Kyle Shanahan admitted what has been clear to anyone who has watched the 49ers this season, after Sunday’s dismal loss to the Colts: He can’t get into a groove.
“No, I don’t think I’ve gotten in a great rhythm,” Shanahan said. “I think we’ve done it on a couple drives, but we have not sustained that and I haven’t felt comfortable with it.”
It’s a troubling development for a man who has been considered arguably the best play caller in football for years. How Shanahan can get back into a groove is anybody’s guess, but longtime 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco posited a theory as to why things are off this year for the 49ers head coach.
“Here’s what I think,” Maiocco began on KNBR Monday afternoon. “I think that Kyle Shanahan is so about the big play and he has this tendency, and sometimes it serves him very well. Whenever something is working he anticipates the adjustment being made which then leaves the defense vulnerable in another area.
“In words that I’ve heard him use, instead of pounding your head against an eight-man front, you’re going use that and make a bigger play because of the success you’ve had in one area. The problem this year is that the counter to the stuff that’s happening has not been successful at all. That always begs the question, why not stick with it, and I don’t know the answer.”
Maiocco isn’t ready to put Shanahan on the hot seat or say that the 49ers head coach has completely lost his touch. The decade plus of excellence as an offensive genius and the 2019 Super Bowl run should not be forgotten, even if Kyle is currently in a rut.
“I think Kyle Shanahan is a really good coach. Kyle Shanahan is to me what Jimmy Garoppolo is to Kyle Shanahan. I’m going to have to see a lot more than what we’ve seen to come off of my belief that Kyle Shanahan is a really good coach.
“I think that he’s had a bad season. He even admitted as much last night that he hasn’t got into a rhythm as a play-caller. When a quarterback has a bad game, it doesn’t mean he’s a bad quarterback. It means he had a bad game. So I kind of look at this season, so far from that standpoint.”
Maiocco also gave an example about the very thing he is talking about, which took place in the first quarter and completely changed the game.
“There was a stretch there where Elijah Mitchell rips off a 20-yard run, followed by a 14-yard run, followed by a 14-yard touchdown,” Maiocco said referring to San Francisco’s opening drive. “The 49ers had momentum. Then the defense came through, they got a takeaway on a Jonathan Taylor fumble.
“So the 49ers had the ball. They could’ve gone up 14-0 before half the first quarter was played. And on a night like that where you knew the rain was just going to be coming down and it was just going to be more and more difficult to move the ball by conventional means, they give the ball to Elijah Mitchell for the very first play out of that takeaway and he gains 12 yards.
“Then it’s like, okay, we’ve talked all week last week about their identity, and I’m up there going ‘boom, there it is, there’s the identity.’ They’re just going to demolish the Colts on the ground, just like they did against the Packers in that NFC Championship Game.
“And then what happens? Three pass plays, no yards, and a field goal. And you’re left there going, well, there goes momentum. Sure enough I think they followed five possessions where they didn’t get a first down, and that basically gift wrapped the Colts the momentum for the game.”
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Listen to the full interview below.
