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November 3, 2011
Redskins Park
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
On the ankle of tackle Trent Williams:
“It’s about the same as yesterday. Not a whole lot of difference… He set it back a little yesterday, but he felt better today.”
On practice status of safety Oshiomogho Atogwe:
“He did not practice.”
On the practice status of tight end Fred Davis:
“Fred was limited.”
On the importance of Davis being able to play on Sunday:
“You always want your playmakers out there. And, you know, Fred’s done a good job for us. Hopefully in the next couple of days he can recover with that ankle sprain. Fred’s done a good job. You’d like all your weapons, if possible.”
On frustration expressed by wide receiver Anthony Armstrong:
“I think he said it best — any time you’re banged up and you have a pulled hamstring and all of the sudden your speed is not there, and you’ve got to get back into football shape, and you’re much more aware of his speed and [facing] a little bit more bump coverage, it’s a combination of those things… He’s feeling better right now, so he’s more in football shape so he’s got an opportunity now, more so than over the last few weeks.”
On Armstrong’s injury and missing opportunities downfield in the passing game:
“Obviously you want to make those throws and make those plays, but with a guy like Anthony, it’s just kind of a freak deal with him getting that hamstring injury and setting him back about two or three weeks. It takes you that much time to get back into football shape. He’s looking good right now so hopefully he can come up with a couple of those plays.”
On his thoughts about 49ers quarterback Alex Smith prior to the 2005 NFL Draft:
“Everybody wasn’t really sure because he ran an unconventional type of offensive scheme, so you kind of had to project him into a system. I would say that was probably the consensus overall.”
On how 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh has used Smith:
“Number one is that they’re running the football extremely well. They’re not throwing it often, but when they do throw it, they’re very effective. Any time you’ve got the top rush defense in the National Football League, you’ve given up the fewest points and you run the football, that’s a pretty good situation to be in as a quarterback. That doesn’t happen very often and he has taken advantage of it. He’s not making very many mistakes. He’s running the offense the way it should be run.”
On if he patterns his schemes on what other teams have done to be successful against an opponent:
“You go back and take a look at the teams that have been successful and that’s part of anybody’s game plan. You say, 'Why did they have success in that game? Why did Cincinnati have success [against San Francisco]? How did these other teams have success?’ That’s how you put a game plan together.”
On the run defense:
“We’ve played well at times and we’ve been inconsistent at times. What you want to do is keep up that consistency. And when you’re going against a great back, you have to be on point the whole game, because if one guy misses a responsibility, all of the sudden there’s 50-60 yards. There’s a 110 yards in two plays. You can play great for three quarters, then all of the sudden, two plays and they’re averaging six yards a carry. But the great running backs do, and [the 49ers] give their running backs a bunch of opportunities. We’ve got to be on top of our game for a full 60 minutes, just not three and a half quarters.”
On if he is surprised by the consistency of the run defense:
“It all depends. With the option [that Carolina ran], I thought they did a great job of keeping us off-balance. You don’t see it a lot so it kind of put us on hold a little bit. We’ve just got to keep on working. Like I said, your defense can look very average with one or two big plays. So, you can’t over-panic. You can’t panic, but you’ve got to emphasize the little things in the difference in a great run defense and an average run defense. I think San Francisco has given up one run all year over 15 yards. They’re giving up 3.5 yards per carry. That’s what great defenses do and in rush defense they don’t give up those big plays.”
On breakdowns:
“Like I said, it takes one guy — a missed tackle against a great running back, and we’re going against a few good ones. Then, all of the sudden, you play against the Rams — an excellent running football team — and all of the sudden you play one of your better games. We were on point for the whole 60 minutes. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
On safety Kareem Moore:
“Kareem is doing a good job. He’s in better football shape right now than he was when he first started. We’ve got to make a decision by Nov. 16 what direction we’re going to go.”
On if Atogwe has played through more pain than most players:
“I think so. He’s been out there and been hampered with that one leg, a little bit of a toe [injury], a hamstring [injury]. He’s played through it. It’s one of the reasons why he’s resting right now.”
On the difficulty of defending two talented tight ends as well as 49ers running back Frank Gore:
“Any time you’ve got two great tight ends, it does put the pressure on the defense, especially when they’re running the ball extremely well. They do a good combination of a lot of things. They’ll put offensive linemen in there to help the running back get a little mismatch. He doesn’t take much. He just needs a little hole and all of the sudden he’s gone. And watching him over the years, he’s one of the best in the league at making people miss and coming up with a big play. So they give him a whole bunch of opportunities in the game and if you’re not on top of your game… But the tight ends, obviously the playaction pass comes into play. They’ve done a good job of eliminating mistakes and I think they’re No. 2 in turnover ratio, another reason why they’re 6-1.”
On linebacker Ryan Kerrigan’s progress in coverage:
“He’s made a lot of progress. Normally a guy just coming in the league, going from defensive end to outside linebacker, you usually have no idea about coverage skills or what type of routes a tight end is going with. He’s done a fantastic job of fitting in the system, adjusting very quickly, playing both base and nickel, you don’t do that unless you’re a special player. He’s worked extremely hard to get to the next level and hopefully he keeps on improving.”
On Kerrigan playing every defensive snap:
“You don’t want to lose any guys that obviously are excellent football players and his experience as a young player is invaluable. Hopefully he can stay healthy and keep on helping our football team.”
On the blocked field goals:
“It’s disappointing when you have a couple of field goals blocked. We had a couple of substitutions in those areas and all of the sudden it just takes one guy being a little off — somebody gets hurt and somebody goes in and all of the sudden he’s not ready for gametime situations — and you do get a couple blocked. That’s happened a couple of times this year. We worked on it and hopefully we’re improved because you can’t afford [it]. Usually it will cost you a game.”
On if the substitutions or a kicker Graham Gano were at fault for the blocked field goal by the Bills:
“It was somebody playing a new position. That’s not the reason. They obviously did a great job but it was a combination of both of those things.”
Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan
On the 49ers’ success stopping the run:
“They’ve got a really good front seven. They’re talented. They have a tough scheme with that 3-4. It’s similar to our defense. They’ve got some good players and, schematically, [they’re] very sound.”
On 49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers:
“I think he’s done a decent job. He’s made some plays and I think he’s solid.”
On the importance of re-establishing a deep threat in the passing game:
“It’s definitely important. It’s tough to make long drives down the field when you move five yards at a time. You’ve got to get some big plays in there to get points. We weren’t able to get those last week and I think that’s one of the main reasons we struggled.”
On why the team hasn’t been able to have a lot of big plays:
“We’ve had some opportunities. We just haven’t come down with them. It’s kind of like that sometimes. It’s been there a few times. The ones we’ve had, we’ve missed. We’ve just got to work better and take advantage of those opportunities when they happen.”
On if wide receiver Anthony Armstrong is not himself this year:
“He did play in those first two games and he did make some plays for us, especially in that first game versus the Giants. I think he was out three weeks I want to say and he’s been a little slow coming back. I don’t think he felt great versus Carolina. He felt better this week, but the whole offense struggled and we just didn’t get the chance to get him going.”
On Armstrong’s frustration this season:
“He has a lot of expectations of himself [and] so do we. We need to get him some more chances and he needs to get better and we all need to continue to get better.”
On allowing 10 sacks against the Bills:
“I’m not going to put numbers on exactly whose fault it was. I can promise you that it wasn’t all the [offensive] line’s fault. Everybody they had their part in it. Any time you have 10 sacks, the O-line definitely didn’t do a great job, but it definitely wasn’t all their fault and a lot of people had blame for them.”
On balancing keeping blockers in and sending more receivers out:
“It depends how they are getting to you. They had a couple of pressures on us that caused sacks. I think two of them were off pressures. Usually when you have max protection, you don’t have any quick throws. Their two all-out blitzes they got us on. We did have quick throws, we just didn’t get rid of them. John’s got to recognize that and get rid of the ball. He can’t hold onto it when you’re outnumbered. The other ones – I think three or four of them were on scrambles, breaking the pocket and he’s got to learn to throw that ball away. When you get sacked outside of the pocket for a one-yard loss, it counts as a sack. And the ones, we had a three-step drop in the game, DBs squatted on the routes so we don’t let it go and John just held onto it too long. No one was open when they jumped him and he just took a sack there. He’s got to learn to get rid of the ball.”
On if the offensive problems are bigger than one person not being on the same page as the rest of the offense:
“First thing we did as a group when we got in there on Monday – I took all the guys and we watched a bunch of plays in the game. It was about 25 plays in the game that we had some big opportunities on and we didn’t capitalize on any of them. That’s what led to a shutout. It’s one guy here, it’s one guy there [and] everybody had their part. Very rarely is it 11 guys on one play, but you need all 11 and it comes down to one guy. [We] had a bunch of new guys in there [and] the continuity wasn’t quite there. The rhythm wasn’t quite there. Some of them have got to get going.”
On if he simplifies the playbook because of the younger players:
“Yeah, we definitely do. It’s a different game plan every week with the amount of stuff you take in. You have to do what players can do. I don’t think we had a lot of mental mistakes, but we have to get them to play faster and get them to play better.”
On if the offense still has the same dynamic when he simplifies the playbook:
“You obviously want to be able to do everything that you want to be able to do, anything that comes to your mind. That’s what coaching is – you have to think of what your players can do best and try to put them in the best chance to be successful.”
On the slow starts in the first quarter:
“I think it depends on the week. I can’t really remember all of the opening drives back-to-back. I know this week, with our first drive, I thought we were going to take a shot [and] we missed an opportunity down the field. We just missed it. Then, on the second down, we got into a third-and-eight or third-and-four and we went the wrong way and missed an uncovered guy. We ended up punting and it was three-and-out. [We] missed a couple of things here or there and you can’t do that. You end up punting and you really can’t credit it to anything in particular. What it comes down to is getting the job done and we didn’t get the job done.”
On how the loss of wide receiver Santana Moss affects the offense:
“Santana’s one of our best players. He’s our captain and he’s been one of the better receivers in this league over his career. So it’s obviously hard when you’re missing a guy like that. There are other guys in there who I’m confident in and I know they can get the job done. They have to continue to get better and I’ve got to continue to help them more. I believe in these guys and I know we didn’t do a good job last week. No one is more disappointed in that than myself. I know it starts with me. That’s what we’re working on this week. We’ve got to get better and I know these guys are capable. They can do it.”
On blocking out criticism:
“That’s life. Any time you get shutout, I expect to get criticized. I expect it from you guys, I expect it from my wife and I expect it from myself. It’s embarrassing. I’ve never been shutout before and I don’t want it to ever happen again. But it is what it is and you’ve got to man up and deal with it. Really what matters to me is whether the players believe in me or not – that’s really what it all comes down to. If the players have confidence in you and they believe in what you’re doing, then you have a chance. I believe in these guys and I think they believe in me and we just have to go to work.”
On if he spends extra time examining the film from the Bills game or if he moves on:
“You spend the same time on that game as you do every other game. It’s pretty easy to figure out. I’ve been in games where… I’ve been beat bad. This game was a little frustrating and we didn’t feel like we were just being cute, we just felt like we couldn’t get it going. There was just one thing here and one thing there. I think the players felt the same way when we watched it Monday. You never know when you get shutout until you watch the tape and, when you watch the tape, we put 25 clips together where we had a lot of opportunities. We just didn’t get it done. I know I’m disappointed and I know they are too. We’ve got to come back and redeem our self here on Sunday.”
On 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis:
“The guy has a great awareness in the game. He makes a majority of their tackles. He runs sideline-to-sideline. He can cover well. He can hit well. He’s one of the top players at his position.”
On how much the lack of a running game changes the offense:
“It’s always tough with any team when you can’t run the ball. It makes it tougher on the quarterback. It makes it tougher on the O-line. Even when you aren’t running the ball well, it’s still something you want to stick with to take the pressure off the quarterback, the O-line and the whole passing game. We kind of got into a situation last week where, once you got to that second half and we’re down 20 points, we didn’t really have a choice to get away from it. When you do that, you put a lot of pressure on guys and put them in some tough situations.”
On if tight end Logan Paulsen’s injury last week changed what the offense wanted to do:
“Yeah, it always changes. It always limits you. That happens every game and you have to be ready every week. It totally changed a lot of stuff we had to do versus Philadelphia when we lost all of those guys. Any time a guy goes down, with the limited people we’re allowed to dress, it changes a lot of stuff.”
On the scenario if tight end Fred Davis is unable to play against the 49ers:
“We still have to adjust if you don’t have Fred out there. But, again, I believe in Logan and I hope we can get him healthy too. We’ve got other tight ends here who are working. You never know when their opportunity will come, whether it’s Sunday or whether it’s later. You’ve got to believe in the guys you have in this building. You’ve got to give them opportunities.”
On if Head Coach Mike Shanahan is more involved in play calling than Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak was in Houston:
“It’s pretty much the exact same. I think what Gary was used to in Houston… Gary came from being with my dad for so long. It’s pretty much the exact same style with what my dad is used to here. Play calling is probably not what you guys would expect. I call the plays. I talk to the quarterback. I’m the one who gives it in. I’m the actual offensive coordinator who calls the play and gives it to him. When it comes to calling the plays, it’s not like you’re just dialing them up – you guys see that big sheet. It’s something that we work on as a staff hard through the week. [We] break them down in each situation. Most of the plays are already called before the game. It’s just what situation are you in, what down and distance, what part of the field. But yeah, he’s heavily involved and it’s the same as it’s been my whole career.”
On signing running back Tashard Choice:
“He’s been a hard runner. He’s done some good things in Dallas. We’ve had some injuries there. When they let him go, what we wanted to bring him in here and see what he can do.”
On Choice’s pass protection:
“I thought he’s done a good job. He hasn’t been out here with us yet so far. He’s still trying to get healthy, but I’m excited to see him.”
Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett
On 49ers running back Frank Gore:
“What makes him so impressive? That he can carry the ball 35 times and he doesn’t wear down. He’s got great explosiveness. He keeps his legs churning all the time. He’s a great running back. He can do everything. He can block. He’s a heck of a football player.”
On why the team has struggled stopping the run:
“Well, last week, we had the one long run on us, so that was the breakdown. Besides that, they had a 13-yard run because they just blocked it and then, with everything else, we were fine. Out of the 33 carries that they had, his longest run was a 43-[yard run]. We had a guy get hurt and another guy go in and he just lost his gap and they made the 43-yard run. Besides that, we played the run pretty good. We just can’t give up a long run every game.”
On how the defense has done since the bye week:
“We haven’t been consistent. We liked to be, obviously, more consistent. We’d like to help the offense out and get more turnovers. As a team, we know that we have to get back on track.”
On the run defense this season:
“You’ve got to take it as a whole. You’d like to do better. You’d like to do better in all phases. The long run was disappointing last week. The week before was all the different stuff. The week before that we missed too many tackles. This team is averaging 200 yards-a-game rushing the last four games, so this is a great challenge. Anybody that comes in and has almost 800 yards rushing in four games, that tells you you have to step up and do a great job not just part of the time, you have to do it for 60 minutes. We have to tackle for 60 minutes. We’ve got to do a great job because, if somebody runs the ball 35 times, they’re going to get 100 yards because if you go by per-play in the NFL, I think the average running-play-per-play given up by defenses is 4.3. We were 4.2, I think, last week, but you don’t give up a 43-yarder. We’ve got to do it for 60 minutes and we’ve got to do it this week for 60 minutes.”
On how safety Oshiomogho Atogwe played against the Bills after missing the previous game:
“OJ’s still hurting – his toe, he’s got a knee, a hamstring. So it’s a little bit of everything. I think everybody could play better, but he could play better.”
On the possibility of activating safety Kareem Moore from the PUP list:
“That’s not up to me with the Kareem issue. That’s something that has to be decided here pretty soon.”
On if Atogwe is playing through the normal amount of pain:
“Everybody’s kind of beat up right now at this time of the year. He’s probably got a little more – he’s got the toe, he’s got the knee, a number of different things.”
On not re-signing cornerback Carlos Rogers:
“I think Carlos is a good football player. He did a good job. As an organization, you’ve got to decide exactly where you’re going to put your money. At that time, obviously he wasn’t in the plans.”
On if Rogers checked out mentally last year because he knew he wouldn’t be re-signed:
“No, I don’t think Carlos would do that. I was only with him the one year… I don’t know where you would get those vibes because the people that make those decisions the year before weren’t here last year. So I don’t know if you got those vibes before and it carried on. I think sometimes players get that feeling and I don’t know if that’s right as a player. I’ll give you an ex-player’s perspective – I think the thing you can do is go out and play the you can and try to make plays and get interceptions in his case and do the things you’re supposed to do as a corner. And let the chips fall where they may. It’s kind of like you can only do so much where you go out and try to put them in positions, but you can’t go out and tackle for them. You try to get them as well-prepared as you can. Whatever happens, happens.”
On if the defense gets frustrated by the offense’s struggles:
“Players have to do what they have to do. We’ve got an obligation to this football team to keep people off the scoreboard. Obviously, in this league, it’s hard to get a shutout. You’re not going to do that. Our job and things get magnified being on defense – if you’re starting on one side and you give up a 43-yard run, it’s like the world’s coming to an end and you can’t stop the run. Another team is scoring a bunch of points and you give up a long run and it’s no big deal because it kind of gets washed under the rug. Our guys know that, but our guys understand that we’re in this together and we’ve got to do whatever we can to get turnovers to try to help our offense score points until they get back on track. Our guys practice hard. They came out yesterday and they practiced hard and they do everything you ask them to do. And that’s all I can ask of them.”
On if linebacker Ryan Kerrigan has hit a rookie wall:
“I don’t think he’s hit the wall. I think he’s smart enough to understand - and Lou [Spanos] has talked to him about it - that it’s a long season. Him not having the offseason, probably it will help him a little bit from a mental standpoint. He won’t wear down from that standpoint because I think the rookies that come in, they go through OTAs and mini camps and they do all that stuff. Mentally, they wear down as the season goes on, but he didn’t have to do that so I don’t expect him to hit a wall this year.”
On if Kerrigan has played as well recently as he did early in this season:
“Yeah, I think he has. He’s done a great job on tight ends. Obviously, he doesn’t have the sacks total that you would like, but he’s gotten good pressure. [Brian Orakpo’s] the same way. Together, I thought they’ve done a great job and that’s why we’re getting sacks inside. Stpehen [Bowen] got one last weekend and Kedric [Golston] – I think it’s the edges, we’re a much better pass rushing team.”
On if he has the right personnel on the defense midway through the season:
“Well, that’s something you decide when the season’s over. I like what I see from our players. I like our front-seven. I think they’ve done a good job. Obviously, the numbers are much better than they were last year at this time and I think our players are better. If you just go from that standpoint, at this midpoint, I think we’re a much better football team.”
On how rare it is to have a rookie like Kerrigan not miss a snap for the whole season:
“The good ones – they can play most of the time and play the whole season. We told Ryan from the beginning now that this is not like college, it’s not where you come in and you tap your helmet. You play the whole time and he can play two different positions. But he’s a really smart kid and he understand that.”
On defensive end Kedric Golston’s performance against the Bills:
“I thought he played really well last week. I thought it was one of his better games. I thought he rushed the quarterback well and did a good job in the running game.”
On if he gets more out of Golston playing as a reserve:
“I think all of those guys are playing less snaps because we’re using five guys. Even Chris [Neild] played a lot last week, 12 or 13 snaps, which is more than he [normally] plays and we gave Barry [Cofield] less snaps, so I think that helped those guys. As the season goes on, last year, with our age and all of the snaps we were taking, we were on the field way too much [and] we just kind of fell apart at the end of the year. I don’t foresee that this year.”
On linebacker Keyaron Fox playing for linebacker Rocky McIntosh during the Bills game:
“Rocky twisted his ankle and then [Keyaron] Fox went in during the 43-yard run. He was playing Mike [linebacker] all week and he went over and played dime. We had a little miscommunication. If he would have stayed in his B-gap on the play, which he didn’t – he kind of ran into the corner and that’s when they got the 43-yarder. I put it on the coaching because we didn’t give him a lot of reps at dime. We gave him a like of reps at Mike because of the situation with London… It’s one of those deals that if he probably had gotten a couple of reps in [during practice], they wouldn’t have gotten that run on us.”
On if he ever compares his defense to other team’s defenses:
“Most of the time, with that stuff, it’s who you play and when you play them… It’s not an excuse or anything – we’ve played three pretty good offenses. We’ve played the No. 1 offense in the league, No. 5, No. 10, so we’ve played some good teams and we understand that. You’ve got to do with what you have and the players you have and the scheme that you run. We’ll go from there based on the players we have.”
On 49ers quarterback Alex Smith:
“He’s doing a good job of managing the game. They don’t put him in a bad position to really screw it up. He’s more confident back there. He’s not throwing as many interceptions. He’s not taking a lot of sacks and obviously they have a great running game. You have the combination of a good running game and then a quarterback that’s efficient – he’s really not messing it up and he has a great arm, he can roll out, he’s athletic. They’re taking advantage of all of his abilities.”
On linebacker London Fletcher’s performance against the Bills:
“He’s a heck of a football player. He was outstanding last week [and] made a lot of plays running the field. He was a little sore yesterday and today, but that’s understandable. He’s a great football player and he continues at his age to play with a lot of success and at a high rate. We just have to make sure that we keep monitoring him and keep him healthy throughout the season.”
On Fletcher’s dispute with safety LaRon Landry on the sideline:
“He was frustrated. Guys are frustrated. I understand what happened. All week, we worked with short yardage and they ran a play and they ran a dive. Obviously, when the play happened, they motioned to it and it looked like on the play they were going to run a dive. LaRon thought it was a running play and he kind of guessed on it. We should have had two guys on the deep route and London was frustrated and that’s understandable. That happens on the field at times. Everybody wants to be perfect and it’s not going to be perfect. You try to get as perfect as you can and that was just one of those ones we didn’t play it right.”
On how healthy Landry is right now:
“I think he’s healthy… He’ll be fine, he takes good care of himself.”
On making in-game adjustments:
“We make them all the time. That halftime stuff is a bunch of baloney. People say you go in at halftime and make the adjustments – you make them throughout the whole game. One time when they were empty, we were checking to something. I think you make them throughout the game because you work on things you think you’re going to get, but you don’t know until you get there. So that’s something you make during the game. Halftime – you’ll go over the stuff you need to work on, but 12 minutes, think about it, by the time you get in there and go to the bathroom and come back, you’ve got about three minutes. It ain’t like you have a big strategy program. You make adjustments throughout the game.”
On if he takes feedback from that players see on the field:
“We talk about it in individual groups and we’ll get together if we have to as a full group. Usually, whatever happened, if there’s a breakdown or we want to change something, we’ll get together with the groups individually and we’ll make those changes.”
(Courtesy of the Washington Redskins)
Redskins Park
Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan
On the ankle of tackle Trent Williams:
“It’s about the same as yesterday. Not a whole lot of difference… He set it back a little yesterday, but he felt better today.”
On practice status of safety Oshiomogho Atogwe:
“He did not practice.”
On the practice status of tight end Fred Davis:
“Fred was limited.”
On the importance of Davis being able to play on Sunday:
“You always want your playmakers out there. And, you know, Fred’s done a good job for us. Hopefully in the next couple of days he can recover with that ankle sprain. Fred’s done a good job. You’d like all your weapons, if possible.”
On frustration expressed by wide receiver Anthony Armstrong:
“I think he said it best — any time you’re banged up and you have a pulled hamstring and all of the sudden your speed is not there, and you’ve got to get back into football shape, and you’re much more aware of his speed and [facing] a little bit more bump coverage, it’s a combination of those things… He’s feeling better right now, so he’s more in football shape so he’s got an opportunity now, more so than over the last few weeks.”
On Armstrong’s injury and missing opportunities downfield in the passing game:
“Obviously you want to make those throws and make those plays, but with a guy like Anthony, it’s just kind of a freak deal with him getting that hamstring injury and setting him back about two or three weeks. It takes you that much time to get back into football shape. He’s looking good right now so hopefully he can come up with a couple of those plays.”
On his thoughts about 49ers quarterback Alex Smith prior to the 2005 NFL Draft:
“Everybody wasn’t really sure because he ran an unconventional type of offensive scheme, so you kind of had to project him into a system. I would say that was probably the consensus overall.”
On how 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh has used Smith:
“Number one is that they’re running the football extremely well. They’re not throwing it often, but when they do throw it, they’re very effective. Any time you’ve got the top rush defense in the National Football League, you’ve given up the fewest points and you run the football, that’s a pretty good situation to be in as a quarterback. That doesn’t happen very often and he has taken advantage of it. He’s not making very many mistakes. He’s running the offense the way it should be run.”
On if he patterns his schemes on what other teams have done to be successful against an opponent:
“You go back and take a look at the teams that have been successful and that’s part of anybody’s game plan. You say, 'Why did they have success in that game? Why did Cincinnati have success [against San Francisco]? How did these other teams have success?’ That’s how you put a game plan together.”
On the run defense:
“We’ve played well at times and we’ve been inconsistent at times. What you want to do is keep up that consistency. And when you’re going against a great back, you have to be on point the whole game, because if one guy misses a responsibility, all of the sudden there’s 50-60 yards. There’s a 110 yards in two plays. You can play great for three quarters, then all of the sudden, two plays and they’re averaging six yards a carry. But the great running backs do, and [the 49ers] give their running backs a bunch of opportunities. We’ve got to be on top of our game for a full 60 minutes, just not three and a half quarters.”
On if he is surprised by the consistency of the run defense:
“It all depends. With the option [that Carolina ran], I thought they did a great job of keeping us off-balance. You don’t see it a lot so it kind of put us on hold a little bit. We’ve just got to keep on working. Like I said, your defense can look very average with one or two big plays. So, you can’t over-panic. You can’t panic, but you’ve got to emphasize the little things in the difference in a great run defense and an average run defense. I think San Francisco has given up one run all year over 15 yards. They’re giving up 3.5 yards per carry. That’s what great defenses do and in rush defense they don’t give up those big plays.”
On breakdowns:
“Like I said, it takes one guy — a missed tackle against a great running back, and we’re going against a few good ones. Then, all of the sudden, you play against the Rams — an excellent running football team — and all of the sudden you play one of your better games. We were on point for the whole 60 minutes. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
On safety Kareem Moore:
“Kareem is doing a good job. He’s in better football shape right now than he was when he first started. We’ve got to make a decision by Nov. 16 what direction we’re going to go.”
On if Atogwe has played through more pain than most players:
“I think so. He’s been out there and been hampered with that one leg, a little bit of a toe [injury], a hamstring [injury]. He’s played through it. It’s one of the reasons why he’s resting right now.”
On the difficulty of defending two talented tight ends as well as 49ers running back Frank Gore:
“Any time you’ve got two great tight ends, it does put the pressure on the defense, especially when they’re running the ball extremely well. They do a good combination of a lot of things. They’ll put offensive linemen in there to help the running back get a little mismatch. He doesn’t take much. He just needs a little hole and all of the sudden he’s gone. And watching him over the years, he’s one of the best in the league at making people miss and coming up with a big play. So they give him a whole bunch of opportunities in the game and if you’re not on top of your game… But the tight ends, obviously the playaction pass comes into play. They’ve done a good job of eliminating mistakes and I think they’re No. 2 in turnover ratio, another reason why they’re 6-1.”
On linebacker Ryan Kerrigan’s progress in coverage:
“He’s made a lot of progress. Normally a guy just coming in the league, going from defensive end to outside linebacker, you usually have no idea about coverage skills or what type of routes a tight end is going with. He’s done a fantastic job of fitting in the system, adjusting very quickly, playing both base and nickel, you don’t do that unless you’re a special player. He’s worked extremely hard to get to the next level and hopefully he keeps on improving.”
On Kerrigan playing every defensive snap:
“You don’t want to lose any guys that obviously are excellent football players and his experience as a young player is invaluable. Hopefully he can stay healthy and keep on helping our football team.”
On the blocked field goals:
“It’s disappointing when you have a couple of field goals blocked. We had a couple of substitutions in those areas and all of the sudden it just takes one guy being a little off — somebody gets hurt and somebody goes in and all of the sudden he’s not ready for gametime situations — and you do get a couple blocked. That’s happened a couple of times this year. We worked on it and hopefully we’re improved because you can’t afford [it]. Usually it will cost you a game.”
On if the substitutions or a kicker Graham Gano were at fault for the blocked field goal by the Bills:
“It was somebody playing a new position. That’s not the reason. They obviously did a great job but it was a combination of both of those things.”
Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan
On the 49ers’ success stopping the run:
“They’ve got a really good front seven. They’re talented. They have a tough scheme with that 3-4. It’s similar to our defense. They’ve got some good players and, schematically, [they’re] very sound.”
On 49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers:
“I think he’s done a decent job. He’s made some plays and I think he’s solid.”
On the importance of re-establishing a deep threat in the passing game:
“It’s definitely important. It’s tough to make long drives down the field when you move five yards at a time. You’ve got to get some big plays in there to get points. We weren’t able to get those last week and I think that’s one of the main reasons we struggled.”
On why the team hasn’t been able to have a lot of big plays:
“We’ve had some opportunities. We just haven’t come down with them. It’s kind of like that sometimes. It’s been there a few times. The ones we’ve had, we’ve missed. We’ve just got to work better and take advantage of those opportunities when they happen.”
On if wide receiver Anthony Armstrong is not himself this year:
“He did play in those first two games and he did make some plays for us, especially in that first game versus the Giants. I think he was out three weeks I want to say and he’s been a little slow coming back. I don’t think he felt great versus Carolina. He felt better this week, but the whole offense struggled and we just didn’t get the chance to get him going.”
On Armstrong’s frustration this season:
“He has a lot of expectations of himself [and] so do we. We need to get him some more chances and he needs to get better and we all need to continue to get better.”
On allowing 10 sacks against the Bills:
“I’m not going to put numbers on exactly whose fault it was. I can promise you that it wasn’t all the [offensive] line’s fault. Everybody they had their part in it. Any time you have 10 sacks, the O-line definitely didn’t do a great job, but it definitely wasn’t all their fault and a lot of people had blame for them.”
On balancing keeping blockers in and sending more receivers out:
“It depends how they are getting to you. They had a couple of pressures on us that caused sacks. I think two of them were off pressures. Usually when you have max protection, you don’t have any quick throws. Their two all-out blitzes they got us on. We did have quick throws, we just didn’t get rid of them. John’s got to recognize that and get rid of the ball. He can’t hold onto it when you’re outnumbered. The other ones – I think three or four of them were on scrambles, breaking the pocket and he’s got to learn to throw that ball away. When you get sacked outside of the pocket for a one-yard loss, it counts as a sack. And the ones, we had a three-step drop in the game, DBs squatted on the routes so we don’t let it go and John just held onto it too long. No one was open when they jumped him and he just took a sack there. He’s got to learn to get rid of the ball.”
On if the offensive problems are bigger than one person not being on the same page as the rest of the offense:
“First thing we did as a group when we got in there on Monday – I took all the guys and we watched a bunch of plays in the game. It was about 25 plays in the game that we had some big opportunities on and we didn’t capitalize on any of them. That’s what led to a shutout. It’s one guy here, it’s one guy there [and] everybody had their part. Very rarely is it 11 guys on one play, but you need all 11 and it comes down to one guy. [We] had a bunch of new guys in there [and] the continuity wasn’t quite there. The rhythm wasn’t quite there. Some of them have got to get going.”
On if he simplifies the playbook because of the younger players:
“Yeah, we definitely do. It’s a different game plan every week with the amount of stuff you take in. You have to do what players can do. I don’t think we had a lot of mental mistakes, but we have to get them to play faster and get them to play better.”
On if the offense still has the same dynamic when he simplifies the playbook:
“You obviously want to be able to do everything that you want to be able to do, anything that comes to your mind. That’s what coaching is – you have to think of what your players can do best and try to put them in the best chance to be successful.”
On the slow starts in the first quarter:
“I think it depends on the week. I can’t really remember all of the opening drives back-to-back. I know this week, with our first drive, I thought we were going to take a shot [and] we missed an opportunity down the field. We just missed it. Then, on the second down, we got into a third-and-eight or third-and-four and we went the wrong way and missed an uncovered guy. We ended up punting and it was three-and-out. [We] missed a couple of things here or there and you can’t do that. You end up punting and you really can’t credit it to anything in particular. What it comes down to is getting the job done and we didn’t get the job done.”
On how the loss of wide receiver Santana Moss affects the offense:
“Santana’s one of our best players. He’s our captain and he’s been one of the better receivers in this league over his career. So it’s obviously hard when you’re missing a guy like that. There are other guys in there who I’m confident in and I know they can get the job done. They have to continue to get better and I’ve got to continue to help them more. I believe in these guys and I know we didn’t do a good job last week. No one is more disappointed in that than myself. I know it starts with me. That’s what we’re working on this week. We’ve got to get better and I know these guys are capable. They can do it.”
On blocking out criticism:
“That’s life. Any time you get shutout, I expect to get criticized. I expect it from you guys, I expect it from my wife and I expect it from myself. It’s embarrassing. I’ve never been shutout before and I don’t want it to ever happen again. But it is what it is and you’ve got to man up and deal with it. Really what matters to me is whether the players believe in me or not – that’s really what it all comes down to. If the players have confidence in you and they believe in what you’re doing, then you have a chance. I believe in these guys and I think they believe in me and we just have to go to work.”
On if he spends extra time examining the film from the Bills game or if he moves on:
“You spend the same time on that game as you do every other game. It’s pretty easy to figure out. I’ve been in games where… I’ve been beat bad. This game was a little frustrating and we didn’t feel like we were just being cute, we just felt like we couldn’t get it going. There was just one thing here and one thing there. I think the players felt the same way when we watched it Monday. You never know when you get shutout until you watch the tape and, when you watch the tape, we put 25 clips together where we had a lot of opportunities. We just didn’t get it done. I know I’m disappointed and I know they are too. We’ve got to come back and redeem our self here on Sunday.”
On 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis:
“The guy has a great awareness in the game. He makes a majority of their tackles. He runs sideline-to-sideline. He can cover well. He can hit well. He’s one of the top players at his position.”
On how much the lack of a running game changes the offense:
“It’s always tough with any team when you can’t run the ball. It makes it tougher on the quarterback. It makes it tougher on the O-line. Even when you aren’t running the ball well, it’s still something you want to stick with to take the pressure off the quarterback, the O-line and the whole passing game. We kind of got into a situation last week where, once you got to that second half and we’re down 20 points, we didn’t really have a choice to get away from it. When you do that, you put a lot of pressure on guys and put them in some tough situations.”
On if tight end Logan Paulsen’s injury last week changed what the offense wanted to do:
“Yeah, it always changes. It always limits you. That happens every game and you have to be ready every week. It totally changed a lot of stuff we had to do versus Philadelphia when we lost all of those guys. Any time a guy goes down, with the limited people we’re allowed to dress, it changes a lot of stuff.”
On the scenario if tight end Fred Davis is unable to play against the 49ers:
“We still have to adjust if you don’t have Fred out there. But, again, I believe in Logan and I hope we can get him healthy too. We’ve got other tight ends here who are working. You never know when their opportunity will come, whether it’s Sunday or whether it’s later. You’ve got to believe in the guys you have in this building. You’ve got to give them opportunities.”
On if Head Coach Mike Shanahan is more involved in play calling than Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak was in Houston:
“It’s pretty much the exact same. I think what Gary was used to in Houston… Gary came from being with my dad for so long. It’s pretty much the exact same style with what my dad is used to here. Play calling is probably not what you guys would expect. I call the plays. I talk to the quarterback. I’m the one who gives it in. I’m the actual offensive coordinator who calls the play and gives it to him. When it comes to calling the plays, it’s not like you’re just dialing them up – you guys see that big sheet. It’s something that we work on as a staff hard through the week. [We] break them down in each situation. Most of the plays are already called before the game. It’s just what situation are you in, what down and distance, what part of the field. But yeah, he’s heavily involved and it’s the same as it’s been my whole career.”
On signing running back Tashard Choice:
“He’s been a hard runner. He’s done some good things in Dallas. We’ve had some injuries there. When they let him go, what we wanted to bring him in here and see what he can do.”
On Choice’s pass protection:
“I thought he’s done a good job. He hasn’t been out here with us yet so far. He’s still trying to get healthy, but I’m excited to see him.”
Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett
On 49ers running back Frank Gore:
“What makes him so impressive? That he can carry the ball 35 times and he doesn’t wear down. He’s got great explosiveness. He keeps his legs churning all the time. He’s a great running back. He can do everything. He can block. He’s a heck of a football player.”
On why the team has struggled stopping the run:
“Well, last week, we had the one long run on us, so that was the breakdown. Besides that, they had a 13-yard run because they just blocked it and then, with everything else, we were fine. Out of the 33 carries that they had, his longest run was a 43-[yard run]. We had a guy get hurt and another guy go in and he just lost his gap and they made the 43-yard run. Besides that, we played the run pretty good. We just can’t give up a long run every game.”
On how the defense has done since the bye week:
“We haven’t been consistent. We liked to be, obviously, more consistent. We’d like to help the offense out and get more turnovers. As a team, we know that we have to get back on track.”
On the run defense this season:
“You’ve got to take it as a whole. You’d like to do better. You’d like to do better in all phases. The long run was disappointing last week. The week before was all the different stuff. The week before that we missed too many tackles. This team is averaging 200 yards-a-game rushing the last four games, so this is a great challenge. Anybody that comes in and has almost 800 yards rushing in four games, that tells you you have to step up and do a great job not just part of the time, you have to do it for 60 minutes. We have to tackle for 60 minutes. We’ve got to do a great job because, if somebody runs the ball 35 times, they’re going to get 100 yards because if you go by per-play in the NFL, I think the average running-play-per-play given up by defenses is 4.3. We were 4.2, I think, last week, but you don’t give up a 43-yarder. We’ve got to do it for 60 minutes and we’ve got to do it this week for 60 minutes.”
On how safety Oshiomogho Atogwe played against the Bills after missing the previous game:
“OJ’s still hurting – his toe, he’s got a knee, a hamstring. So it’s a little bit of everything. I think everybody could play better, but he could play better.”
On the possibility of activating safety Kareem Moore from the PUP list:
“That’s not up to me with the Kareem issue. That’s something that has to be decided here pretty soon.”
On if Atogwe is playing through the normal amount of pain:
“Everybody’s kind of beat up right now at this time of the year. He’s probably got a little more – he’s got the toe, he’s got the knee, a number of different things.”
On not re-signing cornerback Carlos Rogers:
“I think Carlos is a good football player. He did a good job. As an organization, you’ve got to decide exactly where you’re going to put your money. At that time, obviously he wasn’t in the plans.”
On if Rogers checked out mentally last year because he knew he wouldn’t be re-signed:
“No, I don’t think Carlos would do that. I was only with him the one year… I don’t know where you would get those vibes because the people that make those decisions the year before weren’t here last year. So I don’t know if you got those vibes before and it carried on. I think sometimes players get that feeling and I don’t know if that’s right as a player. I’ll give you an ex-player’s perspective – I think the thing you can do is go out and play the you can and try to make plays and get interceptions in his case and do the things you’re supposed to do as a corner. And let the chips fall where they may. It’s kind of like you can only do so much where you go out and try to put them in positions, but you can’t go out and tackle for them. You try to get them as well-prepared as you can. Whatever happens, happens.”
On if the defense gets frustrated by the offense’s struggles:
“Players have to do what they have to do. We’ve got an obligation to this football team to keep people off the scoreboard. Obviously, in this league, it’s hard to get a shutout. You’re not going to do that. Our job and things get magnified being on defense – if you’re starting on one side and you give up a 43-yard run, it’s like the world’s coming to an end and you can’t stop the run. Another team is scoring a bunch of points and you give up a long run and it’s no big deal because it kind of gets washed under the rug. Our guys know that, but our guys understand that we’re in this together and we’ve got to do whatever we can to get turnovers to try to help our offense score points until they get back on track. Our guys practice hard. They came out yesterday and they practiced hard and they do everything you ask them to do. And that’s all I can ask of them.”
On if linebacker Ryan Kerrigan has hit a rookie wall:
“I don’t think he’s hit the wall. I think he’s smart enough to understand - and Lou [Spanos] has talked to him about it - that it’s a long season. Him not having the offseason, probably it will help him a little bit from a mental standpoint. He won’t wear down from that standpoint because I think the rookies that come in, they go through OTAs and mini camps and they do all that stuff. Mentally, they wear down as the season goes on, but he didn’t have to do that so I don’t expect him to hit a wall this year.”
On if Kerrigan has played as well recently as he did early in this season:
“Yeah, I think he has. He’s done a great job on tight ends. Obviously, he doesn’t have the sacks total that you would like, but he’s gotten good pressure. [Brian Orakpo’s] the same way. Together, I thought they’ve done a great job and that’s why we’re getting sacks inside. Stpehen [Bowen] got one last weekend and Kedric [Golston] – I think it’s the edges, we’re a much better pass rushing team.”
On if he has the right personnel on the defense midway through the season:
“Well, that’s something you decide when the season’s over. I like what I see from our players. I like our front-seven. I think they’ve done a good job. Obviously, the numbers are much better than they were last year at this time and I think our players are better. If you just go from that standpoint, at this midpoint, I think we’re a much better football team.”
On how rare it is to have a rookie like Kerrigan not miss a snap for the whole season:
“The good ones – they can play most of the time and play the whole season. We told Ryan from the beginning now that this is not like college, it’s not where you come in and you tap your helmet. You play the whole time and he can play two different positions. But he’s a really smart kid and he understand that.”
On defensive end Kedric Golston’s performance against the Bills:
“I thought he played really well last week. I thought it was one of his better games. I thought he rushed the quarterback well and did a good job in the running game.”
On if he gets more out of Golston playing as a reserve:
“I think all of those guys are playing less snaps because we’re using five guys. Even Chris [Neild] played a lot last week, 12 or 13 snaps, which is more than he [normally] plays and we gave Barry [Cofield] less snaps, so I think that helped those guys. As the season goes on, last year, with our age and all of the snaps we were taking, we were on the field way too much [and] we just kind of fell apart at the end of the year. I don’t foresee that this year.”
On linebacker Keyaron Fox playing for linebacker Rocky McIntosh during the Bills game:
“Rocky twisted his ankle and then [Keyaron] Fox went in during the 43-yard run. He was playing Mike [linebacker] all week and he went over and played dime. We had a little miscommunication. If he would have stayed in his B-gap on the play, which he didn’t – he kind of ran into the corner and that’s when they got the 43-yarder. I put it on the coaching because we didn’t give him a lot of reps at dime. We gave him a like of reps at Mike because of the situation with London… It’s one of those deals that if he probably had gotten a couple of reps in [during practice], they wouldn’t have gotten that run on us.”
On if he ever compares his defense to other team’s defenses:
“Most of the time, with that stuff, it’s who you play and when you play them… It’s not an excuse or anything – we’ve played three pretty good offenses. We’ve played the No. 1 offense in the league, No. 5, No. 10, so we’ve played some good teams and we understand that. You’ve got to do with what you have and the players you have and the scheme that you run. We’ll go from there based on the players we have.”
On 49ers quarterback Alex Smith:
“He’s doing a good job of managing the game. They don’t put him in a bad position to really screw it up. He’s more confident back there. He’s not throwing as many interceptions. He’s not taking a lot of sacks and obviously they have a great running game. You have the combination of a good running game and then a quarterback that’s efficient – he’s really not messing it up and he has a great arm, he can roll out, he’s athletic. They’re taking advantage of all of his abilities.”
On linebacker London Fletcher’s performance against the Bills:
“He’s a heck of a football player. He was outstanding last week [and] made a lot of plays running the field. He was a little sore yesterday and today, but that’s understandable. He’s a great football player and he continues at his age to play with a lot of success and at a high rate. We just have to make sure that we keep monitoring him and keep him healthy throughout the season.”
On Fletcher’s dispute with safety LaRon Landry on the sideline:
“He was frustrated. Guys are frustrated. I understand what happened. All week, we worked with short yardage and they ran a play and they ran a dive. Obviously, when the play happened, they motioned to it and it looked like on the play they were going to run a dive. LaRon thought it was a running play and he kind of guessed on it. We should have had two guys on the deep route and London was frustrated and that’s understandable. That happens on the field at times. Everybody wants to be perfect and it’s not going to be perfect. You try to get as perfect as you can and that was just one of those ones we didn’t play it right.”
On how healthy Landry is right now:
“I think he’s healthy… He’ll be fine, he takes good care of himself.”
On making in-game adjustments:
“We make them all the time. That halftime stuff is a bunch of baloney. People say you go in at halftime and make the adjustments – you make them throughout the whole game. One time when they were empty, we were checking to something. I think you make them throughout the game because you work on things you think you’re going to get, but you don’t know until you get there. So that’s something you make during the game. Halftime – you’ll go over the stuff you need to work on, but 12 minutes, think about it, by the time you get in there and go to the bathroom and come back, you’ve got about three minutes. It ain’t like you have a big strategy program. You make adjustments throughout the game.”
On if he takes feedback from that players see on the field:
“We talk about it in individual groups and we’ll get together if we have to as a full group. Usually, whatever happened, if there’s a breakdown or we want to change something, we’ll get together with the groups individually and we’ll make those changes.”
(Courtesy of the Washington Redskins)
