What the 49ers said after beating the Cardinals
The 49ers may be battered and bruised, but they are 3-0 after beating the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in their home opener.
Star defensive end Nick Bosa suffered a knee injury in the 16-15 win, but backup quarterback Mac Jones led a late drive that became a game-winner when Eddy Piñeiro nailed a 35-yarder as time expired.
Piñeiro was 3-for-3 on the day. Jones completed 27 of 41 passes for 284 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Ricky Pearsall led all receivers with eight catches for 117 yards. Christian McCaffrey rushed for 52 yards on 17 carries and had 10 catches for 88 yards, including a key screen pass on the final drive.
Here’s what the Niners had to say about the win:
Kyle Shanahan
On Bosa’s knee injury:
We can’t rule anything out. They checked for ACL and stuff there; it was good with that. But we’re still not sure, so we gotta check with more thorough stuff tonight and tomorrow.
On Mac Jones:
I thought he did some really good things. I know there’s a couple he’d love to take back. I thought his pick was just a bad play. Would love for Ricky to be able to break it up, but it was just a bad call. The way he came back on the end on that last drive, he was unbelievable. Even scrambling around, his knee was bothering him.
On his confidence in Piñeiro on the last kick:
We don’t have a lot of life experiences together, but I was feeling good with it and he definitely kept that going.
On McCaffrey’s toughness as he got hit a ton:
That’s how Christian is to me every day of his life, so grateful to have him.
On Pearsall coming through in big moments:
This is how Ricky’s been for a while. We felt it toward the end of last year. He’s been this way all through training camp, and it’s one of the reasons we wanted to draft him here, and he hasn’t disappointed us at all.
On overcoming a tough game:
You felt it throughout the whole game. You could tell it wasn’t going exactly how we would like — the time of possessions, stuff like that, really struggling on third down. I think we had our seventh play on offense, I want to say it was like seven minutes into the second quarter, so they were controlling the ball and we weren’t moving the ball on third down. They made it real tough, but the guys never wavered.
On the feeling around Bosa’s injury:
There is concern because of how he feels. They do tests and stuff on the sideline. Usually they say whether he definitely did (tear the ACL) or not, and they didn’t say that. But we are concerned with that and keeping our fingers crossed for the MRI.
On whether Piñeiro is confident:
Seems like it. He carries himself that way. He was cool breaking down the team there at the end, but we’ve enjoyed him here in these two weeks and liked how he’s handled himself. And definitely like guys even more when they make kicks.
On how the d-line played after Bosa went out:
I just saw them step it up. I saw a number of guys make plays. I thought they contained Kyler pretty good, which is a huge challenge.
Kyle Juszczyk
On Mac Jones:
Mac was great the whole time. You don’t want to throw a pick when you’re a quarterback, so I’m sure he was feeling the pressure of that. I know he was a little banged up, he was kind of trying to limp his way through the rest of the game
On starting the season 3-0 despite injuries:
I think it says so much. This team is not who it’s going to be yet. We’re still trying to figure out who we are as well. … We know we’re not a finished product, but we’re going to continue to grow and we’re doing that as 3-0, 2-0 in the division.
On McCaffrey:
I train with Christian in the offseason and I’m telling you, there is nobody on this planet that trains like Christian McCaffrey. I’m telling you, he puts absolutely everything into getting back to his form for this season. That guy, literally six to seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. he has a trainer with him. 24/7 he was grinding and you’re seeing that pay off.
Fred Warner
On the team’s mentality:
I think it just speaks to how gritty our team is. We got a team full of fighters who are willing to go the distance all four quarters. We’re calling on a lot of guys who probably didn’t know that they were going to be needed as much as they have been. So just extremely proud fo the group finding ways to win.
On Bosa’s potential absence:
Obviously he’s one of our best players, right? So it would be a huge loss. But like I said, hoping for the best with the news.
Ricky Pearsall
On his fourth-and-2 catch:
I seen the corner pressed up on me. He was playing really inside leverage and as I was released, I was coming off my release and just kind of reading into the DB and he stayed inside. So I just took the outside release and Mac put it on the money on the sideline and I ended up making the catch on my helmet.
On the final drive:
I’m always optimistic and when we get the ball and we got two minutes left and we’re driving down the field, I have all the confidence in the world and in Mac and the entire offense to go down there and win the game for us. I think it really shows what kind of team we have to be able to go through adversity the entire game as an offense and be able to put up points at the end to win the game.
On Mac Jones:
He just got here this last summer. To be a quarterback where you really have to know where everybody’s at on the field at the same time, you ahve a different game plan each and every week. I just want to give all the credit in the world to Mac because that’s a really difficult situation to be in.
On his joyful demeanor:
I have fun every day, especially when KB is out there with me. We’re constantly dancing. I’m having a great time. I’m super blessed, super happy to be in the situation I am. Especially considering what I had to go through last year, being able to wake up every day and just be thankful for the day that is to come and being able to get in this locker room with these guys and being around great coaches, there’s a lot of things to be happy and excited about each and every day.
On Kendrick Bourne:
I feel like I’ve known the dude for a long time, but I’ve really only known him for like a week. He’s a great dude. He’s always smiling, laughing and that’s what I’m about. He’s one of those energy guys, good dudes to be around. You’re going to hear him when you’re in the meeting room with him, when you’re in the huddle with him.
On switching between quarterbacks:
Getting more and more reps with Mac, the more comfortable we’re getting with each other… but I don’t think it really matters what quarterback. For me, it’s just getting to those right spots at the right time, just to make it easier for the quarterback to throw the ball to me.
Trent Williams
On Mac Jones:
He’s not a spring chicken, you know what I’m saying. He’s played some ball and has been in some really intense games, intense atmosphere and you can tell. So I think he’s been wonderful last couple weeks in the huddle. Even when the stakes are high, he’s still the same person.
On Bosa’s injury:
Anytime you lose a guy like Nick and he doesn’t come back and his status is unknown, it’s a real buzzkill. I can honestly say that going down to win the game, on the drive to win the game, I thought about Nick plenty of times I was in the huddle. Just hoping, praying that we get some good news. It’s cliche to say it’s a next-man-up league. When you loes a guy like that, you need three or four guys to come and fill those shoes. I think we got the depth and we got the youth, so hopefully they can continue to improve.
Christian McCaffrey
On the gritty wins:
Anytime you open up 3-0 with two division games, that’s a big deal. I think the best part about it is we’re definitely just not satisfied with how we’re playing. But to not be satisfied and still find ways to grit out some wins is a huge deal.
On the screen:
It was a great call. Just a little under screen. O-line did a great job blocking and receivers did a great job blocking downfield and made my job easy. Eddie came in there, new to this team and didn’t blink.
On whether he takes perverse joy in getting hit:
No I do not. I don’t like getting hit. I don’t want to get hit. But sometimes there’s games where you take a lot of shots, sometimes there’s not, but I feel great right now. Once again, I think just the nature of the beast is sometimes when it rains, it pours. And I’ve been very fortunate in this league, seasons that have been humbling. I’ve just realized that it’s better not to focus on anything but what you can control in the moment.
Mac Jones
On the fourth-and-2 pass to Pearsall:
It was my alert on the play. We don’t really throw it that often, so it was just a great catch. I don’t know, like, how he caught that but it was a great play.
On the game:
The offensive line did a great job this game keeping me clean for the most part. Just to be able to come together at the end and finish, like we talked about on the sideline, like ‘Hey, we got nothing to lose. Let’s go get it’ and the players made plays.
On his mindset for the game-winning drive:
I’ve failed a lot in that situation, to be honest, in the NFL, and I just know the guys have my back and like we talked about on the sideline, let’s go out there and rip it, just one play at a time and erase everything that happened. The two plays before or whatever were my fault, but just got to give your team a chance to win.
On his success in the two-minute offense:
I’ve always been good at it or whatever. Like I said, I enjoy it because I think it takes thinking out of it and you just go out there and play, and you get into a rhythm.
On Pearsall:
I got a lot of reps with Ricky in OTAs and training camp. He was kind of hurt and working back in and stuff. So got a lot of reps with him and I loved watching him in college. And I loved watching him in college. I’m a secret fan of him always because I just enjoyed his tape and watching him on highlights. He’s a really fast guy — he’s really twitchy and then has straight-line speed and then his cuts in and out of his cut speed is really good, probably the best I’ve seen.
On McCaffrey:
We were just both in the cold tub next to each other, just watching. I was asking ‘You took a lot of hits,’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, I”ll be good though.’ He’s just tough. He’ll be out there and practicing and that’s just who he is. He takes care of his body the best I’ve ever seen every day.
On his interception:
I mean, I threw it right to the guy, so it wasn’t’ like he made a good play. I mean, good for him. He caught it. Like, awesome. But it was technically the second part of my read and I took a hitch to it and ripped it.
On acknowledging past late-game failures:
I’ve had a lot of potential game-winning drives or whatever, and a lot of quarterbacks have, but I’ve also done well in them and I’ve done pretty bad in them too. So really I was just motivated to change the narrative. And this team, I feel like they have my back and I got to be able to do that when I’m stepping in the game. Like I said, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, just go out there and let it fly.