Chiefs’ Rehearsed Plan For Super Bowl Overtime Differed From 49ers’
The Kansas City Chiefs knew what they wanted to do should Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium need to be decided in overtime. Fortunately for them, the San Francisco 49ers won the toss and still gave them their wish.
“We talked through this for two weeks,” Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones told The Ringer’s Lindsay Jones. “How we was going to give the ball to the opponent; if they scored, we was going for two at the end of the game. We rehearsed it.”
Super Bowl LVIII MVP Patrick Mahomes echoed Jones’ sentiments when he appeared on ESPN’s postgame coverage after the 25-22 victory. Mahomes told ESPN’s Chris Berman and Booger McFarland the Chiefs would have kicked the ball off if they won the coin toss, which would have ensured Kansas City knew how many points it needed to score on its overtime possession.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid deflected when McFarland asked whether or not he was surprised by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision. But Reid confirmed the Chiefs wouldn’t have went about it the same way.
“He’s a pretty smart guy so there’s got to be a reason why he did that,” Reid said on ESPN. “Everybody’s got their own philosophy on it. I get it. I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong way. We felt that you kick off first, but that’s here nor there. That’s what we think, but the guy is a great football coach.”
It’s clear the Chiefs were in lockstep about the scenario. The 49ers? Not so much.
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San Francisco defensive lineman Arik Armstead and fullback Kyle Juszczyk admitted after the loss they were unsure about the new rules in playoff overtime.
The rules, which were updated in 2022, state that both teams get a chance to possess the ball in overtime. If the receiving team scores a touchdown on its first possession, the team that kicked off still gets an untimed possession. If both teams scored the same amount of points on their initial possessions, the next score would win the game.
Shanahan told reporters the 49ers chose to receive the overtime kickoff because they wanted to have the chance to have the first possession in sudden death.
The problem with that, however, is that even if the 49ers scored a touchdown and kicked an extra point, the Chiefs could have scored a touchdown and attempted a game-winning two-point conversion. In that case, the 49ers never would get the chance to receive the sudden-death kickoff because the game would be over.
According to Jones, that’s exactly what Kansas City planned to do.
“Ours ended up being the right one, but that easily could have gone the other way,” Reid told reporters after the game, per The Ringer. “But that’s what we felt was the right thing to do. I’m never going to question Kyle, because he’s brilliant, but that was something we chose and, through our studies, we thought was important.”
It’s fair to think San Francisco’s decision played a pivotal role in the 49ers losing Super Bowl LVIII.