What the 49ers are saying after losing to Bengals
The 49ers lost Sunday to the Bengals, 31-17, for their third consecutive defeat after opening the season 5-0.
Brock Purdy threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, all in the second half as the 49ers sought to mount a comeback.
Purdy finished 21-of-30 passing for 324 yards, one touchdown and those two interceptions. He was sacked twice, including that fumble on the final play of the 49ers’ last-gasp drive in the fourth quarter.
The second-year quarterback led the 49ers with 57 yards on six rushes, as Christian McCaffrey ran 12 times for 54 yards and a touchdown in his 17th straight game to tie Lenny Moore’s NFL record from the 1960s.
Joe Burrow was nearly perfect on the other side, completing 28-of-32 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns, including 10 completions for 100 yards and a score to Ja’Marr Chase. East Bay native Joe Mixon led Cincinnati with 87 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
Kyle Shanahan
On the first interception:
It was just supposed to be a handoff to him and we missed the handoff. Trying to scramble out of there and by that time, you don’t want to throw it down the field because people are just run-blocking.
On Purdy:
Some bad picks there at the end, but he was one of the reasons we were in the game today. Some of the throws he made out there were unbelievable.
On the second interception:
He was aggressive, thought the Mike (linebacker) was going to pass on that second pick and the Mike fell off right with Jauan (Jennings), so you just gotta see it.
On the errors:
I thought our tackling was extremely sloppy today, especially in the first half. I thought we tackled better in the second half, but yeah, there was too much space.
On message to the team:
I’ll talk to them more tomorrow but my message was we got to take that (game). I mean, we didn’t play well. That team beat us straight up. … But the bottom line to them was, you know, we gotta get better in every aspect. The things that disappointed me today are some of the fundamentals, just throwing and catching, tackling.
On areas to improve:
I think we need to run the ball better, we need to score more points, we need to slow guys down better, whether it’s with pass rush, whether it’s doing better on first and second down.
On the trade deadline:
None of this changes anything with the trade deadline, how we played today or how we played these last three weeks. … I do believe we have the answers in our building. I believe we have good players believe we have good coaches. It’s up to me to get them to do better.
On getting better:
We got to continue to push them in every aspect because some people do go on these long losing streaks and they don’t have the answers, and you’re just living on hope. I truly believe we do have the answers. I believe we got them on our team. … I think our guys need to be pushed a little bit. I think we need to come back with a little better focus.
On defensive coordinator Steve Wilks:
It isn’t on any one coach or any one side of the ball. I mean, we haven’t scored over 20 points here in three weeks, too. So I think our defense needs to do better. I think our offense needs to be better, I think our team needs to do better. And when I say our team, I mean every single player and I mean every single coach.
On the difference between winning streak and losing streak:
“We just made a bunch of plays to get up on people by couple scores and little mistakes aren’t as crucial … We’ve gotten away with a number of stuff on our win streak. And we haven’t these last three weeks.”
On missing Williams and Samuel:
Good players allow you to overcome mistakes sometimes. They can hide stuff.
Brock Purdy
On the first interception:
Man, I should have handed it off, simple as that. It was an option play with George coming back side to toss it to him. Once I pulled it to go toss it to him, wasnt’ there, so I tried making something up and just scrambling to the right. At that point, I got to know that the linemen are downfield and I just got to try to get whatat I can get, but to throw the ball in itself would be a penalty and I got to be better. Saw Elijah in the corner of the end zone, tried making something happen there.
On his concussion:
I felt 100%. All week, my symptoms and stuff weren’t as bad compared to many other concussions that the team has had and I was doing fine, was doing great for each phase of the protocol and then when I got cleared — we all thought I was gonna get cleared and sure enough, I did.
On diagnosing issues going into the bye:
It’s just finishing drives, you know. We’ll get the ball moving and we’ll start rolling and get first downs and then, you know, there’s just some third downs that we got to convert better at, especially down in the red zone. There’s points to be put up for us and whether that’s a field goal or obviously converting a third down and continuing the drive to score, it’s as simple as we’re just handcuffing ourselves.
On balancing aggressive vs. smart:
If it’s not there, try to make something happen, but don’t force it. Clearly toward the end of the game, that’s what I was doing was starting to force things and not see things clearly.
On the bye:
Now we have to wait 14 days to play our next game for our next shot or next opportunity and it hurts. We have a bad taste in our mouth.
Fred Warner
On Purdy:
The quarterback is always going to receive the brunt of the criticism, but Brock is like the least of my worries. Brock is made of the right stuff. Yeah, can he protect the ball better? Sure, but he’s the reason why we have a chance to win games in every single game we have.
On the bye:
I’m just going to look at it as a good reset to be able to go into this bye and figure this thing out and get back to playing 49er defense because right now we’re not.
On the issues:
Inconsistency across the board. I think tackling has been an issue when it hasn’t been in the past. Players got to execute at a higher level, including myself. We got to play more as a unit. There’s got to be more hunt to the football at all three levels. There’s got to be more penalty-free football.
On whether they dropped off after beating Dallas:
To say that the mindset really shifted after starting 5-0, I really don’t think so. It just isn’t enough.
On Wilks:
That’s the least of my worries, honestly. I think players win games, not coaches.
George Kittle
On what’s hurting them:
Turnovers, I would say. I don’t read the stats every single week. I don’t feel like as an offense, we’re running the ball a lot or very well … Ever since I’ve been a 49er, you know, outside zone has been like our No. 1 thing. And, I just don’t know, we know we’ve had penalties the last three weeks, so it’s kind of hard to run the ball and it’s first-and-20, second-and-15. It’s hard to run the ball in those situations, so we have to rely on the pass, and when you have to rely on the pass, it makes you one-dimensional.
On the game:
We’re a very good, talented football team. We have good coaches, and we’re just not winning the game right now.
On Purdy’s issues:
There are two positions of football I would never want to play, and that’s quarterback and cornerback. … The only thing I’d ask Brock is, man, try not to throw interceptions. I don’t know, turnovers are hard.
On Purdy:
One thing I love about Brock is he’s very hard on himself and he can look in the mirror and say ‘Hey, I know I need to play better.’ I’m not going to say that he needs to play better. We need to turn the ball over less and you know he’s going to be fine. I’m not worried about Brock. He’s the reason that we win football games as an offense.
On losing:
I can’t give you an answer on why we’re losing, besides turnovers, I don’t think we’ve run the ball enough, and situationally, I don’t think we can run the ball because of the situation we’re putting ourselves in.
On turning around:
We have the men on this team that are going to respond well to adversity. We’re going to do our best and we’re going to go out there and we’re going to play are a higher level, we’re going to play better.