Lynch explains luxury-box timeout, defends Shanahan's call: 'I get excited'

Television cameras caught San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch signaling from his luxury box for the team to call a timeout near the end of the first half of Super Bowl LIV.

San Francisco was about to receive the football on a punt from the Kansas City Chiefs, but head coach Kyle Shanahan opted not to use one of his three timeouts. The moment - and Shanahan's decision - went viral.

Four days removed from the 49ers' 31-20 defeat, Lynch explained his in-game reaction.

"I think it's just like, as if I was a player, looking at the sidelines saying, 'Timeout, timeout.' I was thrilled for our guys. I get excited watching these games," Lynch said Thursday at his end-of-season press conference alongside Shanahan. "Not much I can do up there, but I've got these guys' backs."

The 49ers stopped the Chiefs on third down with 1:47 left in the first half. Rather than calling a timeout before getting the ball back, they allowed the clock to run and received the ball with 59 seconds left. The two teams went into halftime tied 10-10.

"It's not my role to do time management and I don't focus a lot on it," Lynch continued. "I was proud of our guys getting a big stop and that was my initial reaction. (49ers president of football operations) Paraag (Marathe)'s over there, Paraag does study a lot of time management, so I'm also asking him, 'Should we get the timeout?' That's all it was.

"It was quickly erased when they almost pinned us at the half-yard line. Kyle knows that. I watch the game with emotion 'cause I care, that's all that was."

Shanahan said he opted against a timeout because he expected to receive the ball deep in San Francisco territory. The Chiefs, in fact, nearly downed the punt at the 1-yard line, and the 49ers ended up taking over at their own 20.

"No, absolutely not," Shanahan said when asked if he would've handled things differently if given the opportunity. "I think that's one of the reasons we were up 10 points going into the fourth quarter. Absolutely wouldn't have called a timeout at that time because we were expecting to be backed up and inside the 10, just like we probably should have been at the 1 if they didn't mess that play up.

"No, I was as confident in what we did in that situation as anything we've done all year. And I mean that strongly."

Shanahan added he didn't want to risk giving the ball back to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' deadly quick-strike offense before the half.

"The way he did that third-and-15 at the end of the game is how he does a two-minute drive," he said of Mahomes. "Not using a timeout there was a no-brainer."