(opening statement)
KYLE SHANAHAN: Injuries, DJ Jones had an ankle. He returned. Azeez (Al-Shaair) had a knee, didn't return. Deebo (Samuel) got wind knocked out of him there at the end. Go ahead. \
Q. Do you know the severity of Azeez (Al-Shaair)'s knee?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, we'll get an MRI tomorrow.
Q. When you look at this game and you saw Jimmy Garoppolo (No microphone) passes early on, how much did that cost you guys?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, two turnovers cost you but they're not all just on him. That's on everybody out there.
Q. How frustrating was this get a chance to put them away earlier, or at least get a big lead. What was your frustration level going into the half?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, I thought we should've been up more, that was for sure. I thought we could have got three scores with those drives. We didn't. Still 10-0. You know, that opening third quarter I thought was rough. Thought our defense did great except for third down. I think third-and-15, I think a third-and-10, and third-and-seven all in that one drive, which led to three, which kept them alive.
We weren't good on third down, and I think -- and then our first play in the third quarter on the offense was a pick. That was a real bad one. Should not have thrown that. It was a bad play. One was open on the play, he just had to take it. And I was glad we tied it up there at the end, but then they came back and finished on the final drive.
Q. (Regarding third-and-long.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, the ones that I saw live, you know, one, for us to jump offsides and give a free play on third-and-20-something is completely inexcusable. Then they just launched it up and the guy made a good play. Looked like the ones over the middle we were playing zone. Looked like they chipped us and we just didn't get there fast enough. From what I saw, looked like the quarterback looked off for a while and ended up opening a zone up over the middle. I think we had about three guys close to it, but the zone broke apart a little.
Q. Fourth-and-six, (regarding Brandon Aiyuk) are you supposed to keep going? Was that maybe a miscommunication?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, just we were in a shallow cross and you -- run versus man or zone, everyone has the same thing, just wanted to be decisive whether you're sitting down or not, and he was a little in between and Jimmy (Garoppolo) was a little in between on the throw. Those two have got to make that together.
Q. How do you assess your defense's performance?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, all three phases wasn't good enough obviously, but I thought they had a chance to have a special game, especially how they played in the first half. I thought they were close to doing that in the second half, but when you're like that on third down, first and second doesn't matter.
Q. Could you sense the team was overconfident coming in, and where is that confidence level now?
KYLE SHANAHAN: They weren't overconfident coming in. I think we were pretty real with where we are at. I think we had a confident team. Felt like we'd play well. Thought we would come out strong. I think we did. But you've still got to play good football in all phases, and if it I had to narrow it down right now, we didn't play good enough on third down and had two turnovers and they had zero.
Q. At the end the first half you could have called the timeout; 19 seconds left; ball at the 33. Why didn't you try to get...
KYLE SHANAHAN: Just there was 19 seconds. I didn't want to lead to a turnover, give them a chance to get anything.
Q. Obviously Jimmy (Garoppolo) had some shaky passes leading up to that. Was that a factor in your decision?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No.
Q. One thing about Jimmy (Garoppolo) is that oftentimes he throws an interception, he tends to bounce back really quickly and didn't feel like he could at all tonight. Could you put your finger on why?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, I thought he bounced back pretty good on the final drive, starting on the four and going 96 yards. I want to say that was our fourth drive. The first drive was a pick. So, he had two drives before that. One I think we went three-and-out. The other one I think we marched on the field pretty good. I thought he did well and then got a holding call on first-and-10 after completion. I think led to first-and-20, then ended up getting sacked which led to a second-and-30 I think, and that drive was kind of ended. I don't think we stayed out there long enough for him to bounce back. After that pick he -- I didn't think his plays were bad.
Q. Did you feel like you beat yourself again? If so, how frustrating is that?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I don't think totally beat yourself. Those guys made those plays on third down. They did some good things. That's a good team. They played well. Going to give them a lot of credit, but I'm frustrated. I think we could have won this won.
Q. What did you think of Ambry Thomas' performance today?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I saw the long third down one just like you guys did. Couple he gave up, but wasn't the reason we lost.
Q. Feel like the short week, you get a sense it had an impact in terms of the struggles?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, not at all. I thought we were ready to play. I think our team was fired up to play and I think you guys saw that, but you've got to play good throughout all four quarters and do good in all situations. When you can't get off the field on third down and we don't do that great on offense on third down, they have two turnovers and we have zero, regardless of how you're playing in between that usually ends up with a loss in that situation.
Q. If first half the long pass, (indiscernible) was that just a miss or was there something else going on there?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, just looked like he missed it.
Q. After a game like this, do you talk to the team? Do you talk about big picture or the fact that this one got away?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, I talk about -- I mean, whatever comes to my mind in the heat of battle. I might see them again on the plane, you never know. I just told them there is a lot of things I was proud of with them. We thought we were going to come out ready to go. You could feel it with our team, and we did.
I'm proud of a lot of those guys, and we made a ton of plays today. Guys played very hard. They gave it all out there. But that doesn't guarantee anything. That allows you to be a good team, which I know we are. But you want to win the games and you want to dictate stuff. You can't give other people a chance with some of the penalties we had and turnovers we had.
Q. Jimmy has held onto a ball too long causing a sack. Is that something you been working with him on?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, no. I mean, he understands that with us. I mean, you get to that second, third hitch, you rarely get a third hitch in the NFL. Once you get a fourth one you better get rid of it.
Q. Coverage-wise what were doing with AJ Brown, obviously he's really good. I guess why did you not have an answer for him in the second half?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, they had some good plays. He made some good plays. They had a good play-action there backed up. You know, it wasn't just man-to-man coverage. It wasn't just zone. He did a good job on both.
Q. That first drive seemed to be very effective. Was there anything that they changed in the defense that changed your productivity?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No. You know, there was a little more nickel defense in the second half, but first drive was good. Second drive I thought -- I think that's when we went down and threw a pick, so I thought the second drive was good, too. I think the third drive we went all the way down and missed that touchdown but finished with a field goal.
Q. Are you pleased with the job you did today?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I don't look at it that way. I just try to do as good as I can to give our guys a chance to win. We didn't get that done today.
