SANTA CLARA — Here is the transcript of Kyle Shanahan’s Week 16 Tuesday press conference, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.
Opening comments:
“Alright injuries today: [DL] Dee Ford wont practice, [CB Richard Sherman] Sherm, we’re having all walk-through today, but Sherm will be full-go, [S Jaquiski] Tartt will not practice, [DL] Jullian Taylor will not practice, [CB] K’Waun [Williams] is out of the protocol so he’s full-go now, and [OL Mike] Person will be limited with a neck. Sore neck.”
Sherman and K’Waun are good to go, you said?
“Yes.”
With Sherman, I mean, does that surprise you at this point?
“No, we’ll see out there. I mean, Sherm has been better since he got in the locker room at New Orleans, according to him, and because he has that mindset is what gives him a chance to be better. I know our trainers feel good with letting him go out today. It will be a walk-through and stuff. But, we’ll be able to test that a little bit more tomorrow.”
Where is Jaquiski Tartt at in his recovery?
“Just day-to-day, still just waiting on his ribs to recover. Feels a lot closer than last week, but not good enough to go today. Give him a chance tomorrow.”
What’s the situation with LB Kwon Alexander? Can he come back like in January?
“Yeah, he can come back. Not to get you tweeting that out right away. It would be awesome if he could, but I mean, it’s a really big injury and that would be down the road. There would be an outside chance at it, but we haven’t ruled it out.”
WR Kendrick Bourne said on his Instagram that Kwon told him that he’s coming back.
“That’s what I heard. That’s why I was ready for your guys’ question.”
But, has he been talking about it?
“Oh Kwon, I mean, he’s the same as Sherman. Kwon thought he could have come back the next week, you know? They’re made of the right stuff. When you think that way, even though it’s your mind, sometimes your body will follow. So, we won’t rule it out, but it’s a longshot and it’s not any time soon. Now I’ll let you guys tweet it out.”
Just in terms of how everybody’s getting over this loss on Sunday, what do you see out of them? I mean, TE George Kittle was saying it would light a fire under them. Are you seeing that now as you start the week?
“Yeah, I mean today’s the first day I saw them. When you’re on a short week, you know, yesterday felt like two days for us, but it’s kind of good when it’s something like that. You don’t have much time to dwell over it. Like I said after the game, we tip our hats off to Atlanta, but we’ve got to play a lot better on all three phases. Got to play better, got to coach better and you watch the tape and we know we can. It’s just about doing it. Yeah, it was disappointing to lose. There was an opportunity that we had that we missed, and you address that. It pissed us off for a while, but the neat thing about today is after you go through it for 24 hours you get to go talk to the team. It’s neat to be able to say to the team that ‘look guys, last week before we played them we controlled our own destiny. It was a tough loss that we feel we were good enough to win and didn’t get it done, but we still control our own destiny.’ We can’t sit and harp on that too long. We correct the mistakes, but we’ve got to go out there and play good football on Saturday.”
Seems like one of the hallmarks of the offense throughout the season has been the ability to spread the ball around and find a bunch of different pass catchers and get them going. What happened on Sunday that prevented you guys from spreading the ball around like you typically would?
“Yeah it was more, I mean, some of the coverages they were playing. We wanted to go to George, we liked the matchups. They did a number of man coverage and we didn’t feel like they were taking away George that much. When they do, you get to number two and stuff. I thought they did a real good job of progressing, so a lot of our concepts kind of turned into a, they did a good job rushing which makes it tough to progress to number two and number three, which makes it a one-man show a lot. It was more everybody. George got most of the play calls and stuff. The other guys did too, but they had some bad luck on it. When things were good, we had a couple drops. When it wasn’t that, it might have been a protection issue. Usually it’s not like that. We don’t always want it to be like that, but we also don’t mind if we get the win done. We thought we had a chance to, but that wasn’t why we lost.”
In New Orleans, you pulled out a double-reverse receiver pass, a read-option from a fullback. How conscious were you trying to be conservative in this game whether it be keeping guys healthy or–?
“It’s never about keeping guys, I mean, you keep guys healthy because you don’t want guys to get hurt, but that game was everything in my mind. It felt that way all week. You call plays based off of what you think it takes to win. The plays you’re talking about that, we probably saw a record of them, and the New Orleans game seemed pretty important to pull those off to win. Definitely didn’t feel as strongly about that during the Atlanta game, especially when we have a 19-10 lead with eight minutes to go. I don’t feel the need to be as aggressive on some of those things. I think we did what we needed to do to win, but we obviously didn’t get it done.”
You talked at length last week about beyond your respect for that system or that type of defense, why you brought defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, why you wanted to go to Atlanta. On Sunday’s game, is that still a tough nut to crack, so to speak?
“No, I think we are all pretty used to it. I mean, we’ve gone against that system a lot here, even this year. Didn’t look a lot like that system on Sunday. They made a lot, a ton of adjustments and stuff that we weren’t expecting going in, but you’re always going to see something new. It’s the foundation for all these teams, but every team runs that system doesn’t run it the exact same way they used to. Everyone’s had to expand as people get more used to it and Atlanta’s done a good job of that over the last half of the year.”
There’s going to be Pro Bowl announcements later today. Do you prefer a lot of guys get recognized or would you like a few guys to get snubbed so you can kind of use that as fuel?
“I would love anything that gets guys to play better, but the Pro Bowl doesn’t mean much in terms of anything for the team or what it does for the team. I think it’s really cool for those guys so I want everyone to get a Pro Bowl vote who deserves it. I think we’ve got a lot of guys who deserve it, but I try to tell them, don’t put too much into it because not everyone who deserves to go to the Pro Bowl goes to the Pro Bowl and some people do, so I’m not taking that away also. I’m really happy for guys if it happens because a number of guys deserve it, but those guys also better not be too upset if it doesn’t happen because it’s not guaranteed for them even if they deserve it.”
What kind of trickle-down effect have some of the injuries, particularly on the defensive line? How have you seen that hamper what the defense has done over the last few weeks?
“I think the obvious answer in terms of the less depth you have, the more reps people take and the more reps people take they can’t go as hard for every time they’re in. I think guys do wear down a little bit with that. It’s something you fully expect this time of year, as the year goes, but it does add up. We do have some more guys coming back, but this is what happens when these injuries happen. And the type of game, hopefully we can get in a game where we can rotate the guys better despite who’s out there, but that happens with everyone. The more you’re out there, the more you wear down, but it’s time to go, there’s not a lot of time left anyways.”
How do you think DL Solomon Thomas did with a bigger role playing in there?
“I thought he did his job. I definitely thought he did his job. He wasn’t out of place at all. Every time they got to his gap, he was holding it, but nobody across the board made any game-changing plays. That’s what we needed there at the end, especially. We gave [Atlanta Falcons QB] Matt Ryan and [Atlanta Falcons WR] Julio [Jones] a few too many chances and those guys are too good to give that many chances.”
How did OL Ben Garland handle his first start at center?
“I thought Garland in both his game and a half he’s played has done a real good job. He’s done a real good job getting to the second level. He’s done a real good job at getting out on our screens and stuff. He stepped it up well.”
When you watch the Rams, what makes them so difficult?
“They’re very talented, they’re very well-coached. I think over this last month they’ve been playing as good of football as anyone in the league. I think until the Sunday game got a little out of hand, they had a top-10 offense, a top-10 defense before that. They have a very good special teams. So, talent and coaching.”
You guys went from being the underdog at the beginning of the season to now very much having a target on your back. CB Ahkello Witherspoon on Sunday said the character of this team has not wavered no matter what. How do you continue to keep these guys even-keeled?
“I think we’ve got smart guys to put things in perspective. Target’s always on your back no matter how good you do. You’re as good as your last game and it’ll be that for every team in the NFL, all 32 teams, until the end of the year. I talk about it a lot, but if you’ve been in this league you pretty much realize that only one team is happy at the end of the year no matter what happens. Usually, it’s the team who wins the last game. That’s why we’ve got to make sure that happens. I think our guys realize that. There are a lot of ebbs and flows throughout the year, but we know we’ve worked all year just to get to this point we’re at. That’s where we’re pumped to be at right now.”
You guys reportedly put in a claim for Kansas City Chiefs DE Terrell Suggs. Is that a function of those injuries, specifically Dee Ford?
“We just thought he would help us, a good pass rusher out there who’s a vet. Could help a lot of teams and we would’ve definitely preferred for him to help us over people we have to go against.”
At the start of the season you were having a lot of success forcing turnovers, getting sacks and the last three weeks you’ve only had three and only one turnover in each of the last four games. How much of that do you attribute to attrition and the injuries you’ve had on the defensive side of the ball?
“Anytime you miss people it definitely gets harder. But, as every single person says when someone asks them that question, it’s not an excuse, it doesn’t put that in the win-loss column. The more we have had people out, I think the chances of turnovers does go down, but if we want to win we’ve got to find ways to create them and hopefully our guys can get going and create some more. If not, we’ve got to do something schematically, but it’s tough to win when you don’t get turnovers and we’ve got to make sure we find a way to do it.”
Why and the flock does nobody ask him about starting Mostert over Coleman? or why we never play JWilsonJr. or Dwelley or RJames?
Also it seems Kyle uses screen pass comcepts every third or fourth game rather than a staple, but nobody ask’s why?
The Defense its clear= too many injuries but for godsakes Kyle call a good game.
W/O our other bookend–Dee Ford we are going to lose–period.
New Orleans pulled a particularly N-A-S-T-Y move on Bosa when they sent their blocking back toward Bosa on a pass play–not play action. Bosa rushed in and his eyes got big as he saw a RB between himself and Brees. A move to shove the back out of the way resulted in a quick duck and dive directly into Bosa’s knees. Bosa played angry the remainder of the game.
Expect more chips, cheap shots, etc, Bosa’s way until Dee gets back on the field or they promote the ready made pass rusher already on their practice squad–Kevin Givens. Until then, teams can send an extra resource Bosa’s way–if not outright injure him.
Shany needs to wise up and bench Solomon Thomas and replace him with Kevin Givens (practice squad) to get more pass rush. Givens plays with urgency. Solomon does not.
C’mon 49er front office. Dan Marino went to a Superbowl only to never go again.
This is your shot to get Givens and some pass rush on the field vs Seattle so Wilson doesn’t get comfortable.
Listen to Tom D, he didn’t steer you wrong with Matt Breida, WR Bourne and I actively campaigned for Jeff Wison Jr. in summer camp; and I’m not wrong about Givens–He’s a playaah 49ers!!! Get some pass rush, man up!
Brian Baldinger on Givens:
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/video/examining-the-san-francisco-49ers-best-defensive-lineman-kevin-givens-baldys-breakdowns/15lfvzwtu0p5a1f12r82kk748n
That video was taken after the 2nd pre-season game. Givens had 1 tackle in that game and didn’t play the 1st game but he had a lot of pressure on the backfield and qb. Great first step!! He kind of reminds me of Ed Oliver, the rookie DL for the Bills out of Houston drafted top 10..size wise he’s about the same too.
I agree Givens can take Solomons place in the middle. Another pass rusher they can play more that got promoted recently from the PS is Jeremiah Valoaga. They don’t play him much at all but has 2 tackles already in a couple games. In the 1st pre-season game he had 2 tackles/2 sacks and vs the Broncos in the 2nd game he had 3 tackles/4 asst. and 1 sack.
KS- ‘I did not feel we needed to be as aggressive against the Falcons.’
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Isn’t that the very definition of complacency?
I am campaigning for urgency Seb.
I dislike your creampuff, laid back, falling down on a pass play, football– thinking your going to get up and race 70 yards down field for the game winning pass.
Your pass play already takes 10 seconds and no NFL O-line blocks that long in the real world, only in Seb’s make believe land of unicorns.
That play design is for short fields–redzone territory. Wise up man!
Cream puff, non urgent football only gets you beat; just ask your friend Patty Cakes.
When I need your opinion on how to run to the sidelines for powder puffs, I’ll call ya.
Or Arrogance Personified…..
” Isn’t that the very definition of complacency?”……….YES!!
Seb what is the hard on for Shanny all the time?
You are unclear of the concept.
You are unclear of how stupid you sound.
Spoken by the person who wants to make it twice as hard to win.
The 49ers can beat Seattle. You just watch.
You want them to play 2 games in the Clink, and not have a first round bye.
Yeah that’s what I want you moron.
I said if it has to be that way and it’s looking like it will, they can do it.
You’ve been doubting this team all year so go pound sand!
You’re the one who claimed the Niners will lose the division.
And like I also said Rena, they might win the division. Either way, the 49ers can go into Seattle twice and win so not sure what your beaking at here?
I’m not one of those fans that jumps on the bandwagon after every win then cries after every loss like some people on here.
Prime Cuck, you outright stated they wouldn’t win the division. Get your napkin folded and ready because come week 17 you’re getting STUFFED so full of crow your sides will be close to bursting.
Yes, because that’s exactly how I’ve reacted to, say, the Falcons loss. Oh wait, the opposite is true. You’re the one disparaging the players and the coaching now, over one loss. Not me.
If the 49ers win the division which I said they might still do, you can stuff away Rookie Rena!
I’d welcome that.
Prime Cuck, do you really want me to go back and find quotes? I can do that, but I’m afraid of the embarrassment it’ll cause you.
Go ahead! Make sure to quote the entire thread in which I posted. You Brits like to leave out the best parts!
Don’t think Seb and others have a..’hard on Shanny all the time’.
Prime-it started waayy back nearly 3 yrs ago when ShannyLynch chose to not pick the K up of you know who………….
Yes I am aware of Sebnnoying’s agenda.
It’s funny how much devotion that old man shows.
It is in fact the definition of blind idolatry.
It is the definition of being a fan.
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Blind idolatry? Keep politics out of here.
A fan with absolutely 0(Zero) objectivity……….a zealot……..
Seems you two have a hard on for Seb. Nobodys really been critical of Shanny this year with the team doing well. KS does mistakes but all coaches do, so pointing it out when it happens is fine .
We have been listening to Sebbys negativity for the better part of a decade-did you hear his appraisal of just this draft? In one way of putting it or another, all busts. Bosa, especially. Haven’t checked, but Bosa looks pro-bowl caliber. In Sebby’s world, he’s a broken down horse-until he proved otherwise. Guilty, long before he had a chance to prove himself. Same with the other picks……………
a statement indicative of a head coach who still needs to mature as a head coach and realize that you cannot undersell any opponent regardless of record. plus the record of the falcons over the past 6 weeks at 4-2 should have alerted anybody in the organization that they were playing much better
a major error on his behalf!!!!!
Football is like boxing…if your not aggresive you get knocked out….thanks Kyle…..this team needs an OC= either Kyle or someone else…does anybody else think that Kyle has too much on his plate during crucial moments of the game? Seems to rear its ugly head in the close ones
No. Pretty much only you and Seb
Ha!
Bill Walsh always advocated for the Niners to beat them to the punch.
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I will take Bill Walsh’s advice over the peanut gallery, every day, and twice on Sunday.
Advice and actually doing it are two different things Seb.
Last I checked Walsh and his teams lost some big games AND some they weren’t supposed to lose.
Philosophy doesn’t win games.
But you’ve never played so how would you know anyways.
It does seem to rear it’s ugly head in close games but KS better learn fast. A quick exit out of the playoffs b/c of some bad bonehead moves or not adjusting will be real bad, not many chances you have a good year going. If this continues next season he’ll need to think of hiring an OC so he can focus on the whole picture, and another coach on the offense. This goes for Saleh for this year and if he’s here next year, to focus. They both have done pretty well…but they need to focus a bit harder, adjust and not let the pedal off the metal.
Whats on Shanny’s plate when he wins far more than he lose’s? I would like some of that.
Bottom line is Quinn’s staff out performed Shanny’s staff.
Agree.
Why doesn’t anybody give the punt returner a blocker to knock off the first guy down?? It’s always the first guy down that gives the returner the most trouble. Plus a blocker can help the returner call a fair catch so he can concentrate on catching the ball. Is it illegal to have two back to catch punts, nobody does it.
Is Shanny saying that Alexander could be the other player besides Street to return from IR even though he wasn’t initially given that designation?
His energy alone in the playoffs would give the team an energy unknown to man kind!
Yea, but I thought you had to be one of two players designated for return in order to come back off IR. I don’t think it’s possible unless there’s a stipulation I’m missing….
You don’t actually designate the player.
So as long as you haven’t activated 2 players off of IR, you are allowed to bring back a player. Did not know that. I remember Ray Lewis came back for the playoffs, but I thought he received that “designation” to return, which wasn’t that new of a rule back then….
Correct. Any 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZwnJ_LJ8oU
On to the Rams. I don’t envision this defense getting any better on a short week, and if this offensive line can’t get it together, we may be looking at another nail biter ending in futility….
I have nightmares thinking of A A Ron lining up as nose tackle over Garland or 2-tech over Persons or in the A gap between the two…..
Yes, Quinn outcoached KS. It was almost as if he read what I wrote, and followed my strategies to a tee.
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Quinn considered time outs to be precious, and saved them until the last 2 minutes of the half. That helped him win.
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Quinn used a red flag, for a legitimate challenge. KS wasted a time out on a bad challenge.
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Quinn attacked the edges. He played to their strengths, and avoided their weaknesses. He did not run into the teeth of the defense.
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KS went passive and vanilla. He had 3 WR sets, and did not target a WR. He called for ghost motions 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, which made the defense’s job so much easier. KS’ team helped defeat themselves with all the unforced errors.
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But most importantly, Quinn went bold, and did not settle for field goals. The Niners settled for field goals, and lost. The Niners should have gone for it on 4th down on the 25. If successful, they had a 2 point lead, and could run out the clock. The risk/reward calculations favor being bold.
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However, the Niners were 3 inches from winning the game. I am glad KS admitted the coaching could have been better, and I hope this is a wake up call. The lack of aggression in the play calling, on both offense and defense, was alarming.
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If the Niners had gone for it in the Seahawks, Ravens and Falcons games, with less than 2 yards to go on 4th down, they could have been 14-0. If KS had just run the ball in overtime, with the Seahawks out of time outs, he could have secured a tie. KS accepts those defeats, but he needs to learn to manage the clock and game better, if he wants to win when it counts.
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The Niners should have several plays that can get 1,2 or 3 yards. JG should run up to the line of scrimmage, and do a quick varied count to possibly catch the defense off guard, or draw them off sides, for an easy first down. This requires detailed preparations. KS needs to have enough confidence in his team, so he believes they can make 1 or 2 yards.
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Some think that making it twice as hard to win is smart. Guess his wish is coming true.
4 Pro Bowl starters: Bosa, Juszczyk, Furious George , and Uncle Sherm.
8 Alternates: Armstead, Buck, Jimmy G, Raheem ‘the Dream’, Richburg, Staley, Jimmie Ward, and Warner.
Good haul!
And Sebs was against every one of these picks at one time or the other…………
“Guess Sebs doesn’t like winning”.
And I have been cheering for them many times, hoping that they help win games.
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They are not perfect, and cannot be criticized. They all have room to improve.
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You think I do not like winning? What planet are you from? I am jumping for joy that they are back in the playoffs.
“Yes, Quinn outcoached KS. It was almost as if he read what I wrote, and followed my strategies to a tee.”
Seb, please turn around so we can all pat you on the back. You are something else.
Reading stuff like this just pisses me off……when the f…k is our genius coach going to grow up…….
I thought he learn’t a lesson in New Orleans……be ready to score 40 points a game no matter the opponent……how f…k hard is this to understand……
Kshanny lacks the killer instinct….