Harbaugh: “Patrick Willis had an outstanding game again.”

SANTA CLARA – Here’s what Jim Harbaugh said about the 49ers defense at his Monday press conference, courtesy of the 49ers.

What have you seen out of your pass defense that’s allowing the second fewest yards in the league, and just how well they’ve played through five weeks?

“Again, for the second week in a row I think you can really say that everybody played well defensively. Nobody played bad. And everybody played good. Pass defense has been outstanding and some guys to highlight would be [LB] Ahmad Brooks. Basically, they all stopped the first two drives of the second half, but Ahmad was the shining star on both those stops. Gets the big sack on the first drive and then the second drive caused the pressure and the errant throw that [CB Chris] Culliver intercepted. [LB] Patrick Willis had an outstanding game again. Causing the turnover before the half, which was a huge play for us. And [LB] Aldon Smith is playing really well. The times that he did drop in coverage, he’s doing really good. And it wasn’t many because we really only had 40 significant snaps on defense, not counting the ones at the end when the starters weren’t in there. Only five of those were base, where Aldon was in drop situations. But, the other thing about Aldon is that the strength he has in his hands. When he’s making those tackles at the ankles and the thighs with his long arms he is able to cover a lot of ground. But the torque that he’s able to generate and the strength that he has in his hands, those are significant hits. And he’s able to get guys on the ground with that torque and those strong hands. [LB NaVorro] Bowman played extremely well and everybody in the back-end played really good.”