SANTA CLARA — Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Thursday afternoon. Here is a transcript, courtesy of the 49ers’ P.R. department. Opening comments: “Good afternoon. Another Division game. The NFC West is, it’s a dogfight every week, just as we foresaw. A lot of physical play going on. Arizona Cardinals doing a great job on defense. Number one against the run. When you look at their front with…
SAN FRANCISCO – Here are my grades for the 49ers. They almost blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, but ended up beating the Falcons 34-24. KAEPERNICK: B. His passer rating was 108.6 and he ran for 51 yards and a touchdown against a terrible defense. He also completed just 13 passes, and only a few of his completions actually hit his intended receiver in stride. All night, receivers had to adjust…
SANTA CLARA — Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Friday afternoon. Here is a transcript courtesy of the 49ers’ P.R. department. Opening comments: “Good afternoon. We’ve got the Atlanta Falcons coming in. It’s obviously a big day, historic day, Monday night, Candlestick Park, I think it speaks for itself. But, we know what the Atlanta Falcons are capable of. It was less than one year ago that we looked up…
Trent Dilfer answered questions about the 49ers’ offense Wednesday morning on 95.7 The Game. Here is a transcript. Q: After last game, Michael Crabtree talked openly about wanting the ball more. He was visibly frustrated after a couple of plays. How does a quarterback handle that? DILFER: After you learn the hard way early in your career how to deal with it, you kind of like it. You want a…
SANTA CLARA — Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Thursday afternoon. Here is a transcript courtesy of the 49ers’ P.R. department. Opening comments: “Getting ready to play a very talented Tampa team. It’s kind of an interesting season for them, certainly. It’s really been an interesting year for a lot of teams. But, they’re playing at a really high level lately. When you turn on the film, these…
SAN FRANCISCO – Here are my grades for the 49ers’ 19-17 win over the Seahawks. KAEPERNICK: D+. He was pretty good in the first half and awful for most of the second half until his 8-yard run to seal the win on third-and-7 at the end of the fourth quarter. That’s why I give him the “plus.” He missed wide open receivers all game and completed just 52 percent of…
Last season when the 49ers played the Seahawks at Candlestick, Frank Gore gained 131 yards on 16 carries. 18 of those yards came on one “wham” play, and 48 of those yards came on two “trap” plays. On the wham play, the 49ers let Alan Branch penetrate the backfield and Bruce Miller blindsided him with a wham block. Gore ran right up the middle for 18. On the first trap…
SANTA CLARA — Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Thursday afternoon. Here is a transcript. Opening comments: “Afternoon. Big division game this week. Very good defense we’re about to face starting with their D-line. They’ve got a lot of depth on their D-line. They roll them through, keep them fresh. Do a nice job starting with [Seahawks DT Brandon] Mebane in the middle. Not a guy you hear…
SANTA CLARA – At his Thursday press conference, Greg Roman answered a question about Michael Crabtree. Here is a transcript. Q: On Crabtree’s long play, did you put that in especially for him coming back? Was that installed last week just for that? ROMAN: “A little bit. Yeah, we felt really good about him doing it. For sure. Really saw something that alluded to that being a good play. And…
SANTA CLARA – At his Thursday press conference, Greg Roman answered a question about Colin Kaepernick. Here is a transcript. Q: Whether it is through play calling or what you instruct him during the week, do you guys limit how many times he runs with the football in regular season games? ROMAN: “No comment. I really don’t think so. We don’t want him carrying the ball every play if that…
Greg Roman was interviewed on KNBR Tuesday morning. Here is a transcript. Q: How different are the Seahawks at home as opposed to on the road? ROMAN: There is no question when opposing offenses go up into that stadium, a lot of times they’re a fraction of a second late off the ball because of the crowd noise. That will happen. I definitely think that the crowd noise has an…
SAN FRANCISCO – Here are the 49ers’ grades for their 23-13 win over the Rams. KAEPERNICK: A-. This was the most accurate Kaepernick has thrown the ball since Week 1 against the Packers. Kaepernick completed 68 percent of his passes for 9.8 yards per attempt against the Rams. My only knock on him is he did not play well on third down – the 49ers converted just 4 of 12…
SANTA CLARA — Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Friday afternoon. Here is a transcript. Q: How much did the Saints overextend themselves to stop your running game? ROMAN: They did definitely made a heavy investment in it, and we pretty much forecasted that. It was definitely an extreme investment on their part. We felt that they would do that. They mixed it up, though, throughout the game. It…
Here is my Tuesday column on Kaepernick’s season of regression. The following play epitomizes how inept the 49ers’ offense has become: Eight minutes left in the second quarter against the Saints. Play No. 2 of drive No. 6 for the Niners. Colin Kaepernick lines up under center and waves his left arm to silently signal the third-string tight end, Derek Carrier, to shift to the slot. Carrier isn’t looking. Kaepernick…
NEW ORLEANS – Here are my grades for the 49ers’ 23-20 loss to the Saints. KAEPERNICK: C-. Kaepernick passed the ball well. He was 6-for-15 on third down and 2-for-3 in the red zone. His worst pass was an interception, but it didn’t cost the team anything. Kaepernick ran down the defender and made him dive for the end zone and the defender fumbled the ball out of the back…
Here is my Friday column previewing the 49ers’ upcoming game against the Saints. SANTA CLARA – Greg Roman made the Sonny Corleone mistake at his press conference on Thursday. Sonny Corleone opened his mouth in front of Sollozzo in “Godfather I,” expressed interest in dealing narcotics without consulting the Don. So, Sollozzo knew there was discord in the Corleone family and used it against them. Sonny broke the omerta, the…
Here is my Thursday column explaining how to improve the 49ers pass game. SANTA CLARA – What would you say Eric Mangini does for the 49ers? They hired him in the offseason to be an offensive consultant, but the offense keeps getting worse. I asked Jim Harbaugh what the Mangenius does and Harbaugh said, “Several things,” and listed none of them. So I assume Mangini does nothing. Jim, you need…
SANTA CLARA – Greg Roman spoke in the media tent Thursday afternoon. Here is a transcript. ROMAN: I know how hard it is to play down there in the dome. They’ve been very successful down there. Their defense is playing at a very high level right now, ranked very high in a lot of different categories. They play complementary team football with their offense and an aggressive scheme. They’re very…
Wednesday morning on KNBR, Greg Cosell discussed the 49ers’ upcoming game against the Saints. Here is a transcript. COSELL: “When you start to play better teams, you’re going to have to have the passing dimension, and right now (the 49ers) are a one-dimensional offense with almost no passing dimension. It came back and it caught them this week against a better team. “You’re dealing with an extremely talented kid (Kaepernick)….
SANTA CLARA — I asked Jim Harbaugh three questions at his Monday press conference. Here are those questions and his answers. I’ll post the rest of the transcript shortly. GC: The offense ran one screen – it was a pass to Kyle Williams in the second quarter on a third-and-twenty-something. Why not call screens more often in this game and in general? HARBAUGH: That’s not a bad point. Point well…
