat got here with loads of probabilities to shut the deal.
The 49ers had been the aggressors within the first half, transferring the ball at will on the sport’s opening drive, averaging 11.5 yards per play on their first 4 snaps. Then on first-and-10 at Kansas Metropolis’s 29-yard line, McCaffrey took a handoff to the proper the place he was met by Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal, who pried the ball free, with defensive finish George Karlaftis recovering it at Kansas Metropolis’s 27.
It was McCaffrey’s third fumble of the season after he misplaced simply two in his first six seasons mixed (2017 to 2022). After the loss, a despondent McCaffrey repeated the identical phrase a number of instances within the span of a few minutes.
“The very first thing I feel is I can not put the ball on the bottom on the primary drive,” McCaffrey stated. “It may sting. Put that on me.”
That was not the one pricey mishap for San Francisco. With 2:42 to go within the third quarter and the Niners getting the ball again with a 10-6 lead, a particular groups unit that was having a robust sport took a flip for the more serious.
Kansas Metropolis punter Tommy Townsend’s kick sailed 40 yards to the Niners’ 25-yard line, the place it hit off rookie cornerback Darrell Luter Jr.’s leg as he tried to dam for returner Ray-Ray McCloud.
Luter stated he didn’t hear a “Peter” name, which is the sign to get out of the best way if the ball is coming towards a non-returner. An alert McCloud tried to scoop the ball up however misplaced it, and Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson fell on it on the Niners’ 16.
McCloud stated he had no regrets about how he tried to catch or get better the ball, however Luter was extra upset in his lack of ability to dodge the ball within the first place.
“It’s a sucky feeling,” Luter stated. “It sort of makes you are feeling as if it is all on you. That is what it sort of makes you are feeling like. However I sort of acquired to take it with a grain of salt on the finish of the day and simply transfer ahead and be taught from it.”
Even after the Chiefs instantly turned that miscue right into a landing, the 49ers bounced again with a 12-play landing drive — however even that was tempered by kicker Jake Moody’s further level getting blocked by Chenal.
The Niners and Chiefs traded area targets to go to time beyond regulation, at which level San Francisco gained the toss and determined to take the ball first. Below the league’s new postseason time beyond regulation guidelines, each groups get an opportunity to own the ball earlier than the sport ends until the primary drive ends with a security.
“We have been so shut so many instances that there is solely so many extra alternatives that we have now.”
49ers DE Nick Bosa
Previous to the sport, Shanahan stated he and his analytics employees mentioned time beyond regulation potentialities and determined that with Patrick Mahomes on the opposite aspect, it could be finest to take the ball first as a result of that additionally would imply the Niners acquired the ball third within the occasion each groups matched factors on their opening possessions and time beyond regulation progressed to sudden dying.
Shanahan stated he felt good concerning the sport he and his employees coached.
“What I can not dwell with is once I do stuff that I did not plan on doing or that I did not do, and second-guess myself,” Shanahan stated. “I am happy with what we did right this moment as a training employees and as gamers when it comes to we labored and we did every little thing we deliberate on doing. We simply did not get it executed.”
Now, the 49ers head into one other offseason when they are going to be pressured to determine how they’ll lastly break by way of. The questions on all of the issues that saved them from profitable this one and people who got here earlier than it would persist.
Most of San Francisco’s veteran nucleus remains to be underneath contract and needs to be again for one more run. Earlier than any of that, the 49ers will take time to grieve one other defeat on the Tremendous Bowl stage. As Shanahan reminded his gamers within the locker room after the sport, there isn’t any time restrict on coping with that ache.
It is a course of with which they’re changing into all too acquainted.
“It is laborious to place your self on the market on the largest stage on the planet and are available up brief and should cope with what comes with that,” San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk stated. “It isn’t straightforward, nevertheless it’s one thing that we’ll by no means again away from and by no means again down from.”