The 49ers easily beat the Steelers on Sunday, 30-7. The margin did not stop coach Kyle Shanahan from keeping key players on the field when the game seemed to be decided.
During a Wednesday press conference, Shanahan was asked about the decision to let linebacker Fred Warner play every snap, to give running back Christian McCaffrey three carries with a 20-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, and to have defensive end Nick Bosa on the field for at least one snap with three minutes to play.
“You pull guys when you think the game’s over and you do that off of experience and we didn’t think the game was over when it’s at that point,” Shanahan said. “Now, sometime in that drive because it took so long, we debated whether to take them out before that drive or not. We’d been in that situation before, we decided not to.”
Once such situation happened for the 49ers in Detroit two years ago, when a 24-point lead nearly disappeared.
“That’s huge,” Shanahan said regarding the experience from Week 1 of the 2021 season. “That happened to us personally. It was I think 41 to 17 with a 1:58 left. And they had the ball with 17 seconds, 20 yards away, down seven points. . . . That’s a personal situation, but I see it happen a lot of places.”
That’s exactly what happened. The 49ers led 41-17 with two minutes to play. The Lions scored with 1:56 left. The two-point conversion made it 41-25. An onside kick was recovered by the Lions, Detroit drove for a touchdown, and another two-point conversion made it 41-25.
While the 49ers recovered the next onside kick, a fumble gave the Lions a chance to force overtime. Only when the Lions failed to convert on fourth and nine from the San Francisco 24 was the game over.
So nothing is over until it’s over, and no team should take the foot off the gas until it’s clear that it’s truly over.