San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has been elusive when asked if he’s learned anything from the Falcons collapse in Super Bowl LI.
» MORE: Shanahan, Reid arrive at Super Bowl with baggage
The 49ers are set to play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.
Here’s what Shanahan had to say on “Opening Night” on Monday:
On reaching the Super Bowl: "Our team accomplishing it and just getting here is a huge deal. That's pretty separate from me doing that with another team (the Falcons) as a coordinator three years or four years ago, whatever it was. This is separate from that. I'm pumped that we are here. Just being excited to be here is only temporary. If you can win it, that will last forever."
On what he's learned from his dad: "Just work hard and be yourself. If you just work hard and be yourself, usually good things happen."
On the play of running back Raheem Mostert: "We had a number of backs when we got here. We didn't know much about Raheem. We knew that they had spoke very highly of him as a special teams players. They didn't have a lot of film on him as a running back. In OTAs and training camp very quickly you noticed his speed and how fast that he was."
On lessons he learned from Super Bowl LI and blowing a 28-3 lead: "What lessons?"
On if he learn anything from Super Bowl 51: "Yeah, you learn stuff from every single game. You know it's always about what fronts and coverages that you're going against. Schematics and things like that. The best thing about going through that Super Bowl was seeing what the whole week was like media wise. Coming here, it hasn't changed that much in three to four years. But I have a much better idea about how our time is allocated and things that we have to do."
On overcoming injuries: "Our first two years we had injuries that we struggled to overcome. I thought in our third year it was time to have some good luck with injuries. Going in, our second game losing (tackle Joe) Staley and our next game we lost (right tackle Mike) McGlinchey and then our next game wee lost (fullback Kyle Juszczyk). Even losing (linebacker) Kwon (Alexander) for awhile. D.J. Jones, how big he was for us, you never know once those guys start going down how much tougher it's going to be. Each guy who came in impressed us. We didn't miss a beat.
I think a lot of guys got a lot of experience the first two years and that helped.”
On his coaching influences: "My Dad and I talk football all the time, but he's not down here in our meetings. He's not doing much. I think everyone calls their Dad to get some advice."
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