Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler said someone in the San Francisco 49ers organization will face consequences for their controversial decision to let the Kansas City Chiefs have the ball second in overtime of the 2022 Super Bowl.
While the overtime rules were changed to ensure each team gets a possession, the 49ers kicked a field goal after receiving the opening kickoff, then the Chiefs drove for the winning touchdown.
Chiefs players expressed surprise on getting the ball back.
Cutler said it was a shock to give Patrick Mahomes and the offense four downs with the game on the line.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said, “They want it. They want the ball.”
“They wanted it, baby,” he celebrated.
“We want them to have the ball. They want it, they can have it,” Travis Kelce affirmed.
Jay Cutler said, “He was shocked. I was shocked. I think everyone was shocked.”
“It’s like, you’re going to give Patrick Mahomes the ball second and give him four downs. Someone’s getting fired,” predicted the former quarterback.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan defended the call but acknowledged he may have decided differently if it was more of a high-scoring game.
“I take into account what they say — what they think is right — and then I go off my gut in the heat of battle,” Shanahan said in defense of his decision.
“It did seem more like a field-goal game. And our defense had been out there for a real long time right before that. So, I didn’t feel at all to override that at the time,” explained the 49ers head coach.
Adding, “If it was like the Super Bowl the year before, the one that seemed more like a shootout, I think I might’ve felt a little bit differently.”
“I’m not sure there’s a right answer necessarily. Ours ended up being the right one. That easily could have gone the other way,” suggested Shanahan.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said either team could have won with possession first or second.
Analysts said there was no clearly right choice given the strengths of both offenses and possibly fatigued defenses.
Football analyst Ben Baldwin said, “Given all this — SF’s offense is very good, Chiefs have Mahomes, both defenses might be tired — I’d probably lean towards receiving but don’t feel super strongly about it.”
“I don’t think there’s an obvious answer, and you definitely don’t need to do the same thing every time. Although if I were forced to make a choice, I would have taken the ball second (this is also easy to say after the fact!),” the analyst explained.
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