Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster Press Conference

Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster

Press Conference – September 12, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

What were your impressions of how OL Dominick Puni fared in his first start?

“He was solid. Solid performance. All of them were. It was a productive game. [RB Jordan Mason] JP had a good game. We win, which was great. Everybody’s got a lot of work to do. His first game of the year, Puni’s. For the first time, I had to get kind of upset with him during the game. We made an adjustment in the first quarter and then we’re in the third quarter and he’s talking about the adjustment we made in the first quarter. And I said, ‘I know we talked about it for six days that this is how we’re going to do it, but in the first quarter we decided we weren’t going to do it anymore.’ And so, I said that was, it gave me a reason to get fired up in the second half, which was good.”

Head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned T Trent Williams kind of getting winded down the stretch, of course after missing preseason. What do you think about his conditioning now going into this game?

“Trent is in better, a lot better shape. It’s really interesting to watch. To think that he went in with an IV, to think he played all the plays he played is pretty amazing. Now, Trent is smart. Trent knows when to go hard and when not to go hard. Trent knows when he can take a little bit off and when he can’t. There was some rustiness. There was some rust he needed to get knocked off. So to watch him go through all the plays he went through, to just have just IV up, which was, and then he really only missed two plays and I didn’t think he was going to go back in. And then he’s running back out there like a kid. ‘I’m going back in, right?’ I’m saying, ‘Well, wait, I didn’t even think you were going back in, just stand next to me and let [OL] Jaylon [Moore] finish off the game. But he went back in for a few more plays. And this week, it seems the first, yesterday we didn’t do as much, and then today we’re at a lot more. He seems like right back where he should be. Last year, we mentioned it, I think last week, [DL] Nick [Bosa] took 35 snaps. I think he came back on Friday before the first game, took 35 snaps. The next week he played 60 something. So I think the conditioning is there, it’s just he needed to start playing football again.”

Was there rust technique-wise at all with Trent?

“It’s every, yeah, it’s just the timing. There’s just, like we we’ve said in here, there’s nothing like the real rep of a game that full-speed, that push, all that shoving and stuff. It’s just that he didn’t get that, that timing, no matter how hard he drills himself or practices against error bags or whatever he does, it’s not the same. So it’s just timing.”

For obvious reasons, you’ve had a lot of success rushing to the left over the years. The other night you went to the right more frequently and had a lot of success doing it. What kind of goes into that, in terms of when you’re putting the run game plan together and then why you think you were so successful doing it?

“There are times where we say – it has to be a pretty drastic reason for us to say we’re not going run left or not going to run right. And there might be a player or two that we lean on because of, [New York Jets DL Quinnen Williams] 95, for example, last week we might have said we went a little more right than left, but I don’t think it weighed in the plan. It did, but I won’t say it was that major. When everybody brings up that stat, okay. It’s not like we do it on purpose or we’re running behind Trent. ‘Oh, we’re going to do,’ no. We have so many shifts and motions in the way our game plan is set up, it’s really hard for us. We can predict at times and say, ‘Okay, hey, but if we want this play and we’re on the right hash and it goes through, it’s going to the right.’ And it’s not like, ‘Oh, we’re not going to run it because we just want to run left.’ There’s a handful of plays where that comes up. It’s more of just, it’s been, I don’t want to say it’s because when we run left, it’s better. I can’t say that. So it wasn’t by plan by any stretch of the, a little bit, because of 95 from the Jets.”

Did you consider even for a moment going back to, I think it was 2022, where you put Trent in motion and then he had to come out for a play to get a breather.

“No, no. He was so winded after that. We put him in the backfield and had him go, he was dead. Dude was like, he said that ‘Man, that’s hard.’ So no, there was no thought of doing that. Wish you would’ve told me last week. I might’ve thought of it.”

Jordan Mason’s touchdown-run, the design of that play was really interesting. You had the double-team on the left side, but it looked like Puni and OL Colton McKivitz were at pass sets. Then you had WR Deebo Samuel Sr. and TE George Kittle coming across crazy in that cutback lane.

“Yeah. The one that got, not the one that got called back, the other one. It’s different. We don’t run the scheme very much. A lot of teams do it. It’s a one, it’s an every now and then concept for us. And the block that I didn’t personally, I was like, I looked at the guy next to said, ‘Ah, this play is not going to work’ and it goes for a touchdown. But my question was if Deebo could make his block. The other part of it with the pass to get him up the field was a good thought. Our defense, they jet up double-team the front side. He creates a nice cutback lane. It creates more space than some of the normal plays we run down there. But that block that Deebo had to make was a tough one. Our guys do such, I can’t say enough about our receivers. [WR Jauan Jennings] JJ, Deebo, [WR Brandon] Aiyuk, all of them, they’re just, [WR] Chris [Conley]. They all get in there, they get dirty, they don’t mind doing the hard work. They block linebackers, they’ve done safeties. They don’t say no, they keep going, they keep trying. And he did such a good job. That’s why I said to [tight ends coach Brian] Fleury and Kyle ‘Not my favorite play down there.’ Kyle called it, but that’s not the first time that we’ve called a play. And it goes for 50 yards. I’d say, this play sucks and it’s 50 yards down the field. So, I don’t know.”

What do you call it?

“See, I couldn’t let you out of this room if I told you. Sorry.”

When you watch Vikings film, how does Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores utilize S Jordan Metellus and how much a part of the rush plan is he?

“He just, they do everything, and they do everything well. I’m not, this is not a pre-game pep talk for the Vikings, oh they’re the greatest team in football. This guy does a good job. What they do, they do very well. They’re fundamentally sound. They’re one of the few teams that fundamentally, they challenge you, that they might be better fundamentally than we are. They play with their hands well. They do everything. They rush well, they have a plan. There’s a thought behind everything that they do. It’s very well-thought out, very meticulous, very detailed. And the guys play really hard. You can tell that he’s a tough, he’s tough on them. And you can tell those guys are, there’s a lot demanded of them and they play all play hard. So whatever the plan is, they use it very well. It’s well-thought out. He does an excellent job.”

I know there’s a lot on the center’s shoulders with pre-snap center protections, but what did you think of OL Jake Brendel’s performance?

“Jake is with the rest of them. I think we were all a step below where I think any of them would want to play. There were some good things in the game, obviously, but it just wasn’t as sharp as we needed it to be. And there’s a lot to work on, which is good. I said, ‘This is good.’ The good thing is, we won. And the great thing is, we’ve got 16 more weeks to see if we can get better and we do have something to, we have a reason to come to practice this week. So it was good.”

Dominick Puni said that he felt like the Jets were stunting things directly towards him as the young guy on the offensive line. I know that he has some stuff to work on, but how did he handle it emotionally, mentally, on the field?

“I don’t, he doesn’t get rattled very much. If he was rattled I didn’t notice it. I got on him a little bit. But he didn’t, he doesn’t get rattled. So, I didn’t notice that. And it’s probably how he did feel, first game on Monday Night Football. I don’t think they were doing a lot towards him, but he felt it. It’s a big game. The first game. It’s hard. And he did a really, like I said, he did a really nice job. But they all could have been, we all could have been better.”

What did you see from the Vikings defense? They gave you some trouble last year.

“They’re well prepared, they’re well coached, they play hard. The crowd noise, Skol, all the stuff that they say, it’s just, it’s crazy. Was it Monday or Sunday night game last year? Last year was Monday. Yeah, it was loud and crazy and all that stuff. I used to coach there and back in the day it was in the Metrodome, there used to be a building called the Metrodome where they played football there. But anyway, the Metrodome, at 12 o’clock kickoffs, if you got up on Vikings early, they weren’t always in the stadium at noon. Now they may be there, but those 12 o’clock kickoffs you get up on a team early, Minnesota, it can be quieter. But you give them all day to get revved up for that game, and it was loud. And this week will be the same thing. It’s their first home game. Shoot, I remember we went out there, San Francisco, [former NFL QB] Brett Favre’s first game as a Viking and [former NFL head coach Mike] Singletary was the head coach. I was here and they threw that touchdown at the end of the game to beat us. And that place was, it was quiet early because we had the lead, but then they got rolling in the second half and it was rocking, man, holy cow. That was a loud place to play. And I think that’s what there is, that’s the challenge. That the defense is good. The defense has a lot going on, so there’s a lot of communication. And then you take that crowd noise on top of it and it’s just a challenge. The good thing, is our guys have done, we’ve done it. We have to keep doing it. But we’ve at least, Puni will be the first time for him in that environment. And he’s the guy that looked back with the tap and he has to do all that stuff. So there’s a lot going on for him.”

When you say Trent knows when to go hard and knows when to take it a little easier, is that like a Trent thing? Like a former NFL OL Jonathan Ogden thing?

“It could be anybody. Yeah, any of them.”

Are there any plays that he could kind of take off during the game?

“Well take the play, the touchdown play I talked about. Colton’s job on that play, the front side has to drive and work and push and shove and get, they have to get things going over there. The backside tackle just passes so that guy goes up the field, he just kind of puts his hands and that’s it, play over. You don’t have to blood and guts that play. You get him up the field, you put your hand in and it’s done, a touchdown. And I go congratulate and slam the ball like I did something. That’s a play that isn’t your play. And you know those plays. I’m not saying you take the play off, but there are plays that mentally you know, and Trent’s learned through the years that I just have to turn out and get this guy, if I just get this guy to do this, the play is over. I don’t have to keep running down the field another 25 yards and I can’t, because I’m an older player. So it’s not that he’s taking plays off necessarily, it’s just that understanding the concept of the play, understanding my defender, what the defense is, what I think is going to happen on this play. You can’t determine that too much because shoot, the ball comes back to you at some point and you’ve got a problem. But there’s times, a three-step drop, you know if I set right, the ball’s coming out quickly, I get my hands on him, boom, I run, done. I’m going to be good most times. So there’s that pacing of a game that Trent will learn. The problem was with that game, as we talked about, we talked about last week, we said, ‘Shoot, there’s going to be these 11-play drives that we had, he had in the Rams game of the COVID year. Eight plays, six plays, 11 plays, 10 plays. And there was just one after the other, after the other. I was shocked he didn’t come out, but he did a heck of a job. Once again, here’s a shocker, Trent surprises you that he’s awesome, right? He’s pretty awesome.”

JP had like 94 yards before contact. What did you think of the kind of the pop that your offensive line had in the run game?

“You know me guys, we did okay. We got a lot of improvement to do. I give a lot of credit to Brian Fleury, Kyle, the way our run game is built, the formations, the movements, the things that we do, we try to create places where there’s going to be space, to get the guy that space. Obviously, we got to do our part and do the blocking. I get that, the guys did a good job of that. We got to do better. But it is so much of the creativity that goes into this thing with the other guys. I’m down there yelling in the dirt down there trying to get them to come off the ball, work harder, those guys are creating these schemes where all of a sudden we have openings and we’re getting the guy to the contact before that point. So yeah, we’ve got to do our part. And the guys did a good job with that. And I’m proud of the guys that, you know, we did run the ball fairly effectively for a first game, but that credit goes to a lot of other guys. Our guys are good, but it’s spread around.”

What was it like for you seeing, you’ve been with Jordan this whole time he’s been here, just to see Jordan have kind of a big night?

“That’s great because we’ve talked about it, you guys have consistently asked through the last couple years when I’ve been up here anyway about the guy and how’s he doing? And I keep saying, this guy just keeps getting better and better and better. And the connection he has with [running backs coach] Bobby Turner is special. I mean, nothing against [Washington Commanders run game coordinator/running backs coach Anthony Lynn] A-Lynn when he was here, A-Lynn is a great man, a great coach. Just when Bobby got in here and the connection they had has just been outstanding and he has taken to it. And I think the other thing is all of us have a, ‘well Foerster, you know, he yells at a lot, he gets, whatever it is, right?’ Or ‘Bobby’s hard on us and dah, dah, dah.’ But then when you watch [RB] Christian McCaffrey, just take to the coaching and hang on every word Bobby says and write every note. Well, when you’re JP you start doing it too and you start listening, you start doing the things. Bobby knows how to get a back ready to play. And so that’s for me, it’s Trent. Whatever I say, Trent’s got my back with these guys, or Colton or these guys as you coach them through the years, it helps, it gives you, as a coach, validity that, yeah, the old man’s going to lose his mind sometimes. Bobby’s going to seem crazy sometimes, but at the end of the day, he has your best interest at heart. He cares about you. And when he’s telling you he is going to make you a good player, JP always worked hard, but there was always that little bit of a trust factor there. Now he’s all in with Bobby. He’s all in with the offense and he has just flourished. He’s a tough, hard running guy. I was really happy for him to be able to go in and do that.”