The San Francisco 49ers are 6-0 and are looking to go 7-0 when they face the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7. Moreover, with other teams in the NFC underperforming or still having question marks, this could be an opportunity for the Niners to reach the Super Bowl.
San Francisco already took down the Seattle Seahawks on the road, and in Australia, the 49ers made easy work of the Los Angeles Rams. As a result, they have an inside track to winning the NFC West.
Despite the 49ers’ impressive start to the season, former Falcons wide receiver Roddy White said on the Oct. 21 edition of “Up & Adams” that he doesn’t believe Kyle Shanahan will ever win a Super Bowl.
“No,” White said when host Kay Adams asked whether he sees Shanahan winning a Super Bowl. “[The 49ers] start like this every year. That team starts very fast every year. The only time they haven’t started fast is when they had everybody hurt and this year, they’re still managing to get people hurt, but they’re off to a good start.
“He’s a great offensive mind, but in tough situations and pressure situations, the overaggressive play calls always get him in trouble and I think that’s just his mentality. He doesn’t play situational football well. That’s the only thing that I think is really a knock on his game.”
49ers’ Kyler Shanahan Struggles With the Mental Side
Furthermore, White explained why he believes Shanahan’s mindset in high-pressure situations could keep him from winning a Super Bowl.
“I think that’s just his mentality,” White added. “He doesn’t play situational football well. That’s the only thing that’s really a knock on his game. He doesn’t play situational football well, and that gets his team in trouble when you play against great quarterbacks.
“When you make it to a Super Bowl, you’re going to be playing against a great quarterback… So he’s very smart. I just think the aggressive play calling when not needed in a pressure situation always gets the best of him.”
Kyler Shanahan Doesn’t Put Players in Best Position
The former Falcons wideout also explained how a person, or in his example, a quarterback, is supposed to handle those pressure situations that don’t allow him to get the best of them, which is the case with Shanahan, according to White.
“Your ability to understand the flow of the game and things like that is going to help you win those games, and I think especially if you have to play Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, that guy has learned from Tom Brady, just playing him each and every year, playing him in Super Bowls,” White stated.
“[Mahomes] knows what it takes. He can read what’s going on. He knows how to handle those situations, and he always comes out as a winner because he doesn’t give himself an opportunity to lose the game and I think that Kyle always thinks, ‘I have to win the game. I have to win the game,’ instead of putting his players in the best position to win the game.”
Since becoming the Niners’ head coach, Shanahan has been to two Super Bowls, losing both, along with losing one as the Falcons’ offensive coordinator. It will be interesting to see if this is the year that the 49ers’ head coach can win that big game.
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