Nolan's Notebook: September 15
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RE: Opening statements:
“Alright, glad to be here talking about a win again. Or should I say, talking about yesterday, obviously. I was pleased with the way our guys fought back from being down by 14 points. Shows a lot of character, but it also showed that our guys do believe in what they’re doing and I think that will pay dividends going forward. A road victory. Very difficult place to play in Seattle, as we’re all well aware of. I recognize many of your faces being there yesterday, so you know what I’m talking about. I don’t think there’s probably a more difficult environment to play in than playing in Seattle. They’ve got an outstanding group of fans and they do a great job with the noise. That makes it all the more difficult to operate on offense, and I thought our guys handled it, for the most part well. But nonetheless, to get a win and a victory in Seattle was very big and important. Tomorrow – or, excuse me, today – the players are, will have a ‘Win Monday.’ They will not be here other than getting treatments and those things, which are mandatory. Tomorrow’s a regular Tuesday off and then Wednesday we’ll put closure to the game. We’ll spend some of the time in the morning putting that behind us and then getting right on to Detroit, and, actually, that’s the only one we have this week, so it’ll be the one where our focus is on. We’ll put some closure to Seattle’s game at that time. Questions?”
RE: Your first two games offensively have been better than last season. What are the things that stand out to you for why there is that improvement?
“First it starts with Mike Martz and the coordinator. I think Mike’s done an outstanding job, as I continue to say all along. From the time I hired him on, he’s got a great command, not only of the offense, but he’s got a great command presence with the players. They’ve got a lot of belief in what he does. They know that if they just do what he says, they’ve got a great chance to get he ball, and every player wants the ball, other than the offensive linemen, naturally. So, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons. Outside of that, there have been some additions that have made us better, and some of them you haven’t even seen yet. But the ones you have seen, obviously Isaac Bruce is one. J.T. O’Sullivan is one. DeShaun Foster, who we haven’t seen much of lately, I think is one that will, as the season goes along, will be an outstanding complement to Frank [Gore]. So, you put that together. Bryant Johnson’s another. Again, there’s some unfamiliar faces from a year ago that have made us better, all the way from the coordinator down to the players on the field.”
RE: You guys had six penalties at halftime and only three after. What adjustments did you make at halftime to handle the crowd noise better?
“Just better focus. That’s all. Just a better concentration. It wasn’t like we went to holding hands, things like that, to get off on the snap; if you know what I’m talking about. It was just a matter of getting better focus. One of the biggest things it helps is obviously, when you go up 27-20, things aren’t quite as noisy as they were when you were down 14-0. So, that’s a big part. But it takes a lot of effort to get to that point and credit to the offense. They did.”
RE: Why did you use five defensive backs almost the entire way even though Seattle was decimated by injuries at wide receiver?
“Well, even though they were banged up, as I’ve said all along, coach [Mike] Holmgren’s system that he uses is one that he uses regardless of injury or not. Two years ago, we beat them with the same scheme on a Thursday night. Since then we hadn’t used it; just alternating prior to that. They have a great tempo on offense. They run people in and out frequently. If you try to match that with your defense, you’re always behind the 8-ball. Always, because they’re, obviously, they get to snap on their own cadence. They get everything there. So, in order to keep our guys calmed down with the game, we thought it was a good situation, we were able to – you can always load the box. It doesn’t, it does not limit you defensively from a scheme aspect. I did feel that going into the game from a matchup standpoint, it gave us the best chance to win player on player because as you all noticed, they are, the majority of the time, in three-wide receiver sets. Not always. They run some two backs and a tight end at times, but, a lot of the time, they do run three-wide receiver sets. From a matchup standpoint, even though that second wide receiver that’s in there going up against a walked-out linebacker, say a Takeo Spikes, might sound good to you that he’s the starter for us and that’s their backup, it’s a little bit like me trying to cover Isaac Bruce. It doesn’t really make sense. So, the matchup standpoint is real important. I thought it was very effective in what we tried to accomplish from the standpoint again, like I said, keeping our guys calm and playing. It did allow us to utilize – again, we aren’t limited in any facet. We aren’t limited in pressures. We aren’t limited in coverage. We actually just better matched up for the opponent.”
RE: You weren’t limited in pressures? Because it didn’t seem like you guys pressured much at all…
“When you don’t get pressure, it always looks that way.”
RE: You did pressure:
“Well, we brought five guys several times. Several times, but we didn’t get the pressure. I thought the quarterback did an outstanding job. One thing that is not evident, no one has said it, but he might have completed 50 percent of his passes, maybe. So even though its not pressure, he wanted to get rid of the ball quick. He did not want to face what he did a week ago, but believe me, as anyone does, when you have a bad week, you put a lot of emphasis on that the next week. We didn’t touch [the quarterback] as much as we did a week ago, as far as how many times we got a hit on [Kurt] Warner, but again that is the whole idea behind competition.”
RE: It just seems like with them, with only three healthy receivers going into the game, they would be really focused on establishing the run and pounding you guys with the run. And you guys were smaller with a front six instead of a front seven. Did you figure that you would give a lot up in the run game?
“Yeah the reality, is that we get bigger when we go to that big package. If you look at the group up there, we’ve got a big group up there. We’ve got two tackles in there that are about 340-plus that you might have one or the other in depending on the rotation. Then we’ve got to [defensive] ends, one of them is a linebacker, who puts his hand in the dirt, and that’s Justin [Smith] who plays outside backer for us. We’re actually pretty big. It’s not a nickel defense, as you might assume. The extra defensive back…we get big in other areas when we put a defensive back on there and our defensive back is a small linebacker anyway. Michael Lewis is about 230 or 225 or whatever. Like I said we stay big. The reality is we go to a 4-3 and we use one of our big safeties to be a linebacker. That’s all it is.”
RE: The big safety is taking the spot of Manny [Lawson] in essence?
“Yeah, I would say if you really put all the weight together. It would be a good guess that we are maybe 10 pounds light because Manny is about 242 and I think Michael is about is 230. So that’d be the difference between the weight.”
RE: So today, do you think that was the right strategy?
“Oh sure, the objective is to win the game without question and we have a lot of other problems. Last year we lost 24-3, excuse me, 24-0 and 23-3. The year before we lost, excuse me we won both of those games using similar packages in the second package when we went up there. So the key is, with Seattle anyhow, is they do a great job with preparing with what you do. You don’t want to go in there, looking like you have forever. Seattle is one of the best preparation teams in the league I think. It is one of the huge reasons they win. I said it yesterday, the West Coast Offense, when it was under Bill Walsh, when it was established was about we know our stuff and its very multiple. Let’s spend our time, getting to know what our opponent is all about and that is exactly what [Mike] Holmgren does. I think he’s an outstanding coach because of that and his quarterbacks are outstanding because of that. They know you and anytime you can show them something that creates some kind of hesitation, it’s important that you spend your day doing that.”
RE: Talking about the switching in of players, just matching their personnel. Shouldn’t that be easier now with the headset?
“It’s not, no. Two seconds, three seconds, but that’s not enough for what they set you back. They win as quick an operation as anybody in the league. They do a great job with it, a real compliment to them. People that aren’t away of that, playing Seattle, whether they are playing them at home or away, they need to be aware of that. They do an outstanding job. They really do.”
RE: Speaking of pressure on the other side of the ball, J.T. [O’Sullivan] took quite a beating. What did you see when you looked at the film? What can you guys do to adjust?
“The responsibility is shared throughout. Some of it was J.T., some of it is was the line, but it was shared throughout. Obviously, as we are all well aware of, there were eight sacks, a lot of sacks. There wasn’t just one area.”
RE: Are you concerned about his durability?
“I think his durability is very good, but you don’t want your quarterback taking hits. What I mean by that is has he already come out because of something like that. Thus far he has not, but we do want to keep him secure. There were a couple of hits on him that I thought some guys might get fined about. That’s really concerned me more than anything else. Those kinds of things.”
RE: Are you talking about Brian Russell?
“I don’t know who it was. I don’t want to call anybody out.”
RE: Spearing…
“There was a head-to-head by someone at one point that was pretty evident.”
RE: When he [J.T. O’ Sullivan] was sliding?
“He was sliding on the play.”
RE: When you say that O’Sullivan shares the responsibility for some of the breakdowns in protection, what do you mean?
“Sometimes quarterbacks will see something that they’ll flush early, things like that if they do. But look it: he made some plays off of those things, too, a couple of times. So it’s hard to be too critical in certain respects because he’s the guy pulling the trigger out there, as we all know. He made some plays. There were seven passes over 20 yards yesterday. Just seven. Four of them, every one of Isaac Bruce’s four catches were over 20 yards and obviously much more than that, some of them, with 153 yards. Players make plays, and I thought that there are times that if he feels the need to come out for something, it’s hard to argue with that on certain things. But, obviously, in watching the film, he’ll see, as they all will, who’s responsible for what.”
RE: The second half: was Jonas Jennings benched or was he injured?
“No. Jonas was injured.”
RE: He was injured?
“Oh yeah. He’s got a shoulder.”
RE: Was that a significant injury?
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t gotten the report. I won’t get to that until after. But he’s got a shoulder.”
RE: So in your mind, if he’s healthy he’s the starter?
“He’s the starter, yes. This week he got injured so he came out.”
RE: Do you have a feeling on any of the other injured guys?
“I don’t have anything right now.”
RE: What did you think of [Jonas Jennings’] play in this game, Mike? He had back-to-back false starts and a holding call later on before he got hurt. How would you assess his play in this game?
“He wasn’t the only culprit early with the noise and all that was going on. He just got hurt prematurely from the time he could get it all together like some others – the same thing.”
RE: I was just wondering if he was responsible for any of the sacks?
“That I can’t answer right now. I can’t – it wouldn’t be fair. I don’t know. Like I said, when there’s eight of them, we just … as I watched it, what was important is that it wasn’t just one area, which it wasn’t.”
RE: Is Vernon Davis more of a benefit to you guys as a blocker as opposed to a receiver?
“Is he more?”
RE: Yeah:
“No, I wouldn’t say more. Certain games where it might by the game’s end, it might have him doing more of one than the other. But the game takes its own personality every time you play. Obviously we all go into battle with an objective in mind for what we want to do, but as the game wears on sometimes you have to pass a little more, run a little more, sometimes you have to protect a little bit more. So again, the game – it’s always in the plan to obviously spread the ball around to all the offensive players. If a guy is not capable of, whether it’s being a good receiver or even being a good blocker, then obviously you try not to put that in the plan. You try and minimize that. But Vernon is unique from the standpoint that he is a good receiver and he’s also a very good blocker. So we had the opportunity to use him in both situations.”
RE: Was that ball catchable, that first play of the game when he sort of shied away from it?
“You know I sped through it so fast, I can’t answer that accurately right now. If anybody touches the ball, the old rule is [if] you can touch it, you can catch it so I can’t remember if he touched it or not.”
RE: Coach, there were two illegal formation calls against you in the first half. One was on….
“One was on the tackle, Joe [Staley].”
RE: Did he line up off sides?
“They said he was too far in the backfield.”
RE: And what was the other one?
“It was on the other side of the field. It was umm – unless somebody else can recall, they can bring it up, but I remember it was on the other side of the field …”
RE: Was it Arnaz Battle?
“I remember this instance, but I can’t recall who it was because it took a play back that we had made…”
RE: Well the first one took a play back to the 24 [yard line]:
“I don’t remember the other one across the field to my right, I don’t recall what or who it was.”
RE: Getting back to [Jonas] Jennings for a second, he’s missed something like 27 games since he’s come to the 49ers and here he is hurt again. At some point do you just say ‘well this guy gets hurt too many times to remain a starter’?
“Well, as Jonas [Jennings] would say, he’s very frustrated by it because his durability has hurt him. Stating that, that’s one of the reasons we did make the switch over to right tackle for him because of the consistency at left tackle. Look, it’s as much of a disappointment to him as it is to all of us. Hopefully, whatever comes out of this it’s not a long injury. Hopefully he’ll be right back. But it’s just something that you deal with in this game. Like I said, hopefully we get him back soon.”
RE: Getting back to the defense, you guys have New Orleans, New England and Detroit coming up. Is that ‘Big sub … ?’
“We have Detroit, right?”
RE: Right. Some teams that like to pass the ball coming up. Will we be seeing a lot more of this defense like we saw against Seattle?
“I really can’t tell you Matt [Barrows]. You never know. You never know.”
RE: Were you happy enough with it to trust it as a base defense?
“That’s 2-0 that you guys know of.”
RE: More than that:
“You know, it’s something that we use where multiple – again, scheme is a tool. That’s all it is; to utilize your players against another team’s scheme. Whether it’s due to injury that occurs or whether it’s just due to the fact that you think it’s the best scheme going against that opponent. There’s a lot of reasons to use it. In certain games, I’ll say it’s not best to dance with the one that brought you. Sometimes you have to, in order to give yourself a chance to win a game, you’ve got to do some different things. But it is something – I’ll say this. It’s not foreign to everyone we play to see it. It’s some time or another in games. So it’s not like we did something that Seattle had not – like I said, we did it against them in the past as well. But when you try to jockey in and out of a lot of substitutions and keep up with Seattle. It’s just been my philosophy that that’s not a good thing to do. You want to give your players the beset chance to win the game. You don’t want to think you’re going to be the difference maker with every call as a perfect call. Every call is a good call and every call has the potential to be a bad call. You just want to put them out there and make sure they have an opportunity to execute.”
RE: I’m sure you counsel your players against excessive celebrations, but after the Patrick Willis celebration they said Nate [Clements] …
“Yeah, they said Nate. I have yet to still get a – I need to talk to someone about that before I come out because, my feedback was Nate went to the ground, or something like that, near him. I don’t know what happened.”
RE: Yeah:
“Someone said he went down to the ground. Did he go on his knees to do it? I know the one that scores the touchdown can’t go to the ground. So, I was anxious to call and say, ‘Does that mean no one else can go to the ground either?’ Again, I don’t really have a ruling or any specifics about it.”
RE: Was this a pretty important game given the division?
“Yeah. Look, it always feels good to win. Naturally, Mondays are a lot different after a victory than they are after a loss. We lost a game at home last week against Arizona. You’d like to think if you’re going to make a run at something, you take care of your home. So, we had to steal one on the road, so to speak. Whether it was going to come this week or a week to come, that was good from that standpoint. Now Seattle’s dealing wit the same thing a little bit. They’re going to try at some point to get one from someone on the road. It had a lot of reasons of importance, but that’s just one.”
