SANTA CLARA – Patrick Willis spoke at his locker Thursday afternoon. Here’s what he said about how the loss of Justin Smith is affecting the 49ers’ defense.
Q: What do you want to see from you defense against the Cardinals.
WILLIS: Total focus. I want to see a little more attention to detail. I want us to play the defense we’re capable of playing. We have a great defense. I really and truly believe that. A few times we’ve gone out there this year and have not displayed that. When you have what we have on defense, we should be able to go out there each time, and from this point on we have to make sure that we do that on a consistent basis. We have to.
Q: Having said that, how much of a kick in the gut is the loss of Justin Smith?
WILLIS: You can’t really put into words what he means to this defense. Justin is one of our team captains, but more than that, he goes out there and leads by examples. Doesn’t say whole lot, only speaks when he has to, but he goes out there and plays with heart. He’s one of the guys I look up to this in this league. Hopefully we’re able to get him back in the playoffs. We also want him to take care of himself. We’re going to certainly miss him.
Q: What do you guys have to do to compensate so it’s not glaring that you’re playing without Justin Smith?
WILLIS: Each person has to take it up a whole other notch. Ricky Jean is playing for Justin – he has to come in and play at a high level, which I know he will. At the end of the day, our defense has always been based on unselfish guys, guys that are going to go out there and give everything they have and play for one another. I know if we just turn it up some more and have the attention to detail and play the way I know we’re capable of playing – we can’t fill his shoes, nobody can come in and do that, but I know we can certainly get it done. That’s what he have to believe and that’s what we have to do.
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what a legend :)
It seems that Justin Smith has not been recognized for a very long time, except for these last two years. Just a guy who does his job better then anyone else. Then you got a guy like Tim Tebow, who is basically a lousy QB, and gets publicity because he is a Holly Roller. Makes no sense.
Justin Smith is perhaps the only thing that Scott McCloughan got right while he was here. I’ve been apprehensive for two years now, wondering how we could ever begin to replace him when the time came. It’s something the organization is going to have to seriously begin to address in the off-season. I’d even consider using our first round pick on the defensive line.
Grump
Isn’t McCloughan partially responsible for the ridiculously successful overhaul that the Seahawks have managed to pull off?
I would do that Grumpy, I don’t follow college ball except for Stanford so I have no idea who is available, we need to get younger and deeper in that position, and I would do that with the draft instead of free agency where we might have cap problems.
Neal, there are some really good D-linemen coming out this year. The best, will of course be long gone before we get a chance at them. But if there is enough quality, something good might fall to the bottom of the first. Hopefully, Baalke is on it.
ME, I am not really sure how the Seahawk org is structured, or how much input McCloughan gets. He might be very involved, or not so much.
Grump,
Won’t be a exciting move but it will be needed.
Tebow doesn’t ask for the press to blow him up. And it’s the same losers that put him down. All for being a great human being. True he can’t throw the football. But I’d bet he would rather be ignored by the media and got to focus on football only. Don’t blame him for what the media talks about or does.
As far as J Smith. The guy simply grabs his lunch pale punches the time lock and goes to work. The unsung hero like my dad was. Blue collar, beer drinking, bill paying. BAD MF’r. Sick or not he was working. They just don’t make these guys anymore. Wheeeew!
What makes Smith special is his non-stop motor and his unselfish, team-first attitude. I’d take a Justin Smith over a knucklehead like Suh seven days a week and twice on Sundays, no matter how much talent Suh has. Smith makes the whole defense better, as we can clearly now see.
Agree on the Tebow take MD.
Tebow may be a religeous person, but he is respectful of others who chose not to believe and does not force feed his beliefs on anyone.
I agree that the media has created the Tebow hysteria over the last two years. His religeous beliefs should not be on trial because he has never used them as a crutch or an excuse.
Tebow funded the building of a few hospitals in some poverty stricken areas in the Philipines and the public found out about only because a media outlet discovered the story.
Point: Anyone can attack his play or lack thereof, but to question his beliefs without background information is weak.
TT is not on the team and is not the backup so why are we discussing TT?!! MD must be mad. LOL What a joke!!
Hofer
Tebow has as much chance to start at quarterback this year as Smith does. They are essentially the same irrelevant person as far as each team is concerned at this point. Tebow is a national oddity, however, because of his cult-like following, so there are many reasons people everywhere might want to discuss him. On the other hand, the only reason anybody might want to discuss Alex Smith at this point is because of some type of fatal attraction or sick obsession. Does that register with you, errrr no?
I’ve read your comments here and I think you are more irrelevant than both AS and TT.
Hof,
Mr E is very opinionated, a good guy but stopped following him and taking him seriously when he said Steve Young was average and overrated.Although we both are happy this site has become Prime less.
Mr. Everything knows nothing!
Primeless Axel you remind of the guy who is punch drunk, got the crap beaten out of you but you still keep coming back because you are slow.
Fitzbob usually you say nothing intelligent, but that was your masterpiece of stupidity. You are always good for a chuckle!
Primeless Randy
What was the last thing that you said that was intelligent? Mocking Bay kids and calling them girls., insulting Clem ill wife, and insulting Grant intelligence and calling him a liar. We all know what a loser you are in real life, a real man would of had pride and dignity and just leave this site, your nothing more then the village idiot on here. I actually feel very sorry for you.
Hofer
Glad to have you as a follower. Continue to read me, sir. I get a good chuckle reading your takes.
Neal
I said Steve Young was very good BUT overrated. There is a difference. And I also admitted to having a Joe Montana bias, which I candidly stated probably colored my perspective a wee bit. Don’t hold it against me good buddy.
Also even if Alex Smith is the better QB, Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow will get more exposure in where they end up.
I just read Sherman won his appeal for the Hawks.
Hofe,
I only brought up Tebow because someone here suggested that he receives media attention because of his beliefs.
No biggie.
As far as AS, I believe that he is still a story simply because CK will be measured by AS until AS is gone.
Here’s a question, according to NFL stats AS needs to attempt 7 more passes to qualify as winning the NFL QB passer rating title.
Does Harbaugh give him a chance at this on Sunday?
I can think of no better team to do this against then than the Cards since it could justify them trading a high draft pick for AS’ services.
AES,
No worries. That comment wasn’t meant for you. I was being sarcastic because I was told that we couldn’t talk about all players of the team and then TT was being discussed. It was just a new member of the ALL BUT ONE club spewing this nonsense. LOL
Very well put by the “all about one” club…
Good Morning Bay,
It doesn’t matter what you think because it doesn’t seem anyone is listening anyway (note AES comment above). LOL
Bay = REAL 9er FAN!! LMAO That was the funniest comment ever posted here.