How Kyle Shanahan used extra week to get 49ers ready for Super Bowl 54

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MIAMI, Fla., — With an extra week to prepare for Super Bowl LIV, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has been able to make small adjustments to his game plan and remain confident that his players will be completely prepared on Sunday. 

The 49ers installed their game plan while in Santa Clara last week with the same schedule as if they were going to play last Sunday. Shanahan knew that with the extra media obligations the entire club would face, they needed to be prepared ahead of time. 

The plan has helped ease the stress level of the head coach as well as allowing him to make schematic edits as needed. 

“It’s awesome,” Shanahan said. “I wish the players could have two weeks every week to do a game plan. For them to come out on a Wednesday today and just be firing on all cylinders, it’s not usually like that. 

“Usually you put in a game plan Wednesday morning and there’s a lot of mistakes and stuff. And Wednesday walk through and when you’re in practice you’ve got to kind of catch up as the week goes and usually feel pretty good by Saturday. But when you get a whole week to ho through it, you feel a lot better. 

Shanahan is known for being a perfectionist and the extra week has allowed to him to adjust his plan as he felt necessary. There are times the players have said they have felt overwhelmed on a Wednesday with the intricacies of what Shanahan can put on their plate but this week the players have had additional time to process and digest their assignments. 

“We put in a couple new hits today, took out some stuff we didn’t like last week,” Shanahan said. “It kind of takes a little pressure off the guys because they’ve had plenty of time to study and do stuff.” 

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Confidence is key especially with the biggest game of the season on the line. Shanahan wanted his players to be able to go through the week with the lowest amount of extra pressure as possible. 

“There’s a little more things here you have to deal with so it’s nice to kind of have most of that out of the way,” Shanahan said. “And now they’re doing the little extra details that will make them a little more comfortable on Sunday.”

Programming note: NBC Sports Bay Area feeds your hunger for 49ers Super Bowl coverage with special editions of “49ers Central” all week (8 p.m. Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, 9:30 p.m. Friday, and 3 p.m. Saturday).

Also tune in at 1 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday for a two-hour special of "49ers Pregame Live" with Laura Britt, Donte Whitner, Jeff Garcia, Ian Williams, Kelli Johnson, Greg Papa and Grant Liffmann. That same crew will have all the postgame reaction on "49ers Postgame Live," starting immediately after the game.
 

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