SANTA CLARA, Calf. _ The Super Bowl is a unique game with stakes at their highest. Legacies can be solidified with wins and reputations can be sullied by losses.
There's very little room for anything in between.
That's the basis for the analysis when we start to look at these games. But the truth is, Kyle Shanahan isn't any worse a coach after Sunday's devastating Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs than he was after the 49ers beat down the Packers in the NFC title game. And Andy Reid isn't a better coach than he was heading into Super Bowl week in South Florida.
But we look at those two offensive geniuses differently now that we have a result to judge them by. Shanahan's two Super Bowl appearances are marred by the scoring totals in the fourth quarters and overtime, where the 49ers this year and Falcons in the 2017 Super Bowl combined to get outscored 46-0.
That's going to be a major sticking point when discussing Shanahan, whether it's all his fault or not. The same was true with Reid, who won 207 games before finally getting his elusive Lombardi Trophy (Shanahan has 23 wins as a head coach). Reid's reputation as a poor game manager in crucial situations accompanied him his entire career to this point. That might now be shifting to Shanahan.
But is that entirely fair? Let's consider the thought process of how to evaluate Shanahan's performance from Sunday night in Miami, and try to diagnose what went wrong that kept the 49ers from bringing their sixth championship back to Northern California.
