What did San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan say about Super Bowl loss to Kansas City Chiefs?

Super Bowl LVIII was decided by minute details. Indeed, both teams were essentially inseparable until the final minutes. With that in mind, it stands to reason that despite the team’s loss in the big game, the San Francisco 49ers still have reason to hold their heads high

Kyle Shanahan backs his men

Following their dramatic loss in Super Bowl LVIII, the San Francisco 49ers and by extension their coach, Kyle Shanahan, have come under heavy fire this week. As you can imagine, it is a situation that is not helped by the fact that this is the second time that the Niners - with Shanahan as coach - have lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL’s biggest game. There is also the idea that San Francisco held a double-digit lead in the Super Bowl, only to end up losing when the final whistle was blown. Needless to say, the doubters had their knives out, labeling the 44-year-old coach and his men as big game flops. As for Shanahan himself, he made it clear during his end-of-the-season press conference on Tuesday, that he will be having none of that.

“I mean you’d love to fix perception, because I’d love to win one for what I know about football, and I know if I fix perception that means I did everything I wanted to do, which isn’t fix perception, it’s win a damn Super Bowl,” Shanahan said. “But I also know, when you say big games, we’ve had to win a bunch of big games to get to Super Bowls. We’ve won a lot of big games here, we’ve won a lot of big games to get into playoffs, the fact that we keep getting there shows you how much we win big games.”

Does Kyle Shanahan have a point?

Now, if we’re honest, one can’t argue with the simple logic that dictates the following: To make it to a Super Bowl, you’ve got to win big games against big teams. In that sense, Shanahan is perfectly correct. On the other hand, it’s interesting to note that as much as we can debate the point, the 49ers tactician admitted that two consecutive losses to the same team in the same game - the biggest of them all - is a difficult crack to smooth over.

“These two Super Bowls have been tough, losing to Kansas City. But to think that if we win that, that means I can win a big game? No, that means our team won the Super Bowl. You guys can have any narrative you want, but the success or the failure, it comes down to one game, and I hope that I can be a part of a team that wins a game at the end of the year, but to say the Niners can’t win a big game would be an extremely inaccurate statement.” Ultimately, fans will decide where they stand regardless of what Shanahan says or how we frame it but do consider the idea that the 49ers produced one of the NFL’s most sensational comebacks to book their spot in the Super Bowl, overturning a 17-point deficit against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game. That said, it’s clear that Shanahan accepts the weight that comes with the biggest game - not big games - such that he knows what must be done. Is that fair? Who is to say, but for the moment the 49ers and their coach will continue to search for that elusive title.