Santa Clara — Something strange is going on with the Niners.
They continue to collapse late in games where they have led for the majority of the time. When they collapse, they almost always pass the ball instead of running it.
Their players appear to have noticed. So, following their latest fall, Nick Bosa said this:
“It’s quite straightforward. In the NFL, turnovers and a lack of complementary football will cost you. Since Kyle Shanahan took over, the organisation has found ways to win. It doesn’t matter how good your players are, how explosive your offence is, or how good your defence is. If you’re giving the ball over and not making those plays on defence in critical moments, you’re going to lose in the NFL.
Bosa appears to be stating in a polite way that the 49ers should run more and pass less when they are up by multiple touchdowns in the second half. To me, complementary football entails rushing the ball and shortening the game to allow a dominant defence seal the result.
Kyle Shanahan disagrees with that definition.
“Complementary football is something I talk about a lot, so that’s probably why you hear it from those guys,” Shanahan said on a Monday conference call. “But it’s not something you teach in supplementary football. You teach each play as best you can. And when the offence, defence, and teams all do it, you get some really easy wins, and it’s generally over by the fourth quarter. When one side of the ball is hot but the other isn’t, it usually keeps guys in the game, and you can’t really put people away until you play more complementary football, which is another way of saying all three phases are playing at the top of their game at the same time, rather than taking turns doing so throughout a game.”
I totally disagree with Shanahan’s definition. And I believe he is being purposely obtuse. He understands what Bosa meant. He’s simply pretending he doesn’t.
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