When Super Bowl LVIII went to overtime, the game used different rules for the postseason that allowed both teams to have a possession even if the team that received first scored a touchdown. But in a pretty shocking turn of events, it doesn’t sound like the San Francisco 49ers players were aware of the different rules.
During their postgame interviews, multiple Niners players admitted that they did not actually known the overtime rules.
“I didn’t even know about the new playoff overtime rule, so it was a surprise to me,” Niners defensive lineman Arik Armstead said according to ESPN. “I didn’t even really know what was going on in terms of that.”
And Armstead wasn’t the only one.
“You know what? I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “I assume you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win.
“I guess that’s not the case. I don’t totally know the strategy there. We hadn’t talked about it, no.”
Meanwhile, the Chiefs were very well prepared for the new rules.
“We’ve talked about it all year,” Reid said. “We talked about it in training camp about how the rules were different in regular season versus the playoffs. Every week of the playoffs we talked about the overtime rule.”
[ESPN]
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