SANTA CLARA – Reggie Smith was one of the few 49ers who made an appearance in the locker room this morning.
He spoke at his locker and here are some of the things he said.
Q: You guys didn’t show much on defense – not many blitzes. Do you feel like you still have some tricks in your back pocket for the upcoming games?
REGGIE SMITH: I think we do. We still got a lot of pressure, regardless. Whether we had a lot of blitzes yesterday or not I still think we had a lot of pressure. We really didn’t have to show too much.
Q: Do you think it’s an advantage that you haven’t really tipped your hand?
REGGIE SMITH: I think it’s a testament to the guys up front. They were getting a lot of pressure. We didn’t have to dial up a whole bunch of blitzes. But, like you say, we also do have them, if need be.
Q: Did you play more than you expected to?
REGGIE SMITH: I had no expectations. I knew I was going to come in on nickel, but I didn’t know how many times they would actually call nickel. It was just kind of like play it by ear, stay by the coaches and when they told me nickel I’d go in.
Q: Would you expect to still have that nickel role even with Dashon Goldson in the lineup?
REGGIE SMITH: I don’t know. We’ll have to see what happens. It’s too early to tell.
Q: Did the defense need to set the tone?
REGGIE SMITH: It was a good start. There was a lot of stuff we still messed up on, but it was a good start to what could be a pretty good defense this year.
Q: You said you weren’t quite up to full speed. Is that just straight line speed?
REGGIE SMITH: A lot of it’s mental, and some of it’s, like you said, I’m not full, full speed where I can run as fast as I usually run. But a lot of it’s mental. Being out there yesterday took a lot of the doubt out. That’s my first time really hitting since the injury, so it was a big confidence booster and I think I’ll be a lot better from here on out.
Q: Do you think the Cowboys are going to come in here with something to prove after what happened to them last night?
REGGIE SMITH: I think it’ll be a good test. A good test to see how we’ll do against a good team like that. I think it will be good for us.
Q: What happened on that play when Doug Baldwin ran for a 55-yard touchdown?
REGGIE SMITH: I think I overran it. I was coming over from the other side of the field, kind of ran too far. He was going this way. I was going that way. I couldn’t really stop, so it was kind of like, “Ah, dang it, my fault.”
Q: Do you want to force him to the middle? You don’t want to let him get to the sidelines?
REGGIE SMITH: It was a part of the play – it was a read play. I was supposed to be read No. 2, and once I read No. 2 I could go to No. 1, and by the time I started running to No. 1 I was still going this way. He was running this way, and it was, “Ah, too late.”
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