Kyle Shanahan: 'Inaccurate' to Say 49ers Can't Win Big Games After Super Bowl 58 Loss

Kyle Shanahan has heard the perception that his teams can't win the big game, but he disagrees with it.

"When you say big games, we've had to win a bunch of big games to get to Super Bowls," the San Francisco 49ers head coach told reporters Tuesday at his end-of-season news conference. "We've won a lot of big games here. We've won a lot of big games to get into the playoffs. The fact that we keep getting there shows you guys how much we win big games."

San Francisco has done everything but lift the Lombardi Trophy the last five seasons.

It lost Super Bowl LIV to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2020 despite having a 10-point lead in the second half, reached the NFC Championship Game in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022, and then lost to the Chiefs again in Sunday's Super Bowl despite building a 10-0 advantage in the early going and holding the lead in the final minutes of regulation and in overtime before losing.

"These two Super Bowls have been tough, losing to Kansas City," Shanahan said. "But to think that if we win that, that means I can win a big game? No, that means our team won the Super Bowl.

"I hope that I can be a part of a team that wins a game at the end of the year, but to say that the Niners can't win a big game, that would be an extremely inaccurate statement."

It's not entirely fair to Shanahan or the 49ers that the perception exists, especially since almost every other team in the league would have loved to go through a five-year stretch with two Super Bowl appearances and four NFC Championship Game appearances.

However, the blown leads are hard to ignore, especially since they also held a double-digit advantage in the second half of their January 2022 NFC Championship Game loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

It certainly doesn't help said perception about Shanahan that he was the Atlanta Falcons' offensive coordinator when they infamously blew a 28-3 lead to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

"You would love to fix perception because I would love to win one for what I know about football," he said. "And I know if you fix perception that means I did everything I want to do—which isn't fix perception, that's win a damn Super Bowl."

It seemed like he would finally win that Super Bowl for much of Sunday's game, but the 49ers failed to put things away when they were the better team throughout the first half and early portion of the second half.

Letting Patrick Mahomes stick around is a recipe for a loss, and the all-time great directed a field-goal drive to force overtime and a game-winning touchdown drive in the extra period, which he capped off with a completion to Mecole Hardman to clinch the championship.

Which means Shanahan will have to wait until at least next year to finally win that title.