I’m a Niners hater as much as anyone on this board and I think Kyle Shanahan comes off as arrogant and conceited which is not a trait I favor in people.
BUT, I have got to recognize game. The Niners’ march through Minnesota and Green Bay in the playoffs to the Super Bowl was for me the Platonic Ideal of how the game should be played. I remember Jeff Fisher saying in Hard Knocks that you want to manage the game so that you can be in a position to win the game at the end. Did he forget the 85 Bears he was a part of? I thought when I heard that that Fisher just didn’t get it. And he was a head coach for 20+ years.
No, when I saw Shanahan do nothing but run the ball in one series against the Vikings and easily march down the field for 7, it was as obvious as day, that Vikings knew they were toast. That’s how you secure wins.
Someone will object and claim rightly that the Niners lost to the exact opposite football mentality in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. Well, you can’t slobberknock every team. The Chiefs had enough bulk upfront to avoid having the ball run down their throats.
But for the teams that don’t have that, I find if a coach is not game planning to take the defense’s desire for victory away, then that coach has conceded away a big chunk of percentage in winning the game.
Why give away odds of winning just so you can chuck the ball up 50 times? That hardly ever disheartens a defense.
Here’s to hoping McVay adds a fullback.
We Not Me
