Andy Reid has been where Kyle Shanahan is right now.
It was only a few years ago that the Chiefs coach was the poster child for playoff disappointment, having made a handful of deep runs with the Eagles but never ending a season with the Lombardi Trophy in hand.
Reid has erased that legacy and created a much greater one, winning two Super Bowls in Kansas City with a third in his sights. Could Shanahan follow in his footsteps and launch his own championship legacy on Sunday?
Shanahan has been to the Super Bowl as both an offensive coordinator and a head coach, and his teams had a double-digit fourth-quarter lead both times. Neither won. Can the offensive guru avoid the same fate in Las Vegas?
Here’s a look back at Shanahan’s blown Super Bowl leads and what made them possible.
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Kyle Shanahan blown leads in the Super Bowl
Super Bowl 51: Falcons vs. Patriots
The Falcons’ offense surged in Shanahan’s second season as offensive coordinator under Dan Quinn. Matt Ryan ran away with his first and only MVP award, and Atlanta muscled its way through the NFC to a surprise Super Bowl appearance.
The Falcons were moderate underdogs entering Super Bowl 51 against the Patriots, but the game was turned on its head in the second quarter when Atlanta jumped out to a 21-0 lead with the help of a Robert Alford pick-six. By the latter portion of the third quarter, the Falcons led 28-3 and seemingly had a championship locked up.
No lead was safe against the Tom Brady-era Patriots, but many would argue blowing a 25-point lead is excusable regardless of the game or opponent. What happened?
While defensive failures to the tune of 25 points allowed over the last 18 minutes of regulation (and six more in overtime) were the biggest culprit, a lead that large can’t be blown without the offense having some say, as well.
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Over-aggressiveness by Shanahan ultimately played a major role in the Patriots getting the opportunity to tie the game. Shanahan has recalled one particular sequence that he quickly regretted.
The Falcons had the ball down to the Patriots’ 22-yard line with a chance to extend their lead back to two possessions with only a field goal deep into the fourth quarter, but Shanahan wanted Matt Ryan to ride the hot hand and hit Julio Jones again and effectively end the game with a touchdown. Ryan was instead sacked for a 12-yard loss, and an offensive holding penalty on the very next play erased any chance of a field goal for Atlanta.
“Right then, I was like, ‘Oh my God, why did I just try to end it?'” Shanahan said on The Ringer’s “Flying Coach” podcast in 2021. Had the Falcons run the ball on either play, even ineffectively, a field goal would have been in play. Instead, the Falcons were forced to punt, which set up New England’s game-tying drive.
Super Bowl 54: 49ers vs. Chiefs
Shanahan didn’t often seem to be brimming with confidence in Jimmy Garoppolo for much of the quarterback’s tenure in San Francisco. While playing it conservatively with Garoppolo worked in the regular season for the most part, Shanahan’s conservative approach in Super Bowl 54 set the 49ers up for disappointment.
San Francisco might not have had as big of a lead as the Falcons did three years earlier, but the Niners were set up well. They intercepted Patrick Mahomes with just under 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and a 10-point lead in hand. From that point, though, the 49ers looked more like a team trying to run the clock out rather than a team trying to score.
That approach makes sense knowing Shanahan’s mistakes in Super Bowl 51, but in a 20-10 (later 20-17) game with plenty of time left, it simply didn’t work. Shanahan reined Garoppolo in and limited him to shorter throws, but Steve Spagnuolo’s defense had the 49ers figured out by that point.
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Garoppolo’s limitations shouldered more of the blame than Shanahan’s play-calling, but it can be argued that Shanahan was also a bit too conservative early in the game. The 49ers didn’t press hard to score on their last possession of the first half until Garoppolo took a shot downfield to George Kittle with 14 seconds remaining. Kittle caught it, but he was called for offensive pass interference.
If the offense started with more of a sense of urgency or Shanahan left more time on the clock, San Francisco would’ve had more opportunities to at least get into field goal range before the half. Instead, the group was out of luck.
Shanahan also opted to kick a field goal on 4th-and-2 from the Chiefs’ 24-yard line early in the second half. It’s hard to envision that same decision being made in Super Bowl 58, even with a tougher Chiefs defense on the other side.
Fortunately for Shanahan, the 49ers’ offense doesn’t have many limitations this time around. He has full confidence in Brock Purdy’s ability to make plays and find the offense’s top pass-catchers, but San Francisco can also lean on the running game with Christian McCaffrey putting together a stellar season. There will be no shortage of pressure on Shanahan, however, thanks to his past Super Bowl collapses.
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