LAS VEGAS — For the second time in four years, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan walked into a deathly quiet locker room with the difficult task of finding the words to console a team that had climbed to within a whisker of the top. of the NFL mountain only to come up short.
Just like after his team blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, Shanahan came to the same conclusion after Sunday night's 25-point overtime loss. 22 against those same Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII.
“There's nothing different to say,” Shanahan explained. “I don't care how you lose, when you lose Super Bowls, especially the ones you think you can make, it hurts. But I think when you're in the NFL, I think every team should suffer except one in the “We've gotten pretty close, but no. “We've made it and we're suffering right now.”
Sunday night's loss was painful not only because the Niners again had a double-digit lead that they couldn't maintain or that they had a couple of costly mistakes on special teams or that running back Christian McCaffrey fumbled in a promising initial series. . It hurt for all those reasons, but even more so because it's the latest in a series of devastating near-misses that are becoming a tradition in late January and early February in San Francisco.
The Niners have advanced to at least the NFC Championship Game in four of the last five seasons. They reached the Super Bowl in two of those campaigns. They have blown double-digit leads in both Super Bowls and an NFC Championship Game, with a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles without a healthy quarterback for most of that game.
It is San Francisco's third consecutive Super Bowl loss since its last victory following the 1994 season, making it the fifth team to lose three consecutive Super Bowls along with the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Cincinnati. Bengals. The Niners are also now 0-4 against the Chiefs under Shanahan, the most losses without a win against any opponent under him.
The 49ers have had a lot of success making it to the postseason on a regular basis. But the inability to turn them into championships has left a continually sour taste in the 49ers' mouths.
“We've been so close so many times that we just have a lot more opportunities,” defensive end Nick Bosa said.
Sunday's loss came with plenty of chances to seal the deal.
The 49ers were the aggressors in the first half, moving the ball at will on the game's first drive, averaging 11.5 yards per play on their first four plays. Then, on first and 10 at the Kansas City 29-yard line, McCaffrey made a pass to the right where he was met by Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal, who fumbled the ball, and defensive end George Karlaftis recovered it at the 1-yard line. 27 Kansas City.
It was McCaffrey's third fumble of the season after losing just two in his first six seasons combined (2017 to 2022). After the loss, a dejected McCaffrey repeated the same phrase several times in the span of a couple of minutes.
“The first thing I think about is I can't put the ball on the ground on the first drive,” McCaffrey said. “It's going to hurt. Put it on.”
That wasn't the only costly mishap for San Francisco. With 2:42 left in the third quarter and the Niners getting the ball back with a 10-6 lead, a special teams unit that was having a strong game took a turn for the worse.
Kansas City punter Tommy Townsend's kick sailed 40 yards to the Niners 25-yard line, where it hit rookie cornerback Darrell Luter Jr.'s leg as he attempted to block for returner Ray-Ray McCloud.
Luter said he didn't hear a call from “Peter,” which is the signal to get out of the way if the ball is coming toward someone who doesn't return it. An alert McCloud tried to pick up the ball but lost it, and Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson fell on him at the Niners 16-yard line.
McCloud said he didn't regret how he tried to catch or recover the ball, but Luter was more disappointed by his inability to dodge the ball in the first place.
“It's an unpleasant feeling,” Luter said. “It makes you feel like everything depends on you. That's what it makes you feel. But I have to take it with a grain of salt at the end of the day and just move forward and learn from it.”
Even after the Chiefs immediately turned that mistake into a touchdown, the 49ers rallied with a 12-play touchdown drive, but even that was tempered by kicker Jake Moody's extra point that was blocked by Chenal.
The Niners and Chiefs traded field goals to go to overtime, at which point San Francisco won the toss and decided to take the ball first. Under the league's new postseason overtime rules, both teams have a chance to possess the ball before the game ends unless the first drive ends with a safety.
“We've been so close so many times that we just have a lot more chances.”
49ers DE Nick Bosa
Before the game, Shanahan said he and his analytics staff discussed overtime possibilities and decided that with Patrick Mahomes on the other side, it would be best to get the ball first because that would also mean the Niners would get the ball third in case both. The teams tied the score on their first possessions and overtime progressed toward sudden death.
Shanahan said he felt good about the game he and his staff were coaching.
“What I can't live with is when I do things I didn't plan to do or didn't do, and I question myself,” Shanahan said. “I'm proud of what we did today as a coaching staff and as players in terms of we worked and did everything we planned to do. We just didn't get it done.”
Now, the 49ers head into another offseason where they will be forced to figure out how to finally break through. Questions about all the things that kept them from winning this one and the previous ones will linger.
Most of San Francisco's veteran core is still under contract and should return for another run. Before that, the 49ers will take some time to grieve another loss on the Super Bowl stage. As Shanahan reminded his players in the locker room after the game, there's no time limit on dealing with that pain.
It's a process they are becoming too familiar with.
“It's tough to put yourself out there on the biggest stage in the world and come up short and have to deal with what that entails,” San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “It's not easy, but it's something we will never back down or back away from.”
