Fred Warner entered Week 5 with a nagging concern. He hadn't yet gotten his hands on a turnover this season. Determined to change that, the San Francisco 49ers linebacker decided to tweak his week of preparation leading into the face-off with the Dallas Cowboys.
His adjustment paid off. Warner and the defense were dominant, helping lift the 49ers to a remarkable 42-10 victory. During an appearance on FOX Sports' "Speak for Yourself," Warner revealed what he changed to turn things around.
"Back in my second season—I'm going to take us back a little bit—we added a guy by the name of Kwon Alexander, and he meant a lot to me as a teammate, as a friend, and he brought a lot of things out of me," Warner shared. "And I learned a lot from him. When he came onto our team, he started doing this thing where he would carry a football around. And he carried it around on the plane, around the building, carry a football around. I started doing that, just like he did.
"I stopped doing it a little while ago. I was doing it along with him back when he was here, I stopped doing it. We didn't have any takeaways this past game against the Cardinals. And for whatever reason, I'm like, 'Man, you know what? I need to do something to get this ball back on my mind,' because it's hovering around me. I'm tipping a ball up to [S Talanoa Hufanga] almost every game. Like, Man, I need to get me one. It's my turn."
Warner finished the game with eight tackles, a sack, a tackle for a loss, a quarterback hit, an interception, a pass defensed, and a forced fumble. The All-Pro player was doing it all against the Cowboys, and it all started with returning to the ritual he once shared with Alexander.
"So, I held that football in my arm all week long, man, around the building, and had it on my mind leading all the way up until that first snap," Warner said. "And to say that I was thinking about that punch-out when I had it on [RB Tony Pollard], it really wasn't even a thought about it. It was just a reaction. It was an instinct that happened when I got to him.
"And if you watch me throughout that entire game, I'm trying to punch a ball out. I'm trying to do whatever I can to help the team win."
