LAS VEGAS — Call the play the “San Fran Special” and call Jauan Jennings a could’ve-been MVP.
Jennings made NFL history Sunday by becoming the second player to throw a touchdown pass and catch a touchdown pass in the same Super Bowl, when he executed a trick play late in the second quarter and then crossed the goal line for the go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter for the 49ers.
Alas, the 49ers lost, 25-22, to the 49ers in overtime.
After 25 minutes of little-to-no action in Super Bowl 2024, head coach and play-caller Kyle Shanahan dug into his bag of tricks and called on Jennings to give the 49ers the spark needed to build a 10-point second-quarter lead on the Chiefs.
Jennings caught a lateral from Brock Purdy and tossed the ball back across the field to Christian McCaffrey, who was set up with a convoy of patient blockers.
The throw was a bit of a duck but did the trick when McCaffrey accelerated, split two defenders and ran 21 yards to the end zone to make up for his earlier lost fumble.
“I think you have to be strategic,” Shanahan said during the lead-up to the game when asked about the Super Bowl’s history of trick plays. “Not just be aggressive.”
It was the first pass attempt of Jennings’ three-year NFL career, but he was a four-star, dual-threat high school quarterback recruit, as ranked by Rivals.com, before he was converted to receiver and became a quick contributor at Tennessee.
The last time that a non-quarterback threw a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl was “Philly Special,” which is commemorated with a statue outside of Lincoln Financial Field as the signature moment of the Eagles’ only Super Bowl victory.
Quarterback Nick Foles — the receiver on that play — is the other player with a touchdown catch and a touchdown pass in the same Super Bowl.
Former Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Cowher, an “NFL Today” analyst for CBS, predicted something like that trickery might be in store for the 49ers as a way to loosen up the second-year Purdy in his first appearance on the big stage.
It certainly was needed after the 49ers dominated the first half — advantages of 125-16 in yards and 7-1 in first downs during the first quarter — but the game remained scoreless at that point.
“I would say sometimes take the ball out of his hands,” Cowher said when asked by The Post about trickery this past week. “Let it be on me to make the calls. Let me not just count on you to do your things. Let me get an extra possession or let me get an extra big play for you. That’s where coaching becomes rolling the dice a little bit. Yeah, that’s not what we usually do, but you know what? You only have so many chances to win a championship. I’d rather risk and fail than not.”
Jennings secured his place in history with a 10-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter after the 49ers bypassed the tying field goal and converted a risky fourth-and-3 on a catch by George Kittle. Jennings was responsible for one touchdown during the regular season.