49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan
Press Conference – October 11, 2020
San Francisco 49ers vs. Miami Dolphins
Why did CB Brian Allen get the start and more to the point is why did it take so long to pull him from the game after four series?
“Just because of how down we were going into the game. We got him off of practice squad this week because of the injuries we had. [CB Ken] Webster was his backup. [CB] Ahkello [Witherspoon], he tried to go this week, but he was too tight to go throughout practice all week, but because of our low numbers, we still dressed him for emergency. So, we were trying to hold out, see how long we could go through with that and when Ahkello came up to us on the sidelines and said he wanted to go and wanted a shot, it gave us a little more confidence with his hamstring and he went in, was able to pull it off and get out of the game without tearing it. So, that was the decision on it.”
What went into the decision to take QB Jimmy Garoppolo out at halftime?
“I mean, just the way the whole game was going, just kind of watching how we were playing as a whole, how he was playing. You could tell he was affected by his ankle. You can ask him more when he gets in, but I know he doesn’t normally throw the ball that way. I think he was struggling a little bit because of it and the way the game was going I wasn’t going to keep
putting him in those positions and knowing we were going to have to throw it a lot to come back.”
Did you have any questions about Garoppolo’s ankle? Obviously, he was hurt, but were you thinking, okay, I’ve got to watch him carefully in this game or were you surprised that it did develop like this?
“No, I was surprised. I think it’s that and the combination of how the whole game was going. I knew going into it anytime you have a high ankle sprain that it can seem 100-percent better and you get out there and you do a couple things and it comes right back. That’s something that is going to linger. By no means did it keep him from playing today, but I think it hurt him from being at his best and the way the rest of the offense was, the way the whole team was going today, I didn’t think it was good to keep him out there in the second half with that score and everything and that he wasn’t at his best. That’s why I made that decision.”
You mentioned on Friday how happy you were with the offensive line during the week of practice. How do you diagnose the issues that you guys are dealing with up front?
“I was happy with the week that they had and I thought they came out and I thought we run blocked well, and I thought we got way too one dimensional in some of the situations we got in the pass game, which puts them in a very tough situation, one we weren’t in very many times last year at all. We were definitely in it for most of the game today, pretty much the entire second half. I definitely expect those guys to do better. I know we can help them with staying in some better situations, which doesn’t make it easy, but just as an offense as a whole, not just the O-Line, from the receivers to the quarterback to tight ends to running backs to every single coach. I’m just very disappointed today.”
I got in just a minute or two late here, so sorry if I missed some context. I heard what you said about Ahkello. Just to be clear, he said he could be active, but didn’t feel like he could be used unless it was an emergency? Is that right?
“Yes, that’s exactly how it went. We wanted him to go this week. We were hoping he could and he came out on Wednesday and mainly Thursday, just with the way the practice went Thursday, it was too tight to really push it. So, he wasn’t able to do much in practice, looking like he was ready. Did tell us that he could dress in case of emergency since we had two guys
coming in who haven’t been on the team very long and just taken off practice squad. So, we were hoping it wouldn’t get to it. We thought it would take two injuries to do it. Obviously, with Allen struggling a little bit, we were going to go with Webster. That was the plan going in, but Ahkello went up to the defensive staff, I want to say sometime in the second quarter and told them that he felt good, he was ready to go and he wanted to go in for the challenge. So, at that time I was very happy to hear that. So, we threw him out there. I know he didn’t feel great battling through that, but definitely helped us him going out there.”
What was your message to the team and how do you go about pulling them out of this as you enter a really tough stretch of schedule here?
“There’s no magical thing that you can say when you play like that. I just try to hold us all accountable. Know it starts with me. I know we went into a tough situation defensively, with just some of the guys that we were missing. So, I knew that’d be a challenge going into the game. But regardless, when you go in with that situation, you play the way we did on offense, you turn the ball over three times, you get stopped on two fourth downs, so it’s basically five turnovers to me and you don’t play clean football, I don’t care who you play, whether you’re healthy or hurt, it really doesn’t matter. When you do a play like that, that’s usually going to be
the result and there’s only one way to fix that. There’s nothing to talk about. That’s called getting better. I think there’s a lot of aspects of our game that obviously we can get better at and I’ve got to make sure I put our guys through that and find a way to do it.”
After such a tough outing, how do you move forward? What’s the first step in moving forward after this game?
“Watch the film, see exactly what happened, which I’ve got a pretty good idea about it, but you detail it up. You show the guys specifically where we can get better. You try to get guys who are missing healthy, and then you challenge all your best players. We need our best players to play at their best. I think we need to get some guys back who have been starting to come
back, but haven’t really gotten enough practices in to where I could see it today just conditioning and stuff. We’ve got to get healthier so we can get out there and practice more, because I saw some guys get tired that made it really tough to throw the ball there for the second half. I’ve just got to keep my thumb on everyone. There was nothing to sit here and feel sorry about yourself. You’ve got to be ready for what you’re going to get and it’s well
deserved, but we’ve got to close the doors, go out to the field and go to work. You either get better or worse and if we don’t get better, it’s going to be a long season.”
You haven’t gone through a game like this in a long time. What was your emotions? Is this kind of piling on and what do you think your players reacted? What did you want them to react like?
“I want us to react and play better. I want us to react and coach better. I don’t think that’s a lack of effort. I think we were pretty embarrassed in the first half. Felt pretty good at halftime, talking to everyone. Feel you’ve got a chance to go out there and come back and do your job and there was plenty of time to do it. I want to say we stopped them on the opening series. I think
we went down and scored, from what I remember correctly, on offense. Then we gave up a couple of freebies, I think, with a few penalties. Missed it on offense, and then it quickly got away from us. When you play like that and you’re off and you turn the ball over and they were on and my hat goes off to them because they played a hell of a game in all three phases and
we played the opposite in all three phases. No one likes getting embarrassed, and that’s kind of what I said at halftime. When you’re getting embarrassed, you go out there and fight and I thought we started to, but made too many mistakes to where it obviously didn’t look like much
of a fight.”
I appreciate that Ken Webster doesn’t exactly have tons of experience either, but why not go to him maybe a little earlier the way Allen was struggling?
“Because I feel we were in a similar situation. We weren’t going to do it in the middle of the drive and we were going to go to it the next drive after we got the PI in the red zone, which I thought was pretty good coverage by him. They ended up calling it, so you’ve got to live with that. Then we were on third-and-two, which thought that would end. I think we got them to
third-and-22. They had a motion. He ended up staying in bump when it was not what we were supposed to do and he missed that coverage. Then we were switching the next series. Webster’s kind of in a similar boat with where he’s at with us, which we were going to next series, but I was glad Ahkello was up for the challenge and came in when he was able to.”
Where do things stand with CB Emmanuel Moseley? Obviously, this concussion has lasted longer than probably you expected. Is he going to see a specialist or where do things go from here?
“Yeah, he did see a specialist. I think we had some pretty good news on that. So, we’re still waiting. I don’t have anything confirmed yet, but I’m really hoping we can get him back this week. I know if E-Man’s able to at all, he will. So, hopefully we’ll hear some good news in the next couple of days and get him back in practice.”
49ers QB C.J. Beathard
Press Conference – October 11, 2020
San Francisco 49ers vs. Miami Dolphins
Obviously, second week in a row you had to kind of come in relief there in a difficult spot. What made it so difficult to get anything going there when you got a chance to go in?
“I feel like all game long, right now we haven’t been playing very good complimentary football, offensively and defensively, whereas last year when our defense would step up big, we’d get the ball and go down and score. Right now, we’re kind of struggling with that. We need to get back to playing complimentary football. When we turned the ball over last year, defense would get a stop and end up holding them to three points, at least. This year it’s just we’re not playing as a good complimentary football and we saw that today. It stuck out.”
QB Jimmy Garoppolo
Press Conference – October 11, 2020
San Francisco 49ers vs. Miami Dolphins
Your teammates warned us that you wouldn’t use your ankle as an excuse for today’s game, but I have to ask, was the ankle affecting your throws or your mobility in that first half
“No, I felt it. I wouldn’t say it affected everything. It’s one of those things you’ve got to deal with.It’s tough. It was a tough one today. You just want to be out there with the guys, wanted to get the win today, obviously didn’t and it was just a lot of things didn’t go well for us.”
How challenging is it to not lose your confidence when you are playing on a bum ankle a little bit and when you guys aren’t winning the line of scrimmage, maybe like you’ve been used to in the last couple of years?
“My confidence is fine. That doesn’t change anything. Everyone’s in a tough situation in the NFL. It’s no different for us. It’s just kind of is what it is and you’ve got to deal with it. You’ve got to come into work and just make the best of the situation that you’re given. That’s all you could really do. You can’t worry about things you can’t control and it starts with me. I’ve just got to play better.”
In your mind, are you at all a question mark going in next week or could this be a lingering thing after thinking you could be ready this week and having to come out?
“I really haven’t thought that far ahead. I guess we’ll just take it day by day with the ankle and see how it goes.”
How did you feel just going through the week on the ankle and was there any moments this week where you thought you might not play?
“No, there was never a moment I didn’t think I was going to play. Since last week, I told myself I was going to be out there. Did everything I could and took care of the ankle. Ankle was feeling fine before the game and so it’s just, it was a tough one today.”
Obviously, there were injuries and whatnot, but just as a team, you guys haven’t looked like that, certainly at no point last year. Can you pinpoint a few things that are going on here?
“I think we just, every offense, every team really, you have to find your identity. It’s a process. Every team goes through it every year and it’s not one of those things that happens very quickly. It takes time and we need to do it with a little bit of sense of urgency. It really comes down to find out who we are, what we do best and going out there and doing it on the field.
There’s a million little things that all come together and we’ve just got to keep working at it.”
What was the mood on the sideline and the second half when you weren’t on the field and do you sense a fight from the team still?
“Yeah, you could see it after the game. This one hurt. It hurt all of us after the game. It’s a tough situation to be in, but we’ve got some dogs in this locker room. We’ve got some guys who will come into work the next day with the right mindset, take the 24 hours, watch the film, be hard on ourselves like we always are, but we’ve got guys in this locker room that know what it takes to win, know how to do it and it’s just about going out there and doing it now.”
Obviously, everybody wants to play if they’re healthy, but they don’t want to be a hindrance to the team. You said that you felt good, but did you ever get to the point at halftime when head coach Kyle Shanahan decided to go with QB C.J. Beathard, that you did feel like maybe you were being a hindrance to the team?
“I didn’t really look at it that way. I wanted to be out there. I’m the quarterback of this team and it’s my job to be out there and put the team in a successful spot, position to be successful. Kyle made the decision at halftime. He’s the head coach. So, I followed it and it was just tough. I
want to be out there with my guys battling, whatever the situation is. It’s just tough.”
I’m curious to know how the Miami Dolphins were playing you guys now that you’d have pretty much a full complement of offensive weapons?
“Just with coverages and things like that, or what do you mean?”
Did they do anything defensively that surprised you, that other teams have in the last few games?
“Yeah, but every week is like that, especially with our offense, all the motions and different things that we do. You do the scouting report, but you kind of anticipate that teams are going to change some things up to stop what we do best and it just kind of is what it is. You’ve just got
to be able to adjust during the game with that stuff.”
Do you remember the play or the moment that you thought your ankles started barking at you?
“No. It was pretty much the same, the whole game.”
The second interception, the ball seemed to sail, seemed to drift a little bit. When you’re dealing with a right ankle sprain, I would imagine that you’re not able to drive off of that plant foot like you usually do. Was that the culprit on that play, on some of the other throws?
“Yeah, that one specifically, I really couldn’t. I tried to, like you said, I tried to drive it. I couldn’t really pull it down. Came off my hand wrong and as soon as I let it go, I knew it was just too high, but it was just tough. You’ve just got to learn how to work around it.”
We’ve seen you kind of on the sideline gather guys around at the playoffs last season. TE George Kittle has mentioned the captains several times to us, the offensive captains, up to that leadership. Is this a time for you guys, the captains, to kind of pull everyone aside? Is there a team meeting time? What do you think this team is emotionally involved, what the leader’s responsibility is?
“A great thing about this team is we have some great leaders on this team. We have guys who set the example, show guys how to work and how to put in the time. I think it’s really just about that. It’s not time to press the panic button or anything like that. There’s still a lot of season left, but there has to be a sense of urgency with everyone, starting from the top down and I think if we all have that sense of urgency and work the right way and work together, we can get this done.”
