SANTA CLARA – Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio spoke in the media tent Monday afternoon. He said he did not game plan for the Denver Broncos. He also discussed what the defense did well and not-so-well on Sunday. Here’s a transcript, courtesy of the 49ers.
Is it time to push the panic button?
“In regards to what?
The defense.
“No, not yet.”
How do you take what happened yesterday?
“We just didn’t play well enough on certain plays. I think it was a great learning experience for us, in that some of the plays were we broke down, we could have definitely played better. And then in some instances, they just beat us one-on-one. We weren’t able to win the one-on-one battles.”
In going back to the first preseason game, maybe some overconfidence, is there still some of that? This just being the preseason, are these guys just kind of ready to get Week 1 here?
“I think there is some of that. The guys are ready to go, that’s for sure and get on to playing in the regular season. This is still great time to learn, perfect your craft, excel on your technique and stuff and we have to be able to do that. And we weren’t perfect on that the other night by any means.”
Last year, that third preseason game against the Houston Texans, was something similar. Did you recall that at all and how did you use that to get you ready for the regular season?
“I kind of recall that game last year as being, yeah we got beat, and I don’t really remember what the score was, but I saw a lot of good signs in that game, too, that I thought meant good things for going down the road. And I still see that here, too. It’s important that we learn from our technique mistakes and not repeat them.”
What were the good things you saw yesterday?
“Yesterday we played the run pretty good, other than the one that popped out of there. Thought we had some good individual efforts. [DT] Justin Smith showed that he’s ready to go. Couple other players did also. We just weren’t consistent. And I was particularly disappointed in some of the backups’ performances after they got in there.
Is there anything wrong with CB Tramaine Brock?
“He’s got a little hand injury that he’s fighting through, but nothing that should affect him a great deal.”
How would you evaluate Brock’s play?
“He’s played better.”
Is CB Perrish Cox, a couple of weeks ago you said somehow, someway you’ll have to find a role for him. Do you know what that role is yet?
“He’s a backup nickel right now, a backup corner. The more three- and four-wide receiver teams that we see, the more he’ll get to play. But if he keeps playing the way he’s playing and becomes an expert at his craft, we’ll find a way to get him in there.”
Are you any closer to figuring out the backup situation with the safeties?
“No.”
Is there anybody who you thought played really well yesterday?
“I think [S] Trenton Robinson made some improvements. [S Darcel] McBath’s been improving some as we’ve moved forward and getting more comfortable in our system. I think [S] C.J. [Spillman] was up and down a little bit the other night, but he’s still, over the long haul, has improved since the beginning.”
Some of the guys you cut on your side of the ball, have you addressed some of them?
“Who in particular?”
LB Kourtnei Brown, DT Matthew Masifilo
“Yeah, we cut a couple guys. Obviously at this time at the camp, you have to let some guys go. You have to let some guys go and sometimes we don’t want to. We think they’re young guys that have some potential. And they’re guys that we will look into, some of the them, potentially as practice squad players or maybe to bring back next offseason when you start signing players in February or guys to keep hot in case you have some injuries.”
You mentioned C.J. Spillman up and down the other night, are you talking about the Houston game?
“Last night.”
If you go with three outside linebackers again, is TE/DT Demarcus Dobbs a guy that can fill an emergency role if need be?
“He can definitely fulfill a role in our sub stuff as a defensive end. It’d be a tall order for him right now to fulfill as an outside linebacker.”
Did you see much of LB Ikaika Alama-Francis?
“Yeah, he played a lot last night. He probably played close to 50 plays, if not more. And he did okay for his first time. You’ve got to consider the guy wasn’t here until late last week and didn’t have the pads on until I guess it was Monday. And really he did okay in the game. Hopefully he’ll make some progress this week and play even better against San Diego.”
Do you know what your plan is as far as will your starters play on Thursday?
“We haven’t totally decided that yet. I think it’ll be more so on an individual basis than on a unit basis.”
Did you game plan for the game against Denver?
“No.”
Is that why you don’t get hung up, or do you get hung up, on the results?
“No, I still think the results bare itself out, particularly when the first group was in there. We were playing stuff that we play all year round. There was just nothing special and maybe we didn’t have our guys alerted to their offense as much as you would in the regular season. But no, you’re still disappointed in the results because all the defenses we played yesterday are things that we’ll carry into each and every game.”
LB Ahmad Brooks was saying that QB Peyton Manning was constantly audibling, recognizing what you guys were doing. Did you notice that as well? Was he audibling a lot?
“No, he does that a lot anyway. A lot of the stuff he does is dummy signals and tries to get into your head defensively at times. Sometimes he is audibling. He’s not the only quarterback in the league that does that. [QB Aaron] Rodgers does it, who we are playing in the first game. I don’t think that’s anything to be alarmed about.”
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I’d say Peyton Manning got into the defenses head, their mid field, their endzone. He had an all access pass against the 1st team defense. Thank goodness he only played 1 quarter or the score would have really been an embarassment.
I think Brooks heard Manning wrong. Manning was leading the square dance routine Brock and Rogers were dancing to. Dose E Doe and watch your receiver go go go…is what I think Brooks heard at the line…
Peyton threw two touchdowns against larry grant and tramaine brock backups
I wouldn’t read anything into this, just as Coach Fangio said….. “there was no game planning”. Is what that tells me no strategy to blitz Manning or certain dime packages, essentially a basic system to evaluate players.
I think this Defense is going to be viscous, stingy and tough this year.
Doc
Game planning has nothing to do with being beat fundamentally. Game planning has nothing to do with being turned completely around in coverage. Game planning has nothing to do with being beat in every game the secondary has taken the field.
Game planning is as weak an argument as saying you’re overdrawn because you still had checks so you still had money.
Not really Chris. Both go hand-in-hand. It doesn’t matter what fundamentals a player has unless he has the right gameplan to utilize said fundamentals, yet a set gameplan will fail if the player has the wrong set of fundamentals needed to execute it.
Chris is right gentlemen…no need to panic, but there is cause for concern about those things he talked about…game plan or no game plan every defensive call Fangio makes, these men have responsibilities and for the most part ourfirst unit did not fulfill them…we shall see what happens in Green Bay
Chris is right about the players not tackling. That is concerning.
But plays like CR being turned around are definitely things that film study can prevent. Poor tackling, not so much.
No Aldon, no Cully, no Bowman, very little Justin… big difference-makers not on the field.
Like I said, game planning and fundamentals go hand-in-hand.
So, if the 49ers don’t include seeing four WR’s against GB in their defensive game plan, that wouldn’t make a difference?
Chris,
There is an intensity and awareness level that is applied in a regular season game that is not in the preseason. If you think the team will tackle as poorly when the bullets fly for real then you need to get the game rewind from NFL.com and watch the difference between last years preseason and regular season.
There is nothing wrong with being disappointed in the effort and overall result but it’s preaseason. It means nothing and is rarely reflective of how the team plays when the regular season starts.
Fangio gave modest praise to Alama-Francis, who we may need.
trumane brock has “played better”? thats an understatement if i ever heard one. he appears to be the alex smith of our defense. I love my niners, and we have alot of great attributes, but with alex smith at qb, greg romans bland play calling thats more predictable than a chick flick, our o-line, the obvious holes in our secondary, and kyle williams returning anything other than his christmas gift to best buy, im afraid its going to be a long year that ends around a 7-9 record.
It’s doubters like you that keep Harbaugh and players motivated
effective tackling in the secondary has alot to do with how close you are to the receiver when he catches the ball. if you are a step behind its an easy tackle. if you have to close 3 or 4 steps its going to be a very tough tackle. sunday i saw alot more of the latter than the former. scheme can be a huge part of why the db’s were trailing the receivers so badly. so scheme can have alot to do with bad tackling in the secondary.
@old coach
Ok. But what about the missed tackling nearer to the LOS?
on run plays? then its just bad tackling but most of the missed tackles i saw were by db’s in pass coverage
Grant You wrote that Fangio spoke in the media tent on wednesday??? Today is tuesday how can that be posible??
@Willie
Look back a bit on the home page. Fangio spoke to the press last week. It might have been Wednesday. But he definitely spoke last week.
Finally back…. Thanks DS94……welcome Grant……
I meant Monday. Good catch. Thanks. Fixed it.
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