San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters ahead of Wednesday's practice as the team prepares for its Week 3 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Here's everything he shared.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Injuries for today: [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] with his calf won't practice. Everyone else is full."
What's S Talanoa Hufanga's situation? Do you expect him to get a full week of practice and get right back to the starting line?
"He's full."
What does having him out over the past year and a half, what has that done for the defense as far as the adjustments that had to be made?
"It got [S Ji'Ayir Brown] Tig, a lot of reps last year. He had to step in, in the middle of the year and that got him a lot better. But obviously, you always miss Huf out there. The big play capability, how well he communicates, flying sideline to sideline. We're going to be pumped. He should get back this week if everything goes right. We've missed him."
When guys are out, is it kind of a thing where you don't want the quarterback to feel he has to try to do too much? And is QB Brock Purdy pretty good about that?
"Yeah. We never ask Brock to really do too much. We ask him to do the play that's called. If nothing's there, what are your options after that? You scramble, you throw things away. Sometimes you take a sack. Things you always try to do is not turn it over, but nothing really changes when you're missing guys. Game plan can sometimes change, but not what you ask the quarterback to do."
RB Isaac Guerendo's carry on Sunday seemed like, if he had waited a little longer, something would've opened up. A, is that the right read by me on that? And b, is that, if it is, is it common for young running backs in your system not to have the patience, initially, to let players develop?
"I think it's common in in all systems. [RB Jordan Mason] JP had one like that in the game too. With a remote in our hands, we all slow it down and see that, but I don't think there was a big one there. If he would've kept pressing, I think he would've got one to three yards and tackled. Cut back a little early, so he got three guys who hit him for negative-one yard. But there's a very fine line in that, it wasn't like that was going to be a big play or anything. The nose had us a little bit, the backers fell back with them not pressing it, but I was hoping for one yard on the look, we lost one."
Do you have a lot fewer plays at your disposal without Deebo and RB Christian McCaffrey or do you just have the same amount of plays with running them with different guys?
"Yeah, I'd say, we still have the same amount of plays. Just somewhat different styles of plays, different people in different spots. You eliminate some special things that you would only do for those guys, but the number doesn't change. Just, there's things those guys do very well. Nothing other guys can't do. But there's kind of different percentages on how much you call them and things like that."
Seems like you're calling play action passes less frequently than you have in the past. Is there something defenses are showing you that leads you to call more drop back passes?
"Just schematic reasons, who we were going against, what's good versus these teams? Sometimes, when play-action doesn't do much for six on the line, doesn't do much for a lot of blitzes things like that. So that a little factored to do with the last week. I'd say the week before, running it 38 times limits everything a little bit."
What do you think of CB Renardo Green and S Malik Mustapha? They're young players do you see them getting some more run in the weeks ahead here?
"Possibly. They have to be ready, always, in case of an injury. I could say they don't have any plans to play or to go in and then one play happens and they're in the rest of the game. It was nice to mix Malik in last week. I thought he did well with his reps. Renardo came in on a couple of dime packages and he did well with his reps too. So possibly with the scheme, whatever that is this week, we can keep building off that. But if not, they're always one play away from playing the rest of the game."
How many fewer complications are there, game planning, against a Rams defense that doesn't have former Los Angeles Rams DL Aaron Donald?
"It's definitely a little different. That's been 99% of our brain power for a number of years and it's kind of weird just not thinking that way. But schematically, I know [Atlanta Falcons head coach] Raheem [Morris] is not there and stuff, but they're still running the same fronts, the same coverages and things. But it's different."
Any roster moves this week?
"Not right now."
What is your assessment of the Rams? They come into this game, you would think, pretty desperate.
"I think anytime that you lose like they did, and being 0-2, I know that feeling. In the NFL, whether you lose two in a row after winning 10 in a row or you're starting 0-2, if you lose two in a row in the NFL, that's always a kind of an Armageddon feeling in a building, especially when you lose lopsided like that. How teams come out the week after that, it's such a fine line in those things. We were a couple of plays away from that, the game going like that in Minnesota. It can happen so fast. All you have to do is watch their Detroit game the week before to see how good of a team this team can be. They've taken it to overtime in the fifth quarter to get a chance to win and how they had to come back to do that there at the end. So last week got out of hand a little bit early, especially the four plays they had on offense and just not getting started quick. But by no means was that indication of what this team's going to be going through the rest of the year."
How similar, schematically, is the Rams offense compared to the Vikings offense you just had?
"It's similar. It all comes from the same foundation."
Did the muffed punt give you pause about WR Jacob Cowling back there or are you going to stick with him?
"No, that's one muffed punt. Just when it comes to catching stuff, he's been as natural of a catcher as we've had in our eight years here, just in practice, how he's been in the games. I know that one got away from him, which we can't have those. But everyone muffs one here and there. You just hope that was the end of it."
Is there any Achilles involvement in Deebo's injury?
"No."
What went wrong when you watched the punt block there?
"We were late off the ball on the right side, which made one guy a little bit behind and then the guy outside of him was a little bit too wide. He could have been a little tighter to save him. We had a snap count that tried to surprise them and it surprise one of our guys who was just, he missed half a second on the road and stuff. And that guy split us and should have kept it tighter on the outside, but we gave him too quick of a lane."
Mitch Wishnowsky was a little slow it seemed like to react to the ball in front. Was it just like he was surprised or did you get a sense?
"No, we just did a silent cadence. One guy just hesitated. It'd probably be hard for you guys to see. It's that slow, but when you do that, a guy gets an edge and then if this guy outside him kicking out too far, just like in protection, then he's got a clean path. We just have to tighten it up and come off the ball at the same time."
Did you tune into the Deebo Samuel show on Bleacher Report with WR Brandon Aiyuk last night?
"No, I didn't. I tune into that every day. So that's my 20-minute break or however long it lasts [laughing]."
How important is the atmosphere for this game? You talk about losing two in a row, obviously you guys don't want to do that, the Rams don't want to drop a third. You talk about Levi's South, how important is that specifically in a game like this?
"You always want to give teams no light. When teams' backs are against the wall which both teams in that situation, both teams want to come out aggressive and hard and give neither side of the ball any light. When you do have a situation like we do, when we go there and how we have so many fans show up that's only cool if you play real well. If you play real well and can kind of control the game, then it gets real fun. If not, then it's twice as disappointing."
