Kyle Shanahan Makes Questionable Decisions in 49ers' Loss to Browns

Kyle Shanahan is an excellent coach when everything is going well and according to his plan. But when he's in tight, close games, he often finds ways to lose, as he did in two Super Bowls and two NFC Championship games.

On Sunday in Cleveland, he found himself in his first tight, close game of the 49ers season, and he made some erratic decisions in the fourth quarter. Perhaps losing both Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel to injuries influenced Shanahan's gaffes. Or maybe he just cracked under pressure.

First, the 49ers offense got the ball with 3:21 left in the game holding a one-point lead. The common-sense move would have been to run the ball with Jordan Mason and force the Browns to use their timeouts. Mason averaged 5.4 yards per carry against the Browns -- he was running extremely well. The 49ers are built to put teams away late with their rushing attack. They see themselves as a tough, physical team.

But for some odd reason, Shanahan called three straight passes even though his quarterback, Brock Purdy, had been struggling all day. The 49ers went three-and-out and took only 25 seconds off the clock, which enabled the Browns offense to engineer a field-goal drive and take the lead.

But the 49ers got the ball back again with 1:40 left -- plenty of time to redeem themselves. And they drove down to the Browns 23-yard line with roughly 30 seconds left. Instead of spiking the ball, running one more play to pick up a few more yards, using their final timeout and THEN kicking the field goal, Shanahan let the clock run down and made Moody kick from the 23-yard line, and he missed.

"We wanted to leave it there in case there was a bad snap or something so we could spike it and have another play," Shanahan said after the game.

The 49ers have an elite roster when healthy. They also have a head coach who has a long history of folding in the fourth quarter of big games. Will the roster overcome the head coach in the playoffs? We'll find out.