Poll: Do You View Kyle Shanahan Differently?

In the wake of what could have been the most exciting Super Bowl ever, everyone is trying to suss out exactly what happened: was Tom Brady a miracle worker or did the Falcons effectively give the game away? Things fell apart for Atlanta on both sides of the ball, but there is a lot of finger pointing in the direction of offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan (vertical)

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Shanahan, who will serve as the next coach of the 49ers, was hired to help get the offense back on track after two abysmal years. The Niners are hoping that he’ll exercise better judgement than he did in the late stages of last night’s game. The Pats rallied back from a 28-3 deficit to bring the score to 28-20 late in regulation. Instead of running the ball three times at the Pats’ 22-yard-line with ~4:30 left, Shanahan got too cute and called for a deep pass play on second down. Ryan got sacked on the play and the Falcons’ subsequent attempts to dig out of the hole only pushed them further out of field goal range. Atlanta was forced to punt on fourth down, and that set up the Pats’ tying drive.

Should this be chalked up to a momentary lapse in judgement, or do you think less of Shanahan’s ability to lead SF after last night’s costly error? Vote here and explain your position in the comments below.

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