Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – November 18, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Injuries from the game: [WR] Jacob Cowing will be in the protocol, [LB] Tatum Bethune has an MCL sprain, he’ll be out awhile, [DL] Nick Bosa, hip/oblique, we will evaluate him throughout the week, [QB] Brock Purdy has some right shoulder soreness, he’s day-to-day. That’s it from the game. Go ahead.”

Is there any update on LB Dre Greenlaw?

“No, no update.”

Meaning he’ll stay on PUP this week?

“Yeah, I think same thing I said last week. He’s doing his mock practices on his own without players and hope we’ll get him back in practice next week.”

How about CB Charvarius Ward? Has he rejoined the team yet?

“Yes, he did. He was at our team meeting today.”

Are you expecting him to be able to play this week then? And did he just come today or was he at the game yesterday?

“He was at the game yesterday. He did some workouts here over the weekend with [head of strength & conditioning] Dustin Perry, our strength and conditioning coach. And we’ll see how this week goes with him.”

Is there a possibility that Nick Bosa actually plays on Sunday?

“Yes.”

And CB Renardo Green’s finger, he’s fine? Or does he have to play with any type of wrap or anything like that?

“No, I believe he is fine because they didn’t even mention him to me. It’s not on this list at all.”

You and president of football operations/general manager John Lynch have made a point of bringing in guys that, self-starters, guys who love football, that you don’t have to really monitor that much. I’m just curious as to 10 games into a season where it hasn’t gone the way that anybody expected, do you still see the same resolve and the confidence and the enthusiasm that you need to see?

“What are you asking exactly?”

I’m saying you have a team pretty much of self-starters that are used to a lot of success. They haven’t had as much this year and I’m wondering do you still see that same resolve and the same confidence and the same enthusiasm at five-and-five?

“I’m still confused by your question. But I mean, yeah, we have guys who love football. Enthusiasm at five-and-five, it’s not the same as what our record was last year. But in terms of, I think you’re asking like, do you guys still work hard and play hard and try to get after it? Yeah.”

Do we know where, when Brock injured his shoulder?

“No. I don’t know when he did. I know he did it in the game.”

Is TE George Kittle going to be a day-to-day situation again this week or where does he kind of stand?

“He should practice on Wednesday. I know it was close yesterday, so I think he should be good for practice on Wednesday.”

How did T Trent Williams come out of the game? It looked like he was kind of hobbling around and it was really a gametime decision yesterday.

“Yeah, I know he’s sore today and stuff, just talking to him. Toradol is wearing off and things like that, which is pretty painful. But we’ll see how he comes in Wednesday. I know he battled to play in that game and really appreciated him getting through it and out there and we’ll see how he recovers here going into Wednesday.”

What was the general mood around the building today?

“I think we were just, we were pissed off from yesterday. That was a tough loss. We had every ask chance to win it and we didn’t get it done. So, I think guys were disappointed and upset, but nothing, we all know each other pretty well in here. We understand our expectations and we just had a good team meeting, addressed a bunch of the fourth quarter, kind of watched it all together and then we broke up into our position meetings. But, I think guys are pissed and ready to put that game behind us. Today is always a hard day to deal with it because of some of the frustration of what happened. And now I think our guys can’t wait to get to Green Bay as fast as we can.”

I know you always say that each play is different, but were there any kind of common threads that went through the issues in the fourth quarter? And how many plays did you address with the team in that meeting?

“When they took the lead 13 to 10 with three minutes to go in the third, the offense got the ball two more times and our defense got the ball two more times. So, we just addressed both of those drives. The offense had two chances to take it into our own hands, and we did that on one drive, and we didn’t on the other. And the defense had two chances to take it in their own hands and they did it on one drive, having a huge fourth-down stop, getting us the ball back. And then the offense didn’t in the four minute and then Seattle answered on that last drive. So, we had two opportunities to do it and we were 50-50 on them, just like they were. And when you do that, it’s usually who has the ball last, and they did. And there were different plays in all of them, but those were the two issues.”

You were asked about that play late in the game right before you punted where it looked on the TV copy like maybe it was a special teams coach that went up to the line judge. If that had been a fourth-and-one instead of a fourth-and-six, what were you prepared to do at that point?

“I haven’t thought about that since it didn’t happen. But I’m sure if it was fourth-and-one we would’ve gone for it. We also would’ve been in much easier field goal range too, so I know it wouldn’t have been a punt.”

Did you follow up with the league on that and whether there was any recourse whether they did call a second straight timeout?

“No, I mean, I don’t follow up with them. We’ll send something in, but I mean, I talked to the refs on the field. I said, ‘how’d they just get two timeouts in a row?’ And they said that they didn’t, they had to fix, they alerted them with something that was wrong with something the refs were doing and then they fixed it. But I thought they had timeouts because I thought I saw a guy run up there and call one, but I haven’t seen a TV copy.”

What did you think you got out of DL Yetur Gross-Matos for his first time out and did he play more than you expected because DL Nick Bosa was out?

“Yeah, there at the end he did. You know, I thought he did some good things. Definitely caused some havoc on the quarterback. He did some solid stuff in the run game. He had a couple ones at the end where just his rush integrity’s got to be a little bit better from our four. But it was good to get him back and get him started with us.”

With nine penalties in the game, seven on offense, was that something that you addressed with the team? I mean, it seems uncharacteristic of what you’ve been

doing this season.

“Yeah, that was a huge thing. I thought that was one of the biggest problems for the offense on the day. And I actually thought we played a better game offensively than we did on that Thursday night game. We didn’t get, you know, on that Thursday night game we got the busted coverage on [WR] Deebo’s [Samuel] 70-yarder and we got those two explosive runs which really helped. But we played better football this game. We just didn’t at all with the penalties and you know, we had one 14-play drive where, I don’t know how many 14-play drives that I’ve been a part of that don’t end with points or a missed field goal or turnover. To go 14 plays and then punt it, we had eight plays inside the 50 after that turnover for the field goal having to overcome it a couple times and get them again. So, that was our biggest problem on the day I felt offensively.”

Nick Bosa sounded pessimistic when he talked to us after the game about his ability to play in the next game. He also didn’t look like a guy who was ready to play in the next game. Is he feeling a bit better today?

“I wouldn’t say that, but that’s, you know, you should really never ask a guy right after a game or the next morning. I think he was feeling like that a couple weeks ago too, so we’ll see how it goes this week. I mean, just as good of a chance for him not to play as play. But you know, unless it’s an injury that you know has him knocked out you always can rule that out early, but when it’s not that case, you don’t decide those things on Monday’s.”

As far as Purdy, that is from a hit he took, it’s not like throwing shoulder soreness, is that right?

“Yes.”

Okay. And did it affect him, do you think during the game?
“No, I don’t think so.”

How would you evaluate how RB Christian McCaffrey has come back? How are his eyes? Is he hitting the right hole? Is he in general as sharp as he normally would be this time of year?

“Yeah, I think Christian’s doing a good job. I didn’t think he had any opportunity for some big ones. They kept him contained pretty good, especially in their two-shell defenses. I thought there might have been one run he left a little bit out there. But I don’t think I’ve ever said that there isn’t a run that you left a little bit out there in a game. But no, I think Christian’s doing a good job.”

Brock didn’t attempt any passes over 19 yards. Was it more opportunities? I mean, he’s done it in the past. Was it just what he was faced with on the field or was that the plan?

“No, it would’ve surprised me just the way they play their coverages if we would’ve attempted more. They’re a pretty bend-but-don’t-break defense. That’s usually how it goes versus that and it’s tough to get the big plays on. You don’t want to force them. You hope to get them into some situations where you can get them. But most of the stuff that they were giving us was underneath. They’re going to make you go on those longer drives, which we knew going into the game that was going to be the challenge and what we were ready for. And I think we were up for the challenge, but we couldn’t overcome all those penalties and setbacks that we got.”

You’ve talked in the past there’s generally every point in every season where it’s like the ‘sky is falling’ and things look like hell and sometimes the sky is falling and sometimes it’s just adversity that you end up pulling out of. What have you learned from these kinds of moments in your past, if anything, that you’ve kind of learned to apply?

“Just that the only thing that matters is what happens in those three-and-a-half hours in a football game. And the only thing that you can do about those three-and-a-half hours is focus on football and how to get better at that stuff in practice in meetings. And anything outside of that, any talking about it, any pointing to other people trying to make up any type of narrative of it that doesn’t have to do with exactly what’s happening on the football field will only make that stuff harder. Those are the challenges because guys know their job and they’re just supposed to do their job and guys don’t always know what other people are responsible for and doing and that’s why you’ve got to make sure you got tough-minded people who can focus on really what their job is and nothing more than that. And it gets harder when you have adversity and stuff like that when you aren’t getting as many W’s as you want. But no matter how much harder it gets, you’ve got to always understand it’s about the ball and you’ve got to keep it about the ball and nothing else.”

After going to three games where you’ve lost the lead in the fourth quarter, do you feel like your team has still has that killer instinct at the end of the game or is there some sort of ‘Super Bowl hangover,’ or emotional hangover from the journey that you guys have been on so far?

“No, I hear that and I understand all the questions, but it’s back to my last answer. I don’t think there is an answer about a journey or Super Bowl hangover. I think it’s about what’s happening in that exact game. The week before was almost the same game. I think we went down 13 to 10 or something in the third. I think they came back and tied it up and we went down and won it on the last play. So, I don’t think that means we had a killer instinct in that game and not in this game. They took a lead 13 to 10 in the fourth quarter. We went on a 14-play drive and scored a touchdown and overcame a bunch of negative stuff on that drive and still took a 17 to 13 lead. Our defense held them on a fourth-and-one, I think with three and a half minutes to go. So I saw the killer instinct on both of those drives. And then we got to run out the clock on offense and we run three plays, get it down there in second-and-11. We missed a throw and catch, which I think would’ve got us in the redzone and allowed us to run out more clock, possibly the clock, but we didn’t make it and then they got us on the last drive. So we’ve got to play better on those two last drives. And it usually comes down to that in football. If you don’t want it to come down to that before that you’ve got to play pretty flawlessly to get up a couple scores before the end. But that’s why most games in this league do come down to the end and we got that done versus Tampa, but we didn’t get it done this week.”