The 49ers have a 10 point lead and the ball. On first down, they run for 6 yards. They're well on their way to burning plenty of clock on this drive. Even if KC stops the run, the 49ers will have burned a full 2 minutes.
They get a first. 11:18 left.
They take it to 10:37 and gain nothing. On second down they throw... questionable, and it's incomplete. Fine, 2nd and 9 isn't a place to run it anyways.
False start on Joe Staley pushes the yardage to 3rd and 14. Garoppolo scrambles for 3 yards, but a pass play never should have been called anyways. The 49ers are at the 37. They can take a 5 yard delay of game to run an extra 40 seconds off the clock and then go offsides for another 40, pushing the punt back to the 27, but burning an extra 80 seconds of precious time the chiefs need to score.
They don't. They punt with 8:53 left instead of 7:33.
KC takes 2:40 to score a TD. The clock now stands with 6:13 left instead of 4:53.
The 9ers get the ball back up 3. If they run the ball 3 times and go 3 and out, they burn 2 minutes. Two first downs would have won the game if they had employed the punt strategy.
The 49ers have a 10 point lead and the ball. On first down, they run for 6 yards. They're well on their way to burning plenty of clock on this drive. Even if KC stops the run, the 49ers will have burned a full 2 minutes. They get a first. 11:18 left. They take it to 10:37 and gain nothing. On second down they throw... questionable, and it's incomplete. Fine, 2nd and 9 isn't a place to run it anyways. False start on Joe Staley pushes the yardage to 3rd and 14. Garoppolo scrambles for 3 yards, but a pass play never should have been called anyways. The 49ers are at the 37. They can take a 5 yard delay of game to run an extra 40 seconds off the clock and then go offsides for another 40, pushing the punt back to the 27, but burning an extra 80 seconds of precious time the chiefs need to score. They don't. They punt with 8:53 left instead of 7:33.
KC takes 2:40 to score a TD. The clock now stands with 6:13 left instead of 4:53.
The 9ers get the ball back up 3. If they run the ball 3 times and go 3 and out, they burn 2 minutes. Two first downs would have won the game if they had employed the punt strategy.