Here’s the transcript of Jim Harbaugh’s postgame press conference in Philadelphia.
HARBAUGH: That was as good of a win as I can remember being a part of. Really proud of our players. They never flinched. There was no moment or circumstance that made them nervous in this ballgame. Kept fighting, made some great adjustments, great team victory for us.
Q: Did you have a message to the team at halftime?
HARBAUGH: Just a short, quick message at halftime. It was we just need to play a little better. We need to execute just a little bit better than what we had been doing in the first half. Don’t know if that made a difference. It was more of the heart of the players. Down after down, they never tired mentally or had doubt. They didn’t flinch. They didn’t get scared. They just kept fighting.
Q: How much does this win mean to your football team?
HARBAUGH: It means a lot. It’s a great character-builder for a young team to really know and trust and believe that they can and will do well, believe that they are good enough to do well. And no quit or no getting scared out there. That’s big. That’s the way we wanted them to play and that’s the way they played.
Q: How did the offensive line play?
HARBAUGH: I thought our offensive line played extremely physical and well. Big-time got things fixed, I thought. With the pre snap penalties, I think we only had one in the ball game. And it was loud and noisy. And then to grind out those first downs at the end of the game. Frank, as we predicted he would do, played on a really sore ankle. And what a tough guy he is, goes for over a hundred yards. That guy’s got so much heart it’s unbelievable. I thought Kendall did a nice job. Great team victory. You just go up and down the roster on this one. Special teams, offense, defense, great team win.
Q: Did you need to see Gore warm up before you could determine what his role was going to be for this game?
HARBAUGH: He was coming to the stadium to warm up, just in his own mind to make sure that it was right. He didn’t do much all week. He couldn’t. But he did a lot of treatment is what he did. You’re asking me did I need to see him warm up? I saw something in Frank that I’ve seen since the first time I met him and that is a guy with a huge heart and just a warrior out there. And I know what that word means, warrior, in the context of football, but I think it applies to certain guys and Frank is one.
Q: Did you make some adjustments to slow them down in the second half?
HARBAUGH: We really went with our plan. We didn’t make a lot of adjustments defensively other than just play better. And the one thing our defensive guys talked about at halftime was better angles on Vick, taking better angles in tackling him. He’s going to get out of things and he’s a heck of a football player, but our guys hung in there and they didn’t flinch, and just played a little bit better in that second half and found a way to get it done.
Q: On a couple series in the second half Alex Smith was near perfect. Can you talk about what went into that and what that might mean for him?
HARBAUGH: I think it’s huge for a quarterback. You don’t have many 20-point comebacks as a quarterback, and when you do that’s definitely a character-builder for the football team, for the quarterback, for everybody. What’s perfect in this game? I don’t know, but I guess they judge that by quarterback rating and he had a perfect quarterback rating – nine of nine in the third quarter. That’s pretty good. Really proud of him, too. He’s such a tough guy, and he doesn’t really say boo about anything. Takes hits, gets hits, runs. I thought he threw with real good accuracy today. Seeing things well. Seeing lanes and seeing throws. And receivers helped him out too. Mike caught a couple balls that were a little high and made those look easy. I think as a quarterback when you’ve got guys that are doing that for you, that builds your confidence as well. Just a good team victory up and down. I thought there was some great, heroic play by our guys up and down the roster.
Q: That third and seven run by Kendall Hunter on that fourth quarter drive for the 14 yard gain and the first down, what was the thinking behind that?
HARBAUGH: We thought they were going to be bringing pressure and in man coverage. With that particular sweep, when you block down with the two receivers, you usually get the coverage people to go with them, so you can get a two-for one on that. That’s what we were hoping we’d get and we got it. We were going to go for it on fourth (down) had we not picked it up. We knew we were in a four-down situation there. And it was a great call by Greg Roman.
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