LAS VEGAS — It was one of many best choices in soccer: In case you win the toss in time beyond regulation, you are taking the ball.
The foundations are totally different now, nonetheless, and that selection by San Francisco within the Tremendous Bowl can be debated all offseason.
The 49ers took the ball and drove for a subject objective, then misplaced 25-22 when Patrick Mahomes guided Kansas Metropolis 75 yards the opposite manner for the successful landing Sunday night time. San Francisco’s drive ended when the 49ers kicked a subject objective on fourth-and-4 from the 9.
In the event that they’d identified three factors wouldn’t be adequate, they may have gone for a landing in that spot.
“That’s one thing we talked about,” San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan stated. “None of us have a ton of expertise of it.”
For a few years, time beyond regulation ended as quickly as one workforce scored. Then the rule was altered so each groups might possess the ball — except the primary workforce on offense scored a landing. In that case, the sport would finish on that TD, and that’s what occurred when New England beat Atlanta 34-28 in Tremendous Bowl 51.
An much more current rule change mandated that within the postseason, each groups can possess the ball even when the primary offensive workforce scores a landing. Now NFL playoff time beyond regulation much more carefully resembles the school OT format, the place groups alternate possessions. And in school, groups typically wish to have the ball second as a result of they’ll have a greater sense of what they want on their drive.
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This time, Kansas Metropolis had that benefit, which meant the Chiefs had no selection however to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their very own 34, down three. They transformed and finally reached the tip zone on a 3-yard landing go from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.
“There’s two methods: You kick it off otherwise you obtain it,” Kansas Metropolis coach Andy Reid stated. “I’m unsure there’s a proper reply, essentially. Ours ended up being the proper one. That’s what we felt was the proper factor to do.”
Reid’s feedback counsel there’s no apparent consensus amongst coaches about what to do, but when the Chiefs had received the toss, they had been ready to kick off and play protection first.
“We talked for 2 weeks about new time beyond regulation guidelines,” defensive sort out Chris Jones stated. “Give the ball to the opponent. If we rating, we go for two.”
One protection of San Francisco’s resolution to take the ball entails what occurs if the sport continues to be tied after each groups have had a possession. Then, the sport does turn out to be sudden demise — so there’s a transparent potential edge in having the ball third. If the sport was nonetheless tied after the primary two possessions, the 49ers might have gotten the ball and any rating would have received it.
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However time beyond regulation by no means made it that far.
“We went by means of all of the analytics and talked to these guys,” Shanahan stated. “We needed the ball third. If each groups matched and scored, we needed to be those with an opportunity to go win.”
Additional time can attain a 3rd possession if every workforce kicks a subject objective.
“We acquired that subject objective, so we knew we needed to maintain them to no less than a subject objective,” Shanahan stated. “And if we did, we thought the sport was in our palms after that.”
If every workforce scores a landing, then as Jones stated, the second workforce might merely go for a 2-point conversion to forestall its opponent from getting the ball once more.
It turned out Kansas Metropolis didn’t have to fret about any conversion as a result of as soon as the 49ers settled for a brief subject objective, the landing by the Chiefs received the sport.
And Jones was an enormous cause it labored out that manner. He got here by means of unblocked on San Francisco’s final offensive play, forcing an incompletion that arrange a brief subject objective by Jake Moody.
