SAN FRANCISCO — Greg Roman’s post game press conference, courtesy of the 49ers.
Feeling pretty good after that performance?
“It was a good performance. I think we left some out there. We had some frustrating penalties in the first half. But, we came in at halftime, regrouped. Just decided we were going to start over. That turnover before the half I think was big, to get it in there. And just came in and said, ‘Hey we’re going to start over.’ We left some food on the table in the first half. But really, guys had a great attitude all week and we didn’t want it to be one of those situations like the Bills had last week when they were able to shut a team down for quite a while. So, all the credit really goes to the players. Thought [QB] Alex Smith played tremendously. Thought [QB Colin Kaepernick] Kap was a nice change of pace. [RB] Frank [Gore] ran hard. The O-line blocked good. Receivers did a great job of winning when they were isolated, whether it be [TE] Vernon [Davis], [WR] Mario [Manningham], [WR Michael Crabtree] Crab, [WR] Randy [Moss], [WR Kyle Williams] K.Dub. All those guys did a good job. So, it’s a great team win.”
You’ve seen the instillation films. You know the history of this organization offensively. To set the team record for most yards in the game, what does that mean to you?
“I think it’s just a credit to the players and I think it’s a credit to what we can accomplish as we move along. Yards, not a big statistical guy. Don’t get caught up in it. But at the same time, just in the normal course of events being able to put up that kind of production, obviously we’re doing something right. And really think our organization has done a really good job bringing in the right kind of guys in here. And we’re going to continue to try to keep our offense diverse, hard to prepare for. And just have always felt that if a team doesn’t quite know what you’re doing, it puts your players at an advantage. And we’ll see if we can keep doing that.”
Head Coach Jim Harbaugh said QB Alex Smith played a near perfect game.
“He did.”
What do you have to do to have a perfect game?
“That’s a good question. When we figure that one out, we’ll get back to you.”
How much more can he do?
“He was just on fire and on the money. It’s interesting because his week of practice was very similar to what it’s been every week. So, really didn’t see it coming, but boy he was hot today. And you could see that Crabtree was hot. And you could see Frank was running. He was hot. And everybody brought their ‘A’ game to the stadium today. So, it’s pretty fun when that happens.”
When everything was executed, I know there were those plays with Kaepernick, and just really mixed plays as you defined earlier. How pleasing was it that everything went well?
“It’s always a good feeling. It was frustrating early on, though. We had a third and two. We hit Vernon on the deep cross, that got called back. There were some frustrating things early and we just decided it was time to go beat the Bills and not beat ourselves. But it was good, really good job by our players again. We’ve got a great group. They’ve got the right stuff. And we’ve just got to keep trying to get better every week.”
Given how hot Alex Smith was in the game, why did you choose to call mostly running plays down by the goal line?
“They gave us an un-scouted look. I’ve got to tip our hat to the Bills. They out-charged their d-line. They had never shown that before. And it was a great job by them. They got us there. They caught us there. That’s a tough one when you don’t know it’s coming, just speaking from experience. And they got us twice. So, obviously probably could have called some different plays there. But, I’ve got to tip my hat to their coaching staff on that one. They got us. They got us there.”
How did you guys decide when to take Alex out of the game?
“It just was getting to the point where it looked like we were going to get the win. And wanted to get [QB Colin Kaepernick] Kap some experience in his understudy role, continue his development. And also, didn’t want Alex to take any unnecessary hits from that point.”
Did you see Alex throw deep early?
“We did, we did. And we really wanted to. We wanted to get a lead and play with a lead this game. That was the emphasis all week was to get a lead and try to make these guys one dimensional on offense. And maybe let them be a little bit more willing to take some risks on defense, which would open up some opportunity. We’ve been seeing so many different defenses from teams that we don’t see, which is a credit to our players. Un-scouted looks, they come in with a totally different plan. So, there was a little feeling out process there at the beginning. Just kind of scratching around to see what their plan was. But, we really wanted to take some shots. We hit Vernon there early. We would have hit him in the first drive, but we got that third down called back I believe. We hit him on the third and two. But, really felt good about that play when we hit him on the sideline. It was a great throw by Alex. But yeah, there were some opportunities for sure. And our guys won the one-one-one matchups. When we had isolations, one-on-one our guys won. And the quarterbacks made great throws.”
Did you poke yourself in the eye?
“No. It’s a mystery on what happened there. I think it’s just lack of sleep and thinking too hard. But, just woke up one day and it was there. But, they told me I’m going to live so I’ll be all right.”
Did you happen to see Alex’s first pitch at the San Francisco Giants game last night?
“No, but I heard about it though. We talked about it last night at the meeting. He said he was working, like any smart pitcher or quarterback, he was just throwing some junk in there, keeping it low. Looking for a grounder, and just using the pitch count to his advantage.”
It was low and outside.
“It was? He didn’t tell me about the outside part. He just told me about the low. Yeah, sinker ball.”
How much sleep do you think you got in this week?
“That’s a good question. I think our whole staff coming back from New York, we didn’t sleep much in New York. And guys, our staff, they’re just studs. They just do such a good job at every position. Really love working with these guys. But, sleep is something we’re going to try to focus on in the offseason.”
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