How the Chiefs Embarrassed Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers.

The Blood Sweat tears of scratching clawing fighting your way to the Super Bowl all can be erased in an instant by a coach's mistakes it was clear flipping on the Super Bowl 58 film that Kyle Shanahan's game plan was underdeveloped his in-game adjustments were underwhelming and his team ultimately was unprepared yes Steve spagnola's game plan was brilliant but when we dive in to discover Shanahan's role in this I'll show you why I believe he was the main problem we can see here how spag noo attacked him so we can understand how exactly Shanahan didn't adjust spags is known for playing a lot of man coverage known for dialing up the Blitz and known for sending exotic pressures from Every Which Way deceptively he didn't start out the game using these principles as we'll see in a sec but as the game went on he got back to his roots and the chief's defense took over the game the 49ers started off the first drive pretty hot cuz spags wanted to keep two safeties deep something he loves doing but played a lot of Zone coverage thinking he could throw Shanahan off he thought his two safeties would limit the 49ers intermediate crossers their bread and butter and expected they'd be fast enough to come from Death to defend the middle space but he was wrong the other part of his initial game plan which actually stuck was to Blitz against the Run he wanted to put an extra guy on the line to mess with the 49ers running game typically the 49ers run a lot of Zone schemes which rely on doubling the four defensive linemen so you don't have to put all the stress on just one guy moving a gigantic 330 lb human but since he blitzes Leo chanal instead of John Feliciano getting help from Jake brandle on the double team he has to take on chanal all by himself which exposed one of the 49ers main weaknesses their offensive line these Zone run schemes coach the running back to read outside in and if it's not there he'll cut back so the chiefs made sure they Rush up the field to choke off that first read to force mcaffry to cut back into the teeth of their defense where Chris Jones lives while the blitzing loaded front strategy against the Run was working the two high Zone strategy to shut down the middle was not so spags had to adjust pry started the game hot going 8 for 10 for 102 yards and Shanahan's usual game plan of attacking over the middle was working but the Chiefs adjusted and Shanahan did not spag started playing almost exclusively man coverage with usually one high safety and Shanahan did not have a good answer by playing one High it helped the Chiefs limit the running game even more since that second safety drops down into the box spags use elements of the famous bellich game plan against the Rams in the Super Bowl where he at times put six on the line to dictate one-on-one matchups so the 49ers couldn't run their Zone double teams but surprisingly Shanahan just kept hitting his head on the wall running up the middle over and over and maccaffrey ended the day with just 3.6 yard per attempt by playing just one high safety man coverage that's the defense say saying our quarterbacks are better than your receivers it's one-on-one across the board Shanahan did manage to see this shift in spaz's plan I do want that to be clear the problem though is that he dialed up concepts for the wrong player in Debo Samuel who struggles against man coverage Debo and Brandon auk are perfect for different situations Debo excels against Zone coverage but struggles badly against man and iuk is awesome at both but is the 4 's best receiver against man Shanahan saw that the chiefs were adjusting with a man heavy game plan so he was dialing up Concepts to counter it but he kept using the wrong guy Debo had 11 targets but just three catches for 33 yards he's just not the typical type of wide receiver he's otherworldly with the ball in his hands but his release package isn't diverse or dynamic he doesn't run precise routes and his hands are questionable you can tell these concepts are designed for him cuz pie looks at him first but he just can't beat the tight coverage especially when he's getting pressed but instead of adjusting Shanahan doubled down and kept using him instead of auk HE positions Debo off the ball so that Trent McDuffy can't bump him at the line and interrupt his route the Chiefs actually play cover zero here which we'll see more of insane to run it on Third and 14 cuz cover zero is straight man with no extra safeties to help deep but you're bringing one more rusher than the offense can block and look at mcduffy's coverage it's spectacular his abilities were unmatched in the game but also Debo is not the receiver you want running this route the play reminds me a lot of Alshon jeffy's massive touchdown in Super Bowl 52 one of my favorite catches ever and while the 49ers don't have that type of receiver it is definitely not Debo it was frustrating watching the film and seeing Shanahan repeatedly put him in those situations and also repeatedly hitting his head on the post that are Chris Jones and Mike panel the 49ers weakest link is their guards on the offensive line and whether it was Chris Jones winning upfield to make Debo or mcaffrey cut back into panel or Chris Jones is doing it himself and obliterating the play no adjustments were made it was just rinse and repeat two yard gains which then set up third and Longs and then punts the 49ers tried running away from Jones but spags was ready he Blitz a corner to set the edge to force the run back towards the big man or when Shanahan tried to shift the strength of the formation with KD to get away from 95 Jones would shift over two and then do what he does wreck the game Shanahan's insistence on making Debo the focal point against a man coverage heavy defense cost the 49ers all day long especially against spags cover zero blitzes as I said it's pure man coverage one-on-one no deep safeties and with the ners having just five blockers against six pass rushers it is on pury to be able to get the ball out quick before Nick Bolton comes free and knocks his head off the only issue is Debo is designed to be his first read but the man just can't beat good press coverage now I'm not saying the chief's defense didn't play well they were phenomenal you can see George KD coming open here on a play the 49ers have hit before but Chris Jones should have been the MVP cuz he was the best player on the field coaches and Scouts will tell you Elite defensive linemen don't just know how to beat their man but simultaneously can watch and adjust to what the quarterback is doing here Jones's responsibility is the B Gap to make sure when mcaffry Cuts back he'll get swallowed up but when the play starts while he's kicking ass he notices something is up and ruins what could have been a game-changing play such a big part of the plan was run blitzing to create a fiveman front and letting the defensive tackles do work on the guards or the rest of the line as a third quarter rolled around and the 49ers stalled out they tried going back to their usual bread and butter place but they couldn't beat man coverage once again with Debo this is their go-to dagger concept where Jaan Jennings runs what's typically a clear out route to create room for Debo over the middle however McDuffy runs the route for him and there is nowhere to throw and nothing to be done Shanahan did have some beautiful play designs but when there was actually somebody schemed open a glimmer of hope a chance Chris Jones was the Difference Maker and the Destroyer we just saw Debo come wide open and pretty miss him well that's cuz even though the 49ers are faking the same wide Zone Action where we just saw Jones peel off now he's just torching the 49ers back up Spencer bford and making it so pretty doesn't have a clean platform to throw another area Shanahan struggled had more to do with the preparation and installation of his scheme his answers for cover zero were horrific on third and four tied 1616 if they convert this first down they can kick a field goal with time expiring and win the Chiefs disguise their cover zero flawlessly the ners just need four yards so you wouldn't expect cover zero with safeties 10 yards off and let's watch Trent McDuffy earlier in the game he had fakes like he was coming then backed off and played zone so then in the biggest moment he fakes like he's coming drops back over to auk then there he goes and he comes free you you could easily argue this is on pry this is a line concept double Slants where you read it inside out so right away auk is the first read and he's open for the first down but in my opinion Shanahan didn't prepare birdie correctly the Super Bowl is squandered it's over but thank God we get overtime but the same thing still happens the 49ers got all the way down near the Red Zone they got the Chiefs back on their heels so spag started mixing in more Zone and shanan called a perfect beater against Zone the same one the Patriots used against the Rams in the Super Bowl where you spread everybody out and if you know you're getting Zone it matches Julian Edelman or Debo Samuel one-on-one with a linebacker however like I said and look I'm one of Debo's biggest fans he could be allpro every year but he is not Julian Edelman he's just not going to route you up it is a different skill set if shanan puts iuk here instead this is a first down over the middle and potentially a game winner the 49ers kept running into the guards that didn't change they just kept running up the middle over and over and then the final play of the game on offense was just a really weird call to me too the Chiefs bring cover zero shocker and the 49ers run playaction out of shotgun which nobody thinks you're running the ball here also against a cover zero team that's been blitzing your balls off you want pie to have every millisecond he possibly can to process and they also pull the center which messes up their protection this is more of a protection to fool the linebackers over the middle into thinking you're running you wouldn't run this in the Red Zone but the ners get confused and Chris Jones comes free this was one of the most heartbreaking games you will ever see yes Mahomes was incredible when he needed to be but the 49ers should have won this game it was right there but they did not adjust the Kyle Shanahan choke stuff is annoying to me but after we all sat down huddled up and watched this film together my main take away is that he really got schooled he wasn't fully prepared he didn't really adjust and for those reasons he played a major role in the 49ers losing at the end of the day the Chiefs punched them and his team in the mouth and they were left reeling the loss has shifted Kansas City into full-blown Dynasty mode and S Francisco into question but with another big time loss under their belts another painstaking Agony stricken night Shanahan and the 49ers will be back they will be better and at some point they too will win the Super [Music] Bowl

Channel: AlexRollinsNFL

Views: 189,830

Keywords: kyle shanahan, nfl, 49ers, san francisco 49ers, chiefs, kansas city chiefs, super bowl 58, super bowl highlights, chiefs super bowl, 49ers super bowl, kyle shanahan super bowl, kyle shanahan offense, steve spagnuolo, steve spagnuolo super bowl, chris jones, alex rollins, alexrollinsnfl

Id: 6pKq8KgBcQc

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2024