What the 49ers are saying after losing to Titans
Kyle Shanahan on the reason for the loss: "If I had to narrow it down right now, we didn't play well enough on third down and we had two turnovers and they had zero."
The 49ers dominated the first half of Thursday night’s game.
The Titans dominated the second half.
Jimmy Garoppolo struggled after two efficient drives nearly put the 49ers up 14-0. Instead, he threw an interception in the end zone and the Niners led 7-0 after one quarter and 10-0 at the half while the 49ers defense held Tennessee to just 55 yards of offense in the first half.
After halftime, the Titans offense woke up. Or, more specifically, A.J. Brown woke up with seven catches for more 121 yards and a touchdown.
Garoppolo threw another pick on the Niners’ first play of the second half to set up a game-tying Tennessee touchdown. Despite a late tying drive from the 49ers offense (authored mostly by Deebo Samuel), the Titans punctuated their stellar half with a drive to win the game 20-17 with a field goal.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say about the loss:
Kyle Shanahan
On Garoppolo’s two interceptions:
Two turnovers cost you. They’re not all just on him. That’s on everybody out there.
On inability to take advantage in first half:
I thought we should have been up more, that was for sure. I thought we could have got three scores with those drives. We didn’t, we’re still up 10-0.
On the third-quarter interception:
He should not have thrown that. It was a bad play, no one was open on the play. He just had to take it.
On third-and-long struggles on defense:
The ones that I saw live, one for us to jump offsides and give a free play on third-and-20 something is just completely inexcusable. They just launched it up and the guy made a good play.
It looked like the ones over the middle, we were playing zone. Looked like they chipped us annd we just didn’t get there fast enough. From what I saw, it looked like the quarterback looked off for a while and it ended up opening a zone up over the middle.
On fourth-down incompletion to Aiyuk:
You just want to be decisive, whether you sit down or not and you know, he was a little in between and Jimmy was a little in between on the throw. Those guys got to make that together.
On whether the 49ers were too confident:
We weren’t overconfident coming in. I think we were pretty real where we’re at. I think we got a confident team, I think we felt like we’d play well. We thought we’d come out strong. But you still got to play good football in all phases.
If I had to narrow it down right now, we didn’t play well enough on third down and we had two turnovers and they had zero.
On not being aggressive before the half:
There was 19 seconds. I didn’t want to lead to a turnover, give them a chance of getting anything.
On Garoppolo bouncing back from second-half pick:
I thought he bounced back pretty good on that final drive, you know, starting on the four and going 96 yards … I don’t think we stayed out there long enough for him to bounce back, but after that pick, I don’t think his plays were bad.
On beating themselves:
I don’t think you totally beat yourself. Those guys made those plays on third down, they did some good things. That’s a good team. They played well. Not gonna not give them credit. But I’m frustrated and we could have won this one.
On the fast start and how things broke from there:
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 got to play good throughout all four quarters and you gotta do good in all situations. And 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 in a loss in that situation.
On his message to the team:
I’m proud of a lot of those guys and we made a ton of plays today. Guys played very hard, and they gave it all out there but that doesn’t guarantee anything. That allows you to beat a good team, which I know we are. But you want to win games and you want to dictate stuff, you can’t give people a chance with some of the penalties we had and some of the turnovers we had.
On his playcalling:
I just try to do as good as I can to give our guys a chance to win and we didn’t get that done today.
George Kittle
On the start and the turnaround:
I thought our offense did a really good job moving the ball, really every possession in the first half.
They had all the momentum in the second half. I thought our offense did a good job of answering, you know, when we needed to. But, you know, we left a lot of plays out there obviously.
On the Titans slowing him down:
I was doubled occasionally. It is what it is. We had plays designed to get people open and Jimmy did a good job delivering the ball.
On the turnovers:
Our thing has been the last five weeks, when we turn the ball over and we don’t force any turnovers, it’s hard to win. But, you know, we’re still in a position to be in there at the end, even overcoming those turnovers but we just didn’t do it enough.
On Garoppolo responding to mistakes:
I couldn’t tell the difference in Jim. He was confident. I thought he did a good job getting the sideline ready to go, the offense ready to go.
I think our best was needed tonight and our best players didn’t play our best game. Deebo played really well and just as an offense we had to not make mistakes.
Jimmy Garoppolo
On his own performance:
Some good, some bad. I’m trying to go through it in my head. We had a chance.
On his end zone interception:
Me and George just not being on the same page. Just get it right and get that one completed. That should have been a touchdown. The corner played it pretty well. Tip your cap to Janoris (Jenkins).
Whenever you get a one-on-one with George in the red zone, I’ll take that every day of the week and I’m not going to stop going to him.
On his approach after a bad game:
Good, bad or indifferent, I’m right here. It doesn’t change for me.
On stalled momentum:
We got off to a good start and got the lead like we wanted to. We just hit a lull in the middle there and if we don’t hit that lull, I think it’s a totally different game.
Nick Bosa
On the Titans’ offensive approach that protected Tannehill:
It was max pro all game. We gotta do a better job of figuring a way to counter it.
On third-down issues:
Those are the plays that win games and when you don’t make them, it’s definitely deflating.
On coming off the high Sunday to the low tonight:
I think we’re going to be fine. We’ve been through a lot this year. We’ve had a lot of tough losses and we’re going to try to make this the last one.
Deebo Samuel
On whether he was injured late:
Definitely knocked the wind out of me. I couldn’t breathe there for a second.
On missed opportunities in the first half:
It was kind of frustrating but you just gotta put it behind there and just try to do better in the second hand and we kind of fell short there.
On the interception intended for him:
Jimmy’s capable of making those passes but I think it got kind of away from him, put a little bit too much air on it and we got the turnover.
Fred Warner
On third-down woes:
They just kept hitting us over the middle of the field. We were in different coverages. We just got to be better about locking guys up.
We were in so many third-and-10, third-and-7-plus situations where they converted.
On turnovers:
We didn’t get any takeaways as a defense to help our team and that was the difference.
On message as captain to DBs if they struggle:
It felt like during the game that, especially Ambry, he was competing his butt off. He was going against one of the top receivers in the league and I mean, there was some of those situations where he was winning and doing a heck of a job.