SANTA CLARA – Can Kyle Shanahan be blamed for flashing a little humor on a Christmas Eve when his upstart 49ers topple a potential Super Bowl contender? Absolutely not.
Shanahan, with his team long out of the playoffs, is bathing in his team’s four-game win streak, and so are the players and fans. At Levi’s the fans even broke into a MVP-chant when quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was driving his team to another score in the second half.
The chant was obviously for Garoppolo, but Shanahan took it as a chance to take a shot a veteran kicker Robbie Gould.
“Robbie told me it was for him. But I did hear that. It was cool. It was neat,” Shanahan said.
He also said the fan reaction impacted the team throughout the Christmas Eve day.
““The atmosphere was unbelievable,” Shanahan said. “I noticed it early in the game. I noticed it before the game and I noticed it all the way up to the end. They don’t have to be so loud when we’re on offense down in the red zone. They can be a little quieter, just for a little bit, but it was cool to see them pumped up. There was no doubt that affects us and we really enjoyed playing here today. It was a good setting.”