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Former NFL OC Breaks Down Why the 49ers Lost Super Bowl LVIII

The 49ers still don't seem to know exactly why they lost Super Bowl LVIII.

Grant Cohn

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers still don't seem to know exactly why they lost Super Bowl LVIII.

They were the favorites. Their quarterback was healthy. They had the lead late in the fourth quarter and in overtime. And they still lost.

To find out why, I asked former Raiders offensive coordinator and play caller Tom Walsh, who won both Super Bowls he was in.

ME: Which team was better in the Super Bowl, the 49ers or the Chiefs?

WALSH: "I hate to say it, but it's not which team was better, it's which coach was better? Not to be cruel to Kyle Shanahan, but the bottom line is Andy Reid was the better coach that day. Whether it's Patrick Mahomes or Brock Purdy or Travis Kelce or George Kittle, there were great players on both teams. You have to have a great coach that day to win the game, and Andy Reid was better. He found a way to win the game."

ME: So you're saying on that day, the gap between Reid and Shanahan was larger than the gap between Mahomes and Purdy?

WALSH: "Correct. I go back to the third quarter. The 49ers had a chance after Mahomes' interception (to put the game away). The destiny of the rest of that ballgame rested in the hands of the Niners offense and the play caller, because they had the ball back. They got a turnover. You have to capitalize. Throwing 10 passes and completing only 4 of them while running just 4 times, I'm sorry but from a coaching perspective, when you're ahead and you're not burning clock and you're not exerting your force and momentum on the opponent, there's the ball game right there."

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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