(Inaudible) the ability to go up and down the field as quickly as you did.
"All game long they had a good game plan coming in. It was great. I love it when they blitz us like that, it makes everything a lot easier. I think we took advantage of it in the right way and got some big plays out of it."
Did it make your choices easier? Where you're going with the ball with the ball when you blitz.
"When they blitz like that it creates holes in the defense. They have guys dropping and doing responsibilities that they're not used to. It's good matchups for us."
Did you think when you get the ball back with just over a minute left, is it the same old thing? Or is it a different kind of feel?
"Obviously there's a lot of excitement in the stadium today. The crowd was on fire. Especially at the end there with the defense. I've never heard them that loud in my short time here. It was a good 2-minute drill, a lot of good execution across the board. Every guy stepping up in their own way. I thought the line did a great job today. Just through and through giving me time. Like you said, they brought a lot of pressure. I thought they did a phenomenal job for us."
Staying with the run wasn't that effective, did that help you out just in terms of having balance on play action?
"Yeah. The time of possession I saw a little while ago was in our favor which is always a good thing. It helps our defense out. It helps our offense get a rhythm. Finishing drives is really where we have to get to right now."
WR Marquise Goodwin is probably playing the best football of his career. Early in the season before you got here he might've had some issues catching some passes. Where does your confidence in him stem from?
"Just the hard work he puts in. 'Quise is one of the first guys that came up when I first got here and said hi to me and introduced himself. He's just a hard worker, you really got to tip your hat to that. The extra time that we put in, not even just with him, but with all the skill position players. The extra meetings we have, the stuff in practice, the extra routes, it's starting to pay off now."
This is you guys third comeback win now in three games for you. Does this feel competitive? Like it's kind of funny like, 'Welp here we go again' kind of thing?
"Well, we'd like to win by a lot. That would make things a lot easier. I said this a couple weeks ago when we won in Chicago, we're a young team and we're learning how to win. I think these close games will only pay off in the long run. For next year and everything, we're not looking that far ahead, but it's good to be in these close games. There's different ways to win in this league. It's not always going to be pretty, you got to grind it out sometimes."
Did you have a message? Do you say something to the offense or do you kind of go out and let things happen?
"I always say something to the offense before every drive, I'm always talking on the sideline. That's one thing that our offense does a good job of. There's a lot of talking to each other, communicating what we saw out there. It helps us in the next drive. There was a lot of confidence coming into that last drive. We moved the ball well all day. We just needed to get in field goal range for [K] Robbie [Gould], and he took care of the rest."
What was your message before the last drive?
"I don't even remember to be honest. One of those guys might remember. We had to execute. Two-minute drill comes down to execution at the end of the day. All the excitements going on and you just have to stay cool and go execute."
With all that excitement, the fans, the players and everything. Do you try to ride that excitement? Or do you try to dial back and be calm?
"It's awesome for the fans to be excited. As a quarterback, I don't know, I'm pretty even-keeled to begin with. Just go out there, we knew what we had to do. We had to execute. We knew what yard line we had to get to, how many timeouts we had and all that stuff. There are a lot of variables involved in it, so you're thinking of a lot of stuff. But, I think it played out well."
In the 3rd quarter, I think you guys had one possession, they had the ball for like 12 minutes. How much did hitting that big one to Celek kind of maybe get you guys back on track just because you'd been off the field for so long?
"Yeah, Celek time. That guy, he always finds a way. It was a big play. There was multiple big plays today. [WR] K.B. [Kendrick Bourne] had a big one, the over the middle throw to him. There was guys stepping up all over the place. That's what makes a good team. We're building towards that. We just have to keep it going week in and week out."
All of your teammates have talked about how they knew you were going to be good when you came here, but you've exceeded their expectations. Have you exceeded yours in any way?
"I set pretty high expectations for myself, and I hold myself to a pretty high standard. It's a work in progress. We still have two games left in this season. We've got a really good team coming in here next week. So, we have to keep preparing. Going out to practice, having good practices. I think that's playing a huge role in this. We go out Wednesday through Friday, and we really put in the time. It's starting to pay off."
You mentioned wanting to punch the ball in to get seven instead of three on these drives. What do you think the next step is to get to that level in the offense?
"I'm not exactly sure. The coaching staff, they work extremely hard. They give us great opportunities and put us in good situations. We as players have to go capitalize on them. It's not one specific thing, I think it's a multitude of different things. I think we're going in the right direction. It's a hard situation, third down in the red zone. They're very specific, and things have to go perfectly. We're still working towards it, and it's something for us to improve on."
You say anything to Robbie before he goes out and kicks it?
"Absolutely not. He's in the zone, I know how that is. I don't know how that is for him [laughter]. Just going out for the two-minute drill, we went and handled our business, and he handled his. That's what a good team does."
What's your leadership style? And how do you go about coming in the middle of the season and trying to win the respect of your teammates?
"I don't know, I never really sat back and tried to figure out my leadership style. I think it just kind of comes naturally. I try to go out there and help the guys around me be as good as they can be and put them in a good situation to win. I think that's ultimately what makes a good quarterback."
This is your third start. First time you've been able to start three games in a row in the NFL. How much fun are you having?
"It's fun. It is very fun. Football at the end of the day is a little kids game that grown men get to play. I'm just privileged to get to do that every day."
* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers
