49ers' Kyle Shanahan explains decision to receive OT kickoff in Super Bowl loss

The San Francisco 49ers suffered a devastating 25-22 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII. While many believe head coach Kyle Shanahan cost the 49ers the game for deciding to receive the ball first after winning the overtime coin toss, he still thinks he made the right decision.

"It's just something we talked about," Shanahan said. "None of us have a ton of experience with it. But we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys. We just thought it would be better. We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win. Got that field goal, so knew we had to hold them to at least a field goal, and if we did, then we thought it was in our hands after that."

Shanahan's perspective on the new rules almost worked out until Kansas City made a defensive stand at the nine-yard line, forcing San Francisco to settle for a field goal. The Chiefs then needed a touchdown to win the game and that's exactly what happened.

In the past, it was a no-brainer for the team that won the overtime coin toss to receive the ball first as the first overtime touchdown won the game. That remains true in today's regular-season format, but the postseason overtime rules were changed in 2022 to ensure both teams get to possess the football on offense.

It was clearly a first for both teams, but head coach Andy Reid revealed after the game that he would have chosen differently.

"That can go either way. We would have kicked the ball off," Reid told reporters. "We had already gone through all of that. We had it all mapped out."

The loss extends the 49ers Super Bowl losing streak to three and in Shanahan's two appearances his team owned a fourth-quarter lead. That only adds to the "What ifs?" surrounding yet another loss that many believe could have turned out differently.

As for Reid, he is happy with Shanahan's overtime decision. But at the same time, he doesn't think Shanahan should be solely blamed for the outcome of the game.

"I'm not sure there's a right answer, necessarily. Ours ended up being the right one, but that could have easily gone the other way," Reid said. "I'm never gonna question Kyle because he's brilliant."