FanPost

Mystery Solved! This is why Shanahan passed instead of running at the end of SB51

I will confess that it has dogged me for the last two months: Why on Earth did Shanahan violate 100 years of NFL winning logic and throw the ball while the opposing team had less than four minutes remaining and no timeouts left? Why, even taking 4 kneel-downs would have left the Patriots with under two minutes, 74 yards to go. Why did Shanahan forego a 38-to 40 yard field goal to clinch the win? I kept replaying the sequence of events...I had to research what others thought and what Shanahan himself said.

Of course there were the conspiracy theorists that claimed it was a fix for the NFL or that Shanahan was paid off by someone; even I posted a (not serious) post to go along with the conspiracy, although my belief was that he was less mentally involved since it would soon be his former team and the ring was less important than one that he (laughing while writing this) would get as a winning Super Bowl head coach.

Finally, I came upon a quote given by Shanahan to Vaughn McClure of ESPN on Feb, 6, 2017, the relevant part of the quote being "The thought was to get as many yards as you can and we were right there on the fringe. It was by no means an easy field goal."

Bingo! Kyle Shanahan wasn't trying to give us the old "middle finger"; he just thought we were on the 35, making the kick a 50+ yard field goal, not the actual distance of the 22, making it a 37-40 yard kick, roughly the equivalent of a long extra point. He thought that we needed about 10 yards to make the kick makeable, that's why he called the seemingly ridiculous pass play. Now, knowing that he wasn't going for ego points by trying to rout Belechick /Brady/ McDaniels/ Patrica but that he just didn't know where they were in field position so that's why he made the call. He simply had a mental lapse at the worst time in Falcon history.

I feel so much better know knowing the truth and I can finally move on. (virtual sarcasm on)

<em>This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.</em>