Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – September 16, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Alright guys, injuries from the game. Just one new one, [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] ended up having a calf strain. He’ll probably miss a couple of weeks. That’s it. Go ahead.”

After the touchdown to Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson, S Malik Mustapha came in at safety for a couple of series and then played in the second half as well. Was that a reaction to the touchdown or had that been planned that he would get some snaps in the game?

“No, not at all. Our plan was the third series of the game to get him in. I don’t know if that was third or fourth, but we had planned that all week anyway. We wanted to do it a little bit in the first game, never did. So we were going to do that, try to play him throughout the game a little bit. Had nothing to do with that play.”

Yesterday, WR Brandon Aiyuk indicated to us that he felt that he was at about 85-percent. When watching the film, would you agree with that assessment and is he about where you thought he’d be at this point, having missed camp and all?

“No, I think B.A. looks 100-percent. I think what he meant is he is playing about 85-percent of what he usually plays. But just in terms of him running stuff and health, he’s 100-percent, he just, I think he’s getting like 85-percent of playing time.”

Did Deebo get hurt at a particular point in the game or is this just one of those things that kind of popped up overnight?

“No, he told me he thinks he did it on that, when he caught, I think it was like the third-to-last play. They had a blitz down in the red zone. He caught the hot route breaking in. He says he thinks he did it on that play. I think there were only like two or three plays after that play though.”

In regards to getting Brandon Aiyuk more involved in the passing game, were there just not opportunities for him or have you just kind of tried to ease him in more slowly?

“No, there was actually, there were a number of times he had a real good chance to get the ball and a couple times protections broke down on two of them. One time someone busted a route and just got in the same way, so they covered it up. But he had a chance to get about four big passes and other factors happened. It’s a team game. There are 11 guys out there that are involved in getting someone the ball. He did have some opportunities where he should have, but not everything went right.”

Was there anything that Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores was doing that was something that you hadn’t seen or that maybe you weren’t quite as prepared for as maybe you should have been?

“No, that’s what they do. They either blitz or they back off and play zone. It’s one or the other. They’ve been mixing it up. They did it for 17 games last year. Now they’ve done it for two games this year. Thought we ran the ball a lot better than a lot of teams have. They’re a real tough run defense to go against. I thought we made some good explosives in the pass game, but we just struggled to keep the chains moving on third down. When you end up turning the ball over twice and getting that blocked punt, that was the difference.”

How frustrating or difficult was it to lose Deebo on top of losing RB Christian McCaffrey? Obviously, it seems like that would, that complicates the situation, it would seem.

“Yeah, always when you lose real good players, it’s always tough. But it happens all over the league and it’s a huge part of this league and a huge part of this game. We’ve got to deal with it.”

When you look back on the final drive of the game, how you managed the clock at the end, would you have taken a shot into the end zone in retrospect?

“You don’t just call plays to say, take a shot into the end zone or check it down. It kind of depends what the defense is doing and they played so much soft Tampa two having a two score lead. It was tough to get a shot into the end zone. It would’ve led to an interception if you just force it in there. The main thing was getting stuck in that fourth down. Really wish we would’ve moved the chains down there. [LB Andrew Van Ginkel] 43 made a hell of a play tipping it, and Deebo went to try to block it out, knock it out, unfortunately it stuck in his stomach and he caught it. And then, we weren’t going to go for it on fourth and eight. We knew our best chance there was to kick the field goal and try an onside kick at the end.”

How is S Talanoa Hufanga looking for this week?

“He’s looking good. He’s had two good weeks. Had a real good week last week, so hopefully he can get in and play this week and have three good practices.”

After the game, QB Brock Purdy indicated that, he just kind of openly said, the Brian Flores scheme gave him some trouble seeing things. When you watched the tape, did you see him maybe taking a little longer with the ball than you would like and how much of that was a result of the scheme and maybe also not having Christian in a checkdown option like that?

“No, I think that’s what the point of the scheme is. It’s to have six guys up on the line and come from everywhere. So you’ve got to, it’s just a lot of pressure on a quarterback throughout a game. That’s what their scheme is. They’re going to make you think whether you’re hot every play and if you’re not, then you’ve got to find the open zones. There are a lot of open zones, but it’s tough the way they slow you down with having the threat of zero throughout the game. He does a really good job of mixing it up and that is the challenge for a quarterback. It makes it really tough to get into a rhythm.”

How do you look at the way your offensive line played after watching the video? Obviously, six sacks. How do you sort of assess their game?

“You’ve got to look at all the sacks. I believe one was from a hot that we didn’t throw, we just got hit in the back on one play. So we’ve got to get rid of that. I think three of them, one was scrambling for a zero-yard run. I think another was scrambling and diving for a negative one-yard run, we didn’t have one side open, he went to the other. There were definitely a couple sacks in there, especially on third down. But I thought they run blocked well. I didn’t think, when you see six sacks, you assume it’s a real tough day on the O-Line, but I credit that more to the whole offense. A few are definitely on them, but definitely not all six of them. Everyone has to do better, but that number six is a little unfair to them.”

You have an open space on your roster. Do you fill that with a running back or a

wide receiver given Samuel’s injury?

“We’re not sure yet. We’ll discuss that, see what the best options are. You usually get three backs up for a game and we continue to have three backs up. So, not sure if we have to do that yet. It depends what’s out there and things like that. You usually get five receivers up for a game and just the way our roster’s been going and the way it’s played out, we’ve been able to get six. So, I don’t think anything is a true necessity. But having that room gives us a luxury to pick wherever we need it the most and we’ll see how we feel about that here over the next few days.”

With Brian Flores and what he does up front, obviously a bunch of different looks. How do you feel like RB Jordan Mason performed in pass protection yesterday?

“Oh, I thought he did a real good job. He didn’t have any busts. He never missed any assignments. He got on his guys. Him and [FB Kyle Juszczyk] Juice both stepped up in there well. They started bringing a lot of backers internally in the second half and they went in and protected him well. Their point and all that stuff is to keep the back in so you don’t have any checkdowns. But he stood in there stout and gave the quarterback time to throw.”

Did the time off that T Trent Williams took this offseason affect him in this game?

“I don’t know how to totally answer that. I think Trent played decent. There’s definitely things he’d like to have back, but I didn’t see him get tired or fatigued or anything like that. I don’t really relate anything to that. It was just about the game yesterday.”

A number of players said that it was warmer than they expected it to be and we don’t normally see TE George Kittle going in to get an IV. Would you chalk it up to more of a short week and kind of being tired and a long road trip or did the heat actually have an effect on everybody?

“No, I think we gave up some big plays. I think when we had a chance to stop them for like a 57-yard field goal and we give up basically a 20-yard scramble at the end to give them an easy field goal. I think when you give up a blocked punt. I think when you give up a 97-yard touchdown and not make them work for the drive. I think us struggling on third down with our two turnovers, I think is more about it. It was hot in there, especially for a dome, it’s unusual for it to feel muggy and stuff inside a dome, which that was the first time I’d been a part of something like that. But that has nothing to do to me with what happened on the field.”

Brock Purdy’s fumble, was that heat related and his hand was slippery from sweat?

“People sweat when they exercise hard or when they’re really hot. So yeah, that’s probably what made it slippery. But that’s stuff quarterbacks deal with every game, especially from, centers snap a lot and quarterbacks get their hands wet from having to take snaps from centers too and sometimes ball carriers soak the ball also. So, there’s lots of things that go into it. But yeah, slipping has to do with things that make hands slippery.”

It seemed like Deebo played one of his better games in quite a while. What’d you see from him yesterday because it seemed like he was just comfortable catching the ball away from his body, sitting down in zones. What’d you see?

“I thought he had some real good catches. That team plays more zone than anybody that we’ve gone against in probably the last eight years. They’re such a heavy zone team. So that’s kind of what you’re expecting with it. Brock had a number of good throws layering it over some backers and Deebo had to kind of climb the ladder a couple times and made a couple impressive catches. I thought he played one of his better games versus the Jets. So, I don’t know if I’d say one of his better ones compared to others, but I thought he played real well.”