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Several 49ers players discuss sixth-straight loss

Oct 23, 2016 at 7:52 PM


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Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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LB Ahmad Brooks

To start off with a lead and to see that disappear, are you frustrated with that?

"Of course I am frustrated with it. You play this game to win. When we give up points the way that we do, the way we give up yards, it is just unacceptable. It is frustrating."

With the rush defense, is there a pattern that you are seeing, something that you can point to that needs to be fixed?

"Anything is fixable. I just think that the guys that get double-teamed maybe have to do a better job at taking on the double-team. I know that is difficult, but that is what we signed up for. The guys that are getting doubled have to be able to get off those double-teams and just try to do a better job."

Are guys fighting just as hard now as they were at the start of the season?

"I believe that they are. We are all professionals so we are not giving up. We do want to go out there and win. We came out with a fast start. We got up on them 14-0 and we just gave up the lead. We come in every single week wanting to win. It is just whether or not we win."

How hard did it make it when guys started going out with injuries in the third quarter?

"It makes it more difficult on us obviously when some of the guys that we rely on to go out there and make plays are not on the field. It makes it more difficult to stop the run."

RB Mike Davis

How did it feel to get the start today?

"It felt good to get the start and play with my teammates. But, it would have felt better if we had won."

What did you see out of the offensive line?

"The offensive line did a great job. We did what we were supposed to do and some things just didn't fall our way."

This offense was rolling in the first quarter and then just couldn't get anything going. How do you explain that?

"I can't explain it. We've just got to come back and look at film. We've got to do the things that we're supposed to do. It's on us. That's something we've got to fix. It's not about pointing fingers. We've got to fix it."

Heading into the Bye week, what do you think are the biggest improvements that this team needs?

"That I can't tell you. I play running back. I mostly focus on my position and what I have to do. Once we see the film, I guess we'll know what to work on."

You were out there for returns. Have you done that before?

"Yes. The last time I probably did a kick return was high school, but if they want me to be back there then they trust me to be back there."

K Phil Dawson

The six-game losing streak that is something you haven't dealt with since leaving Cleveland?

"Yes. It is never fun losing one game. When they start piling up it gets a little tougher. Through all of these years, I have learned that whether you win or lose, whether you are on a streak or not, the same decision is required each and every week and that is to reboot the system to a clean slate, put the work in. Just as a pilot does on a preflight checklist, you go through what you need to do each and every week to get ready for the next game. Whether you won or lost the last game you still have to go through that process. Yes it does get tougher as losses mount, but as a professional the same decision is there each and every week.

How does this get done?

"We just have to play better. Everyone is always looking for the real sexy, in-depth answer and sometimes it just comes down to playing better. That is just my opinion. I know that we can play better."

RB DuJuan Harris

I think the thing that you proved, and you did this last year, is that the San Francisco 49ers picked you up and you decided that your career wasn't over. You hung in there. You've been inactive and now you got a chance to be active. That says something about your perseverance that you still want to be a football player.

"I'm just doing what I can. God blessed me to wake up every morning and say this is my job."

The way this team came out, so effective offensively, got ahead 14-0. What happened after that that kind of slowed things down?

"We made some mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot and lost the juice. Like I said, in this league, when the other team gets it it's kind of hard to rebound from it, especially when they score off of [turnovers]."

It's easy to pile on when it's like this when a team loses six in a row. You still all have to look at each other in this locker room. What can you salvage out of this season and what can you do moving forward?

"We're all we got, simple as that. We're all we got no matter what happens. We've got to stick together and finish strong. We've got to keep fighting. We can't let our heads down for the rest of the season. It's still a long season ahead. We can still make some things happen."

You are a professional football player and there's still a lot of football to be played, so I guess you have to look at it that way?

"Yeah, definitely. This one's over. We've just got to focus on this Bye week, rest our bodies, and stay out of trouble. Everybody's got to do the right thing and we'll come back and take care of business."

S Eric Reid

How do you explain what happened between these four quarters?

"The turnovers. Anytime that you have turnovers like that it is going to be tough to win the game. Coach gave us the statistic that if you win the turnover battles then you win 85-percent of the games, we lost that battle so we didn't win the game."

Why was Tampa Bay Buccaneers RB Jacquizz Rodgers able to find his rhythm?

"That is tough to answer without looking at the film. We started off really well with three-and-outs. We scored on our first drive on offense to start the half. We came out of the half and give them a short field and they scored points off of that. We have to be more precise with handling the ball, with getting turnovers so that our offense can have more opportunities and we just haven't been doing that."

On stopping the opposing team's running game, some would say that the defense needs more of an attitude than physical adjustment. How do you feel? Is there an attitude missing as far as making sure you stop the running game?

"I don't think so. When you look at it, everybody is responsible for a gap. When you get blocked you have to get off of those blocks and I think that we have to do a better job at getting off of blocks, securing tackles and not letting big plays happen. We have to just get rid of those explosive plays."

Heading into the Bye week, what do you think are the biggest improvements to be made?

"We have to look at all the film and see what has worked well for us and also see what we have not been doing great at and improve on those things. I think that we really just have to get back to the basics."

WR Torrey Smith

This team has had such a difficult problem turning things around. You've proven you can put up a quick 14, but you can't get back to it.

"I don't know. If we knew, it wouldn't be happening. We've just got to be consistent. We're not as consistent as we should be. We show flashes, but that's not good enough."

How do you put this loss into perspective for you? Six straight, a very young team, still some inexperience out there. For a veteran like yourself, how do you put this all into perspective?

"It's another loss. It hurts. You work hard to win. You don't go out there to lose and no one plans to lose. It's frustrating. Any loss in general, it's been rough. We know what we have to do, we just haven't been doing it. That's the most frustrating part."

One of the last plays you were open in the end zone. With all the changes at quarterback, how much does that affect you?

"It's all through a progression. If they get to me and I'm open, that's it. If not, then I'm obviously not going to get it, so that's just how the game goes."

* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers

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