So much has been said about the San Francisco 49ers’ heartbreaking loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Fingers have been pointed and the blame has been pinned, with some folks arguing that quarterback Brock Purdy just failed to show up in the biggest game of his career.
Former NFL MVP Cam Newton is having none of it, though. In the mind of the former superstar QB, there’s no one else to blame but Kyle Shanahan and the Niners coaches for the 49ers’ failure.
Cam Newton Pins Blame on Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers Coaches
In a recent podcast appearance, Newton came to the defense of Purdy. According to the Carolina Panthers icon, Purdy did well enough to put his team in a position to succeed:
“First off, let’s say this. Brock Purdy did not have a bad game,” Newton said (h/t Rohan Chakravarthi of Niners Nation.. “To that point, field goal versus touchdown, that’s not Brock Purdy. Why the f–k did they receive the ball first? It was Tony Romo who mentioned this — when you know what you have to get, now you have four downs to get it, not three.”
Shanahan has taken a lot of stick for his team’s decision to receive first in overtime. Apparently, Newton is one of those who believe that this unexpected decision pretty much cost the game for the Niners.
“The 49ers, they were just trying to get points,” Newton said. “And that is not Brock Purdy’s fault, that’s bad coaching. There was too many people who was exposed. They didn’t know the real rules of overtime.”
Newton wasn’t done. He then threw Shanahan and his coaching team under the bus as he blamed them for not making sure that their players were made aware of the rules of overtime:
“We’re not understanding how serious this is,” he continued. “The fact that they weren’t addressed to what the rules were, that’s Steve Wilks, that’s Shanahan, that’s John Lynch, that’s the 49ers organization, and that’s not Brock Purdy’s fault. He played good enough for his team to win. He made plays and he made plays in times of need as well.”
These are some pretty strong accusations from Cam. Do you agree with his estimation of how things went down for the Niners?
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