San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen and offensive line/run game coordinator Chris Foerster spoke to reporters before Thursday's practice as the team prepares for its Week 12 matchup against the Green Bay Packers. Here's everything they said.
Transcripts provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
49ers Defensive Coordinator Nick Sorensen
On the Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith touchdown, it seemed like there was a lot of confusion before that play. You had guys pointing around, you lost gap integrity and the quarterback rumbled for the touchdown. What did you see on the play? What was the breakdown?
"Yeah, we did lose a gap just in the rush lanes, but our guys are always pointing. I emphasize the heck out of that. I think they're communicating. So just when it's going fast, you need to be pointing and communicating and signaling. That's what was happening there is our guys were getting lined up and communicating the call because I talk to [LB] Fred [Warner] and we signal across the board. There could be combinations within a coverage or man-to-man where you have signals as well. I think you see that on tape too with pretty much everybody. When it's going fast, that's what's going to happen is guys communicating and then we just need to finish at the end."
Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love started the season with a knee injury and then he had a groin injury, and he was saying this week he's just starting to feel mobile again and like he could be himself. Can you see that?
"You can see it. He's a guy that's always been able to move around enough to make plays and he will. He's a competitive player. Like, he'll duck his head and try and get a first down with his legs. But the way that he can move around and still chuck it down the field to receivers that can go get it, it's impressive. You are starting to see it. He's highly productive. It's a really good system and they've got all the pieces to fit starting with the running back and the run game that they have."
Do you expect CB Charvarius Ward to be able to kind of make it back to the field this week? He's been able to practice, but I know you and head coach Kyle Shanahan said that he didn't have really any expectations for Ward given he was dealing with something so heavy.
"Yeah, I echo that. So we'll see."
How is Green Bay Packers RB Josh Jacobs unique? Kyle said he's as good as it gets.
"Unique is that I think he truly trusts the system and he's very physical and you see the jump cuts, but he doesn't just jump cut to just go wherever. I always feel like he's just going to the right place because if you're watching it, he's just bouncing, no he's going a gap at a time because he's jump cutting to get to. He's got such tight cuts that he'll get vertical. Everything's about getting vertical and he is very, very powerful. He's got great contact balance and I just have a lot of respect for the way that he run because that really fits their scheme, stretching you out, cut it up, he can cut it back, he can bounce it out when they're just running these direct runs with double teams. He's doing it the right way and I have a lot of respect for him really for the last few years. He's a really good back."
There is familiarity with the Green Bay Packers playing in the last couple years and of course between Kyle and Green Bay Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur. Is there a danger of outthinking yourself in terms of when the way they run their system and the way you run your system?
"Right. It's true. There's similarities with really offense and defense on both sides with the systems, so you don't ever want to outthink yourself, but that's kind of the battle every week. You always start out with these ideas and you have to cancel them out. One, is it the best thing for this team in this game? And then you pair it down based on situations and then you pair it down even more thinking first and foremost that I always try and think of is the players. You can can drop all these millions of cool plays and cool defenses. Oh, we can do this to this and this, but yeah, are the players going to be able to execute it? If you can't do that, then there's no point in adding 25 new blitzes. You need to do stuff that you can do well and you can execute it and they're comfortable with and we're all comfortable with coaching it to that you're really tight, you're really sound and the guys can play fast. So try not to overthink it as much as possible."
I've seen numbers where you guys blitz like 31st-most in the league, 16-percent or something around there. What's your philosophy on blitzing and why is that the right approach with this particular defense that you're running?
"Well, I think there's always a time and a place. I'd like to be aggressive. I just think it depends on the situation. I think every game's different, every situation's different. And when you have a team that you can keep stuff in front of you and you have guys that you believe in the rush with four guys that can go get it, it just depends on the situation and the game."
How much did that change, or does it change, when you don't have DL Nick Bosa for an extended period of time like you did on Sunday? What did you kind of learn from that?
"Yeah, it can change. It just depends. It's not just about who you have, it's also who you're going against too."
There's no doubt that Fred Warner is a one of your best players on defense, but in the first half of the season he wasn't allowing as many catches as he is at this point. What have you seen from him in the second half of the games that you've played so far?
"I guess I haven't really noticed that part of it. I still think he's doing a great job. He's the engine. He's the one that makes everything go and he was just making a lot more plays. I think more stuff was coming to him. I don't think he's changed much. He's still attacking the ball, sometimes they just don't get thrown your way."
QB Brandon Allen's been running scout team this season, except for maybe the last few days. I know scout team, you're focused on your defense, but any kind of report on him? What have you thought of him as a quarterback?
"I've always liked him. I think he did really good last year when he was doing stuff. He has been in the league a long time. He's played in a lot of systems. He's got a great arm. He's a good quarterback."
In the beginning of games, your defense is starting really fast. I think you're fourth in the league in points allowed in the first quarter, but in the fourth quarter you're 28th in the league. Is that about fatigue? It's a lot of games at this point, so you start to paint the picture. What's the reason for the fourth quarter?
"Just got to evaluate it all. I don't think it's one thing. I look at myself first, so I think I've just continually tried to tap into that and what exactly it is. I think we've been beating it up and talking about it over and over again. I just think we need to coach it better and execute better and just finish better as a team."
What's unique about Jordan Love?
"Unique? I think he's just gotten better. I think he just continues to get better. I think he gets smarter. He's making throws, he's giving his players opportunities to make catches when I think he knows when it's a good time. But he operates really fast. I think he understands the system and how the offense runs. So he does a lot of stuff on time and so he works through his progressions I think the right way. That's essential really I think with him and the running back. I think that's why it makes them a really good offense."
If you don't have Nick Bosa on the field Sunday, do you feel like you have the type of front four without him that can generate enough pressure where you don't have to try to manufacture more than you would otherwise?
"I think you never want to not have one of the best players in the NFL. I love the guys that we have and you're always prepared for any situation."
Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster
The Packers defensive front has four number-one picks on it. When you watch them on film, what stands out about their front four?
"Green Bay's always done a great job, to me, of prototypical guys. They have a standard, the length of the arms, the cut of the player, the speed, the agility, things like that. That's what stands out. They all are very well-put together, they're very well-coached and they all attack you. You can see all the talent in their body. Long arms, play with a high motor, good strength, they're able to push the pocket, they're able to get on your edges. They do a lot of good things on the front. They're really well-coached and they're a very good, talented group of guys."
Forgive me if I'm forcing a parallel here, but the last time you went to Green Bay, you weren't favored. Things in some ways look bleak. This is not a playoff game, circumstances are different, but it's gloom and doom and the sky is falling. Are there any sort of similarities or things you can draw from?
"Gloom and doom? I've never gone there in a gloom and doom game, so I wouldn't know what that is."
The media does.
"Okay. It's gloom and doom. Okay. When you have a good opponent on the road, they have a good record, they've won the close games, we haven't won the close games. We've got to get in there and do a great job. We have to play like we haven't, we have to play like we played when we've won. We've won games, we've done the right things, we've played the right things, we've stopped when we should, we make the conversions. When we don't, we don't. Every season is different. So five-and-five is, obviously we don't want to be at five-and-five. You can look at the games we've lost and say, 'Could we have won?' There are a thousand different ways to cut this thing up. The bottom line is, we have five losses and we have five wins and we're going up to play a tough opponent this week in Green Bay, a team that's won some close games this year, and a team that is a real challenge for us, obviously. Offensively, whatever they do. Defensively, our challenges is, like we just talked about, they have a really good front, they have a change in defensive philosophy, how they play is somewhat a little bit more similar to how we play, different than what they played in the past. That presents a great challenge. They're a very talented group. They've been taking the ball away. We've got to make sure we take care of the football. We've got to run the ball with consistency. Anytime you go on the road and have to have games that quote, unquote are must-wins, I'm not sure we're quite at must wins, but really need to win. You need to win every game. It becomes a challenge. And that's what the challenge is. The gloom and doom thing kind of threw me off. I'll get over it here in a minute. I'm being sarcastic. I just, I think it's so far from gloom, seven games left in the season is like an eternity. It feels like, because it's Thanksgiving, we've been doing this thing forever, and all of a sudden you're sitting here going, 'There are seven freaking games left. So much can happen in seven games.' Right? If you do the math, right, what was our record last year? 12-and-five. There are seven games left. And you'd say, what if it did happen, you'd be like, 'That's a weird way to get to 12-and-five,' and so was last year. [President of football operations/general manager] John Lynch made the comment, last year's team, it was funny. He was mad we were 12-and-five. We lost that last game to the Rams, kind of played it like a preseason game a little bit, played guys for a little bit and took them out. He goes, 'I was on a 13-win team that was nowhere near as good as this 12-win team was that we were on last year.' You know what I'm saying? And so, there are a lot of different ways to cut it up. There are a lot of ways to try to get in this thing. All we're trying to do is win one game. And after losing last week in a disappointing fashion, it'd be nice just to get back on track again and get a win this week."
That game, that win that was huge, massive, a playoff victory. What pops into your mind when you think of that game?
"Cold. Literally, I was freezing cold the whole game. What really pops to my mind is just what a team effort it was. A game that we had many opportunities. We drove down the field, all the back and forths in that game. And then that blocked field goal and the blocked punt and how exciting it was to win that game, in that atmosphere. It was actually one of the bucket list games for my family, and my wife who has since passed away, that was a bucket list game for her. And they went there in that game. All my kids were there, they were all up there sitting. They were at the top row of that stadium and you guys know it was freezing cold there, right? At halftime, when we came out at halftime and all of a sudden the snow started falling and it was just, it was a surreal moment. They were all, I'm going to get choked up, they were in tears at what a cool, cool, and then to win the game, are you kidding me? Oh my God, it was the greatest thing in the world. I grew up in Wisconsin, so Lambeau Field has a great mystique and aura to me and to win that game, in that environment, the snow falling, to see how they were, they literally, they were the last people on the stadium. The people came and said, 'You people have to leave.' They wanted to take it in for every last second. That's what that game is, because a playoff game in January in Lambeau and to win it, it has special meaning. Every game is special, but that was, that was a really cool game. So that's what comes back to me, personally."
I know the numbers have been pretty good for the run game, but you used the term just a minute ago, the consistency, run the ball consistently. How would you assess where the run game is right now?
"The same place the season is. Like I said, you can look at it as glass half empty or glass half full. It's like, we have a couple plays in every game where it's like, if we just see this or if we just block this one guy, and yet that's why you end up five-and-five, because you don't see it or you don't quite block it, and that's what it's been. It's just been that one or two or three plays that are different. Just like at the end of every game, somebody makes one play at the end of one of these games on defense or one play at the end of these games on offense, that's a whole different game. We convert on this, or we don't get a holding call here, but we're getting them right now. And the second you don't get them, all of a sudden one win becomes two, becomes three, becomes four. But if you keep going in the same cycle where somebody continues to not quite see it, and maybe it's just the way our camp went, maybe it's the way the beginning of the season, I don't know what it is and why we're playing like this, but we are. And we either get out of that cycle right now and it I see glass half full, because I see when we hit the things that we hit, all of a sudden there are explosive runs, there's finishing in the fourth quarter on offense with the defense not even needing to go back on the field. All those things can happen with consistency. But whether it's the runner, whether it's the blocker, every game it's three or four things that keep you from being very explosive to not."
One of the bread and butters of that has been WR Deebo Samuel Sr. in recent years. And even going back to that playoff game, he obviously had the game-clinching run there, setting up the field goal. What has been going on there?
"Same thing, I think [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] hit it, it's the same thing. There are not many ops for him. He doesn't get 10 carries a game, he gets a couple carries, and if you miss one or two, either we are not executing properly, wrong call or he misses it. You take the one that [WR] Jauan [Jennings] got the holding on in the short-yardage play, [T] Trent [Williams] was just a little late getting through, I don't know if he would've got him or not, but if he'd have got the 13 [Seattle Seahawks LB Ernest Jones IV] the middle linebacker, that play turns up. In other years, Trent maybe gets him and Jauan's block is not even a factor. He cuts up that thing and he's on the safety, it might be a 25-yard gain. Or he breaks the tackle and it's even more. Every week, it seems like there's a play like that. And on those ops, he's either missed or we've missed the opportunity to get him in there."
How do you feel that RB Christian McCaffrey's chemistry is in his second game back? He's only been back for two. Do you feel like he's Christian?
"It's getting better every week. Christian, I'm sure he's self-admitted, he doesn't feel like he's quite back in the groove. And I'm not saying he's not. Like I say every week, it's very hard for me to talk negatively about Christian. He's awesome. Every week, that's why he takes reps. That's why he needs to be out there. He loves seeing it. He's a grinder. He has to be out there working it every single day. As he gets that feel, he becomes better and better. That's what's encouraging too. I see glass half full, how this thing goes going forward with him."
Is that a timing thing with Christian?
"It's vision. It's more vision. It's just no matter how many times you do it, it's like anything else. We talk about how guys have to practice, every sport, you have to practice, you have to go out and practice. And they practice full speed to some degree. Some of the sports that have longer seasons, they don't practice hard. But the point of it is you don't hit – how many full speed reps do you get at running certain plays? And even though you've seen it in previous years, you'll get back and groove faster, but you still have to go out and do it. You still have to go out and see it. You still have to get out in live tempo. You still have to get hit and tackled and get up and get back again and see it and the game flows differently. So it's just a matter of getting a few more looks at it, I think, for him."
You practiced the combo tackle tight end blocks and climbs to that second level. I saw you guys played OL Jaylon Moore at tight end. He looked pretty good. It seemed like he wasn't natural for him to climb to the second level. How did Jaylon do as a blocker at tight end?
"He did okay. It's typical. You think here, we're going to take this 300-pound guy and put him at tight end and we're naturally going to become a better blocking team, right? But there are all different nuances to the position, which he doesn't quite know. He did a serviceable job, at pass pro he did a really good job. In fact, he got to release to the flat one time. He did an excellent job at that as well. So, we're in good shape."