GREEN BAY, Wisc.-- Kyle Shanahan had seen this movie before. Hell, he'd lived it four months prior. With the game tied at 10 and 1:03 left in the 49ers' NFC Divisional Round tilt vs. the Green Bay Packers, the 49ers faced a third-and-7 from the Packers' 38-yard line.
Shanahan knew precisely where the 49ers needed to get to give Robbie Gould a realistic shot for a game-winning field goal. But he also didn't want to make the same mistake he did in Week 3 when the 49ers scored to take the lead but left Aaron Rodgers 37 critical seconds. Thirty-seven seconds the Packers quarterback used to go 42 yards to set up a Mason Crosby game-winning field goal.
Shanahan initially called for a pass play on that fateful third-and-7, believing the Packers' defense would creep up to stop the run. But then, as the play clock ticked down, he sprinted to the ref and called timeout. Knowing an incomplete pass would leave Gould a 56-yard field goal attempt -- something he wasn't comfortable kicking in the subzero Wisconsin temperatures -- and would give Rodgers time on the clock to mount a last stand.
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Instead, Shanahan opted to hand the ball to Deebo Samuel.
"We did not want to give it back to Aaron and that offense," Shanahan told reporters after the 49ers' 13-10 win of the decision to hand it to Deebo. "Getting down to the last third-and-7 was huge. We needed about 5 more yards to go to the field goal in those conditions. So it was a big dilemma on whether to run or pass, but we wanted to make sure the clock would run regardless. We went with the run, and there must have been a clean hole, and for Deebo to bust through there and get us the first was huge."
"It was actually a pass called at first, then we called time out, then Kyle put the run in," Samuel told reporters. "So I followed the blockers and hit the hole full speed and got the first down."
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The 49ers were in no man's land, needing at least five yards to give Gould a shot to send the Packers home. So, Shanahan went to a play that has carried the 49ers during their second-half resurgence: A trap run for Samuel.
Samuel took the handoff from Jimmy Garoppolo, slipped a tackle from Packers star cornerback Jaire Alexander, turned upfield, and ran over a defender to give the 49ers a first down. Those nine yards were all the 49ers needed to run the clock down and make sure all Rodgers could do as Gould's 45-yard field goal attempt sailed through the uprights was turn and head for the tunnel.
Super Bowl runs are often made on the margins. A shoestring tackle here, an unused timeout there, can make all the difference.
The memories of the 49ers' Week 3 loss to the Packers stuck in the back of Shanahan's mind. And at the most critical juncture of the 49ers' season, he relied on a lesson from watching Rodgers snatch their soul back in September: Don't give him a chance to step on your throat.
The 49ers didn't, and as a result, left Green Bay one win away from a return trip to the Super Bowl.