You've been in this situation before with people saying, 'What's wrong with the quarterback?' 'Hey, should we replace the quarterback?' You've been here.
"Yeah, I've been through it all."
How do you deal with the inevitable criticism that comes with the job?
"First of all, you don't listen to it. You worry about what your coaches are trying to teach you, trying to help you get better. Just keep getting better, really. I think that's what it comes down to. It was a tough game and now we move on. Thankfully, this week we get to move on really quick and move on to LA."
There are offenses struggling throughout the NFL. How much of it can be attributed to this is early in the season and it takes a little while for things to kind of get going?
"You never want to give an excuse. I think that's the one thing. You never want to let people say, 'Well he made an excuse,' or anything. For us, it's just going out and executing. Starting with the quarterback and everywhere else down the line. Every position. I think the one thing about offense is you can have a great play and if one guy is off by just a fraction of an inch it could be the difference. I think we all have to, you know, especially starting with me, just go out and execute a lot better."
It does seem like several instances there are plays where the offense does seem an inch or two off. Do you guys feel like you're close to having it start to click?
"Yeah, I think so. When you watch the film and you see you're an inch off here, an inch off there, I think that always drives you to be better. It drives you to be that much better. An inch better, one play better. One play can change a game. I think that's what has really driven us. Like I said, luckily for us this week coming off of a poor performance we can get back out there really quick."
Is there enough carryover from week-to-week in your game plan that makes, you talk about coming back on a short week, you're looking forward, grateful that this is a short week, does it make it less of a transition week-to-week?
"I think it depends on the defense you're going against. I think if you're going against a similar defense week-to-week from one week to the next, maybe you keep some stuff in that maybe didn't get called. If you're going against a complete difference defense you have to change your stuff up. Going against Seattle last week, they're a heavy zone team. This week we're playing what we would anticipate being more of a man team. So, you have to switch some things up. But, I think on a short week [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] has experience with it. Getting a plan we're going to feel comfortable with. Knowing we only really have today and the rest of tomorrow to really put it in and walk through it and get out there and play on Thursday night."
The fact that you like the short turnaround, it's more or less to not let it fester?
"Yeah. You get to put the last one behind you and move on to the next."
When you say you're just going to block out the noise, maybe this week you didn't have time to read his stories--?
"I never do it. No. I guess you just threw him under the bus."
Do you ever really pay attention to what's being written?
"No, I don't. Ever. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Even going back to college. You might want to read stuff when it's good. But, if you're going to read it when it's good then you might as well read it when it's bad. If you're just not going to read anything at all, or not watch anything at all that's probably the best method to do it."
When you have a performance that you're unhappy with and you go back and watch the tape, do you dissect the mistakes that you thought you made intricately or is it something where you just maybe skip over it?
"No. You definitely look at it. Sometimes they're more obvious than others. Other times we're talking about a matter of inches. Whether it's with your feet, your arm angle, things like that. The more detailed you can be and the more scrutinous you can be on yourself, that allows you a chance to really correct those mistakes. If you just skip over it, I think that's kind of hiding those things and not being tough on yourself."
Kyle said yesterday it wasn't really part of the game plan to take shots downfield given the nature of Seattle's defense. Do you anticipate that changing this week to try to extend the defense there?
"Well, I'm not going to get into our game plan. I don't want to give anything away. I think there's always plays like that in the offense. It's just a matter of, this week being a short week can we get those in? We're not going to get a chance to get a lot of live reps because guys are still recovering. So, getting deep ball reps in the game, it's a week-to-week basis. We'll see what it is. Sometimes you have them in the play calls but you never get the right defense to run them against. Kind of what we talked about in the preseason you guys were asking where are all the deep balls. We had them, we just didn't have the right looks to throw them. It's always a combination of having the right play called against the right defense when it comes to that."
How hard is it to execute and be successful when the looks are dictating that you have to really throw short almost every time?
"I think you've just got to get completions and move the chains. I think that's the one thing we've got to do as an entire offense is stay on the field longer. Our defense is doing a great job. Keep them off the field. Keep them fresh. For us, it would be great to just go out and sustain a drive. I think if we take it one play at a time then we'll be able to do that."
What have you seen from the Rams defense, especially with Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald now back?
"Yeah, we saw him back last week. Obviously, he's one of the best three-techniques that are in the league. You can see him making some plays in there. I think overall just an athletic team who's playing a good scheme. [Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator] Wade Philips always has a really well-coached scheme. He lets those guys fly around and make plays. You can see that on film and in that first game they got real quick and got some turnovers and things like that. They're definitely a talented and physical, speedy defense."
One of the more aggressive teams you'll see you think?
"I don't know. Carolina was pretty aggressive. They're definitely there. They're well coached. Anytime a defense is led by Wade Philips you know they're going to be really well coached."
What was your assessment of OL Laken Tomlinson in his first game?
"I thought he did a good job. First game, I mean really he had only been in the system for a few weeks, really. To step up, especially against that team, I thought he played well."
* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers
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