After five years as the 49ers’ head coach, Kyle Shanahan is starting to feel the heat. From roster decisions to play-calling, Shanahan is taking criticism like never before. One area where he has largely escaped many critiques, however, is aggressiveness on fourth down. Levin Black and I discussed that subject on today’s Gold Standard podcast.
If there’s one thing we’ve seen in the Kyle Shanahan era, he coaches in his fears. Whether it’s aggression before the half or going for it on fourth down, Kyle seems to approach these decisions from the perspective of, “What if we fail?