Atlanta Falcons: Kyle Shanahan shares biggest Super Bowl regret

Former Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator and current San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan explains the play he regrets most in their Super Bowl loss

There’s been a lot of heartache for Atlanta Falcons fans, and it seems like everyone in the organization has had to touch on it. Quarterback Matt Ryan and head coach Dan Quinn have both broached the subject more than once, as have many of the other players and executives in the organization.

One guy who has somewhat escaped the endless questions is former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Since the loss he has become the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and has had his focus elsewhere. That is until he opened up with Rich Eisen on his radio show about the heartbreaking defeat. On the show he discussed what play he regretted more than any other, which was the play that put them out of field goal range while clinging to an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter.

"“Yeah, there’s no doubt. The second-and-10 that we got sacked on,” Shanahan said on the Rich Eisen Show via Cameron DaSilva of Fox Sports. “I wish I had dialed up something differently. And then the next play, we called an option to [Mohamed] Sanu, we got right back in field goal range, but we had a holding call on the play and it knocked us out some more, and an incompletion on the next one.”"

While the epic meltdown can be attributed to a slew of players and coaches, Shanahan surely deserves a ton of blame for the play calling at this point. The Falcons had a chance to stop the bleeding and with under five minutes to play, a field goal would have made things pretty much out of reach. Not only could they have killed the clock some, but two scores makes the outcome completely different.

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Shanahan did say there were other regrets as well, but none bothered him more than dialing up a pass that pushed them back. Most fans would agree as they all regret that play as well.