The San Francisco 49ers fell just short against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 58. They lost 25-22 in overtime, the second time in four years they have been defeated by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the big game.
San Francisco’s defense did an excellent job, despite linebacker Dre Greenlaw tearing his ACL, to limiting the production of Kansas City’s offense. They were shutting the Chiefs out prior to Greenlaw’s injury and forced multiple turnovers in the game.
Despite that, the 49ers have opted to make a change on the defensive side of their coaching staff. On Wednesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan announced that he was relieving defensive coordinator Steve Wilks of his job.
NFL News & Rumors: Kyle Shanahan, Steve Wilks, San Francisco 49ers Updates
“This morning I relieved Steve Wilks of his duties,” Shanahan said in a conference call Wednesday that was scheduled just 10 minutes before it happened. “[We’re] going to end up making a change here at defensive coordinator. A really tough decision, because [it] really says nothing about Steve as a man or as a football coach. I mean, he’s exactly what we wanted as a man. He is a great football coach.
“But just where we’re going and where we’re at with our team from a scheme standpoint and things like that, looking through it all throughout the year to these last few days, I felt pretty strongly that this was a decision that was best for the organization.”
There were some bumps in the road throughout the season as Wilks was running a system that wasn’t his. Shanahan admitted that he had his defensive coordinator running the game system that Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans both ran before him.
“I knew that was a challenge,” Shanahan said. “It was real tough losing DeMeco. It was tough losing Saleh the year before. We had committed to not just the system, but the players that had been in the system, from our D-line or linebackers. They had played in it for such a long time.
“It was my goal to not have to change all of them, and bringing in Steve, who was unbelievable how loyal he was and him trying to do it, but it just ended up not being the right fit. And it hurt for me to do this, but that’s exactly why I had to.”
NFL News & Rumors: Kyle Shanahan, Steve Wilks, San Francisco 49ers Updates
The 49ers’ defense wasn’t as dominant as it was under Ryans, but they were still a strong unit. Firing Wilks seems like a scapegoat move, as it wasn’t his unit that kept San Francisco from raising the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday evening.
It was Shanahan and his offense that called eight pass plays out of halftime, resulting in three three-and-outs and very short time of possession. Holding a Mahomes-led offense to under 20 points in regulation and forcing multiple turnovers should have been enough for the 49ers to pull out a victory.
Alas, it wasn’t as a Shanahan-led offense blew a double-digit lead in a Super Bowl for the third time. Sometimes, personalities don’t mesh as well as they had hoped and that seems to be the case in San Francisco. Wilks being fired despite a strong overall job seems like a short-sighted move just to shake things up for the sake of change after another brutal loss in the Super Bowl.
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