By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
The NFL’s new overtime rules for playoff games seems to have surprised many of the San Francisco 49ers players in Super Bowl LVIII.
While many Chiefs players have gone on record praising their head coach Andy Ried for going over every eventuality should this past Sunday’s Super Bowl go into overtime, the 49ers players stated that they received less information from their coaches.
One player that could be counted amongst a slew of 49ers players that were not fully aware of the new overtime playoff rules was fullback Kyle Juszczyk.
“You know what, I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime. I assumed you just want the ball because you score a touchdown and win. But I guess that’s not the case. So I don’t totally know the strategy there.”
Defensive Linemen Arik Armstead said that he and several Niners players actually saw the rules posted on the Jumbotron screen at Allegiant Stadium, leaving several players somewhat confused as to whether the game would automatically end on a first possession touchdown.
“I didn’t even know about the new playoff overtime rule, so it was a surprise to me. I didn’t even really know what was going on in terms of that.”
The Chiefs, on the other hand, admitted that they had spent to week before the Super Bowl going over possible scenarios just in case the game was tied at the end of regulation.
Defensive end Chris Jones told reporters that they were prepared. “We talked for two weeks about new overtime rules,” he said. “Give the ball to the opponent. If we score, we go for 2.”
Overtime in the Super Bowl is not so common. Only one other Super Bowl had gone to overtime in the games 58 year history and that was Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.
In that Super Bowl, the Falcons blew a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter, as the Patriots rallied to force overtime. The Falcons lost the coin toss and the Patriots chose to receive the ball first. That made sense under the old rules, because if the team to possess the ball first scored a touchdown, then the game was over.
However under the new rules that strategy seems less sound. As many observers have stated, under the new playoff overtime rules, if you win the coin toss you want to defer so that you know what you need when you get the ball. It would have made more sense for the 49ers to kickoff in OT to the Chiefs, so that if they Chiefs failed to score on their opening possession, for example, the Niners would have known that all they needed was a field goal to win the Super Bowl on their first possession.
One could at least argue that the better strategy is to defer. However, the admission by several 49ers players that they were not fully aware of the overtime rules, if accurate, is a huge coaching blunder on Shanahan’s part.
