Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Postgame Press Conference
Head Coach Kyle Shanahan
Press Conference – September 13, 2020
San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals
Opening comments:
(Inaudible) went out with a leg, he returned. [WR Richie] James, hamstring. He did not return. That’s all I got right now. Go ahead.”
(Inaudible)
“No, not that I noticed. I’m sure they weren’t perfect, but it seems like we executed all the snaps. I thought we did a pretty good job at both of those positions.”
(Inaudible)
“You see a guy who’s very talented and can run around and make some plays. If you cover everyone, he’s going to make some plays scrambling. That’s usually how it goes versus him. I thought we did a pretty good job containing him. Had a couple unfortunate penalties that kept the drives going which kept him out there a little bit longer. He’s a hell of a player. Thought we did a good job for the most part containing him, but they had a couple third downs that just kept going, a couple of second and longs. We didn’t make them pay on the other side of the ball to get more points, keep it away from him.”
(Inaudible)
“Yeah, I’m not exactly sure. I know he went out with the leg, a lower leg injury. They don’t get into specifics with me and at halftime he told me he was good to go, so he returned. I’m sure we’ll find out a little bit more tomorrow morning when he comes in.”
(Inaudible)
“No, it’s just a reminder that we’re back at football. I mean, that’s how football goes. We had a number of chances to win that game. I thought we started out very well. Thought we had a chance to run away with it a little bit in the first half. Anytime you average eight yards a play and you’re holding them pretty good on the other side of the ball, thought we’d have more points to show for it than what we did. I know why we didn’t. We didn’t convert one third down in the first half. We didn’t convert one fourth down and we didn’t convert in the red zone. So, no matter how well you do on first and second down, you’re not going to get many points when you are 0-for in all the other situational areas. Then we had a couple opportunities on defense and you just miss a couple plays when they’re there and that’s what happens. Last time we played these guys, it came down to the wire, just like this one did. We had a chance there to win it at the end. They made a good play there in the end zone on [WR Kendrick] Bourne on the double move he ran and then on the fourth down, they made a good play stopping [WR] Trent [Taylor] on the out route. We just came up a little bit short. The last two times we played them, it was very similar, but we came up on top on those two.”
On paper, you guys appear to be much better situated for third downs with Trent back, with [RB] Jerick [McKinnon]. What do you think the issue and you know the numbers today on third and fourth downs, what do you think the issue was on third downs today?
“I mean, all issues. We didn’t do good in any situation on third down. So, it starts with, obviously we didn’t have a good enough plan and then it goes to everyone else. When you’re 0-for, it’s never just one thing. It’s a number of things. They did a good job in their defense. They had a good third down plan, but I know we can do better than that.”
What were your impressions of QB Jimmy Garoppolo today and at what point did you know during the week that you were probably going to be pretty limited in terms of personnel at receiver?
“We had an idea all week. We were holding out hope for [WR] Deebo [Samuel] at the beginning of the week. That changed towards the end of the week completely, as you guys saw when we put him on IR. [WR Brandon] Aiyuk we were holding out hope for and there was a small glimmer of hope towards the end of the week, but with it being his first week and stuff, we were a little more conservative with that. So, we went into the game knowing there was going to be a good chance that it was going to be like today with the lack of receivers and stuff, but yeah, that’s it. Hopefully he’ll be there next week.”
As you noted, only three healthy receivers coming out of this game. Will you have to do something with WR Kevin White or WR River Cracraft for next week’s game in order to be whole at that position?
“It all depends on how Richie ends up checking out tomorrow. How Aiyuk is, whether he has possibility to come back. I know he’ll have the chance to next week because I think he got pretty close this week. So, we’ll see. We’ve still got some guys here and we’ve got some guys on practice squad that if called upon, I know they’ll be ready to help out.”
Just wanted to follow up, your impressions of Jimmy Garoppolo.
“Yeah, he had some good plays in there, but just like the entire offense, just missed a number of opportunities that it was going to take to win that game. We had a couple there, but he’s got to play better. We’ve all got to play better on offense, especially, and it starts with me.”
You’ve been asking your wide receivers to step up throughout this training camp. What do you see from them? What do you want them to do more out on the field?
“Well, first of all, I want to get them all back and healthy, so that would help. And second of all, I don’t think those guys did play bad today. I’ll watch the tape on them, but there was a couple of opportunities that they did have. KB had a big third down for us that he did his job on that. I think Trent had a chance on that last fourth down that we went to him on. I would like to get a little bit more in front of him, but I’m not blaming them at all in this game. We didn’t do very good as a whole offense. The game plan wasn’t going to those guys much knowing how light we were going into the game, but obviously got to get better at every spot, but this game isn’t put on the receivers at all.”