Shanahan plans regular practice routine this week
As the celebration raged in the victorious 49ers locker room, general manager John Lynch showed off a “Mobile to Miami” T-shirt that symbolized the turnaround in San Francisco.
The team that was so bad a year ago that the coaching staff got rewarded with a week coaching the Senior Bowl in Alabama is now playing for the championship in the Super Bowl on Feb. 2 in Miami Gardens, Fla., against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“It is amazing,” defensive lineman Arik Armstead said. “It means a lot to us, especially going through all of the adversity that we went through over the past couple of years. To be going to the Super Bowl and have the chance to be the top of the league is amazing.”
The 49ers (15-3) got there thanks to a big-play running game led by Raheem Mostert that rushed for 285 yards and a defense that tormented Aaron Rodgers in a 37-20 win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
That sent the Niners to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2012 season.
Only a handful of players such as cornerback Richard Sherman, tackle Joe Staley, receiver Emmanuel Sanders and center Ben Garland have Super Bowl playing experience.
Coach Kyle Shanahan went there once before as an offensive coordinator for Atlanta in the 2016 season when the Falcons memorably blew a 28-3 lead and lost 34-28 in overtime to New England.
Shanahan took lessons from that game, including never feeling comfortable with a lead. But the biggest thing he learned was how to approach Super Bowl week.
He plans to have a normal week of practice before the team leaves for Miami, with coaches putting in the game plan on Tuesday and then players returning Wednesday for three straight days of practice.
The players will then get Saturday off before leaving for the game on Sunday and getting another week of preparation in Miami.
“We try to do everything before,” Shanahan said. “We definitely know we have the whole week when we get there. But there’s different media obligations that get you out of your routine and everything. You don’t want to play catch-up at the end of the Super Bowl week. You want to do that now.”
The running game has been phenomenal during the playoffs. One week after Tevin Coleman ran for 105 yards and two TDs, Mostert did even better. Mostert had 29 carries for 220 yards and four touchdowns, posting the second-best rushing total in playoff history to Eric Dickerson’s
248 yards for the Rams on Jan. 4, 1986.
Mostert had the 11th game since 1950 with at least 200 yards rushing and at least four TDs. What needs help? Not much. Just about everything is going right for the Niners, who have won back-to-back playoff games in the season by at least 17 points for the fourth time in franchise history. The first three times that happened ended in championships following the 1984, 1988 and 1989 seasons. The defense did allow a couple of big pass plays in the second half but the game was well in hand by then and that caused little damage.
Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley’s stock has soared recently. Thrown back into the starting lineup after former Colorado star Ahkello Witherspoon got benched against Minnesota, Moseley came up with one of the biggest defensive plays of the game.
Moseley intercepted Aaron Rodgers late in the first half to set up Mostert’s third touchdown run that made it 27-0.