"Yeah, that's on me as the play caller but I just really wasn't confident. You lost [TE] Vance [McDonald]. You lost [WR] Torrey [Smith]. You've got two new guys in there on the offensive line. I was making sure we were good with protection. They were bringing a lot of zero blitzes. You've got to get the ball off quick. Make sure that we've got the guys picked up, but yeah that's on me."
Do you agree with it?
"Yeah. I agree with it."
Chip Kelly Reviews the 49ers Performance vs. NYJ
What about your decision to go for it there on fourth-and-1?
"We were outside of, [K] Phil [Dawson] needed it inside the 34. We were as close as possible. I didn't want to punt in that situation. I didn't want to give the ball back to them. I thought with a yard that we had a shot the way [RB] Carlos [Hyde] was running. That was the one thing that was moving for us offensively was Carlos running the ball. Hopefully we can get a conversion there. It was a little bit outside of Phil's range and we had already missed two on the day. It was my call."
"I think today we had some injuries upfront. Obviously, losing [C Daniel] Danny [Kilgore], who's kind of the rock solid guy in the middle that takes care of things and we had already shuffled the line. Then you lost Vance, really the kind of the guy who we try to get in the one-on-one matchups at the tight end spot. We started off, I think specifically in the first drive of the second half, we had a big drop right to start. We had a guy open. Hit him. [QB Colin] Kap [Kaepernick] does a good job. Puts the ball on him. Hits him and then we're kind of behind and then we're scrambling from there a little bit. Obviously, they are loading the box just because we not able to--."
My point is, it's not just this game.
"I was answering your question if you'd let me finish."
I'm sorry. Okay. Please.
"I was just explaining what went on in the beginning of the third quarter. With those guys out, they were loading the box so we were trying to run the ball a little bit obviously just to take some pressure off the receivers and the offensive line. So that's kind of where we were in that situation."
May I go now?
My question was more extensive than that. It was not only today, but you've now lost 12 in a row and it seems you don't perform generally as well in the second half on offense or defense as the first and I wonder if you have a theory about that?
"No. I look at it game to game. So, I would look at this game. I would give you specifically what happened in this game so I know exactly what happened in this game."
Did the first half look like you expected the offense to look the whole season?
"No, we didn't think we could, I was really, to be honest with you a little bit surprised at how well we ran the ball. They were the fourth best rush defense coming in, but there are a couple things we try to do scheme-wise to take advantage of some of the things they were doing and they popped. I don't know what Carlos had, I think he had seven carries. It was over 100 yards on those. So, we had the long runs. When they commit that many people to the line of scrimmage, if the ball does get through to the second level there's a chance for it to pop and that's what he did. I thought he ran well in those situations and that's what we were trying to scheme up a little bit in the run game."
Were you disappointed with your defense's tackling today?
"Well, I think they got worn down. They were on the field too much because our offense couldn't sustain and stay on the field. So, I think that's kind of a bye-product to be honest with you."
"Well again, I think that's part of it. When you're making decisions on where you're trying to throw the ball and who's going to be able to get open. They're rushing and bringing as many guys as they can and gonna play zero coverage behind it. Who do we have an opportunity to get open here and give ourselves an opportunity to get that? We had one earlier but they put [New York Jets CB Darrelle] Revis inside. We tried to throw the slant route and they made a nice play on [WR Quinton Patton] QP and made a good play on the ball. You try to look at the matchups to see who you can get in the one-on-one situations when we get an opportunity to get open."
There was a report this morning that general manager Trent Baalke is likely to be fired. Just given the way this season has gone, do you have confidence that you and Trent are the right team moving forward for this team?
"Yeah, I have tremendous confidence in Trent. I have not heard anything about that."
Pass rush has been kind of an issue from the last few games. But, you guys had a better pass rush today.
"Yeah, I thought [DL DeForest Buckner] Buck specifically, I thought DeForest did a really nice job in there. We did something's on the edge to kind of free some guys up and [defensive coordinator] Jimmy [O'Neil] put those guys in position to make plays and some guys did. Trying to get after a young quarterback in [QB Bryce] Petty. But I thought our rush was better than it has been in the past."
Was it more a speed difference or was it more--?
You look at the second half performances game to game, some people would say that the pattern has been a lack of, that affects the second half, of half time adjustments. Would you say that's fair?
"No. I wouldn't say that's fair."
You did say it was on you, the play calling in the second half?
"Yeah."
Implies you would do it differently if you had to do it over again?
"Well, I think we all when we go back and look at the film you can always second guess yourself and that's what I think we always do is second guess yourself. Just like the last call of the game. As I told the guys, that ones on me. It's my responsibility. I made the call for us to go for it with the ball on the 36-yard line, fourth-and-one and we didn't get it. So I made the wrong decision in that situation. It's all on me."
"Well, my job is to make sure I know if our players can execute and obviously we didn't. So, that's on me. I made the wrong call."
You mentioned how much the defense was on the field. They had the ball for 42 minutes. Was part of the thinking on fourth down, 'I don't want to give them the ball'?
"Yeah, I was a little concerned about putting our defense back out on the field in that situation and obviously in the overtime rules, you kick a field goal there's an opportunity for the other team to go back out there and match it. So, we could take a little bit of pressure off of them by converting offensively. We didn't take any pressure off our defense in the second half because of the three-and-outs. I think we had a three-and-out then a six-and-out then a three-and-out. We weren't helping our defense at all on the offensive side of the ball. I thought we were that close and we're going to be that close and down that far in that you've got a shot and then you get a first down there and at least you've got the ball into field goal range and we could work the clock a little bit longer in that situation and give our defense a chance to rest."
* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers
