How are you doing?
"Okay."
What do you think kind of took you guys out of offense early? Was it the pressure you were getting and inability to hit those deep strikes?
"I think we missed a few opportunities early and you've got to take advantage of those when they're there. The penalties, shot ourselves in the foot with a few of those and you're behind schedule which is tough against a defense like that. We were battling uphill and a lot of it had to do with our own mistakes and not so much exactly what they were doing. Obviously, you got to give them credit, they played tough all game and made it tough on us. So, it's a combination of those things."
Had that catch been made on the first series, do you think the game is different from then on?
"It's hard to look back hindsight and say, 'Hey, maybe he catches it and we score.' Who knows? They played us tough. Obviously it would help to get the rhythm going. But, there's not going to be just one play that we look to and say, 'Hey this was it.' There's going to be a lot of plays that we look to and say, 'Hey we all got to be better.' We got to improve. We got to do it quick too because we have a tough challenge next week."
What happened to the play you were intercepted, could you take us through that?
"I just didn't see [Carolina Panthers LB] Luke [Kuechly]. Knowing him, we tried to hard play action sell. Usually we throw that route to a receiver so we were thinking maybe he would go the other way. I came off and I know we got the first guy, I just didn't see him. It's tough. You come off the play action and you just have to know. When you're playing a guy like him you got to make sure. I thought we had it and we didn't."
He didn't bite at all?
"We thought he would go the other way based on his previous times playing and his smarts. Usually he would drop under the receivers instead of the tight end. Like I said, I just got to make sure of that and see him."
When you're dealing with pressure in the middle, is there anything you can do to get the ball out quicker?
"Well you always try to for sure. They did a good job playing a lot of zone defense. They didn't play much man until the end. That's when we hit [WR] Pierre [Garçon] on a few of those plays. We hit [TE] [George] Kittle on a play when it was man. When they're playing zone they're going to take away some of your quickies you throw. So, you got to try to make your read through the defense. It was tough, give credit to them. They gave us a big challenge and we know we got to go tomorrow and watch the film and correct it and get ready to move on."
LB Reuben Foster leaves the game on a cart, obviously a serious injury to a teammate. Does that reverberate onto the offensive side even though he's a linebacker?
"We talked about this with [LB] [Donavin] Newsom in training camp. When something serious like that happens, you feel for your teammate. Especially a guy like Reuben who we all love. I don't think that that reverberated as much as you say, 'Man that sucks for him and it sucks for us," but you got to move on. It's next man up. It was good to see him walk back out. Maybe, hopefully, it wasn't as serious as we previously thought. When we're going through a game we're so focused on Carolina's defense, you see it and you say, 'Aw man that sucks.' Then you try to get back to what you need to handle."
The 4th down where you got the delay, were you aware of the clock?
"I thought the reason we were going back out there to run it was – because the clock had been running down, I thought they had reset it. I just was absent minded and thought we had enough time. That's on me. It's something that I don't usually let happen. So, I got to do a better job at that."
Did you hear Head Coach Kyle Shanahan yelling timeout, timeout?
"No, I didn't. They gave us kind of a funky look for that play. I was thinking about getting back in the shotgun and then I said, you know what I'm just going to run it. I wasn't really focused on the clock. So, that's on me."
Time ran out on you also at the two-minute warning in the first half, what happened there?
"We were just running a play. We weren't in two-minute mode. I think we were still in a base offense type play. We were trying to get one last play off and it was a check with me type play. So, you had to wait to see what the defense was doing."
I noticed TE George Kittle in motion a lot on 1st and 2nd down, what was the offense trying to achieve with that movement?
"They are going to set their front to a particular way. So, we had to do something with that. Also, with George, with his skillset you want to be able to move him around. So, that had a lot to do with it too."
How were you feeling generally with plays coming in via radio? Were there some times when it was a little late?
"No, I don't think so. I thought it was good."
Is important not to get shut out? Or, does that matter to you?
"Yeah, obviously it matters. It was probably as disappointing as it could've been. Obviously it's always good to get points on the board. But, when you get it handed to you like that you just got to go in, figure out what's wrong, make the corrections and move on. We got seven more days until our next game. We've got to make the corrections and get it right before we go up to Seattle."
When this roster was trimmed down obviously TE Vance McDonald was traded, but you have a rookie starting at tight end. You have WR Trent Taylor getting playing time. WR Kendrick Bourne got some playing time. Were you surprised initially when the roster was trimmed down? How young your offensive weapons are?
"No, I don't think so. I think we're a young team in general anyways. Obviously they drafted George and they drafted Trent for obvious reasons. Guys like Kendrick and [WR] Victor Bolden, I know he wasn't active today, but they earned their spot, [RB] Matt Breida. Those guys all earned their jobs, and earned the right to be here. I feel just as confident about them now as I did when they made the team. It's a learning process. They're always going to be learning, just like everybody else is too. It's my ninth year, you're still always learning. I think that's the attitude you have to take. I wasn't shocked at all. I knew those guys had don't a great job and had earned the right to be on our team."
A lot of pressure coming right up the middle, how much is that just attributed to the Panthers defensive line and how much do you think you guys need to work on that?
"It's always a constant work in progress, but this is the NFL. You have to give the other team credit too. They have [Carolina Panthers DT] Kawann Short. The two linebackers they have in the middle, they blitzed them a few times. I know the one, I had to get rid of the ball early, [DL] Julius Peppers wrapped in there. They've got a tough front seven. We knew it was going to be a tough challenge for us. We'll go back, watch it and get as much corrected as we can and get ready to go towards Seattle."
* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers
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