49ers 36, Seahawks 24
Q. Any x-rays on Mustapha?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, they believe it was a low.
Q. A low?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah.
Q. Is there a point there where you don't have Mason, obviously you don't have Christian, all the other guys you can list, you're going how are we Band-Aiding this together? Or do you just think, I thought the guys were going to win this thing anyway?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, you know, with Deebo also, I mean towards the end, the last possession -- what's his name? Drawing a blank. Taylor, he got hurt so I was afraid that we were down to our last one with Isaac, especially when he got that long run. That was smart of him giving that touchdown to Juice, but I did get worried right then. Before that, though, we had enough guys, especially with Deebo being able to help out and do all that stuff, too, so we were all right.
Q. Mason, he went back in. Did he aggravate something?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, he thought he was going to be all right. He went back in and it just hurt him too much, so he went out, I think. I think that was the first play and then he was out just in case of emergency.
Q. The fact that he could have come in in an emergency, does that suggest it's not serious?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I don't know. You never know. Adrenaline on these days, I mean, during games it's a little bit different. We'll find out more tomorrow when that's down and get the x-rays and stuff.
Q. What's going through your mind when you guy haves the 20-point lead, give up the kickoff and next thing you know, they have the ball with a chance to take the lead?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Just -- I'm not going to go to what's happened on our last two losses. Just staying locked in, not trying to get any negative feelings and just try to do it one play at a time. We try to keep our team that way but it's not like I talked to a bunch of people right then, so just calling plays and stuff, you don't try to think that way. Our goal is to be locked in the entire game regardless of what the score was and I thought the guys played like that.
Q. Considering how the moment and how much you needed it, that throw from Purdy to Kittle, the first touchdown. How clutch was that?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Which one? There was two of them. The first one was awesome. That was a long third down. We were obviously struggling in the red zone to make a big play like that. I think it was third and goal from I want to say the ten, but that was huge. It was a dime right in the corner. It was a hell of a route and catch by George, and I thought the second one was just as impressive. We called a lookie to BA. They played it coverage where two people were on him. He went across the board and had a hell of a throw to George.
Q. We asked Brock about some of the red zone stuff, he said maybe he's just got to be more decisive, something like that, pull the trigger. Did you have that conversation with him and do you think he did that more tonight?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, I think the hard thing with the red zone, there's not one thing. There's a few plays and Brock's saying that because there's a few plays he could have been more decisive on and had, but that's not the whole red zone struggles but when you struggle running the ball, have some -- didn't have a lot of great looks and then you miss a few that we could have scored on, Brock's always going to own up to that stuff, but that wasn't really the theme. He was real decisive today, made two big-time throws there on third down and it was a step in the right direction at least.
Q. The challenge that you made that you did when they -- what were you told in terms of what angle they saw, whoever let you know and then what was the explanation that they gave you?
KYLE SHANAHAN: It was awesome by Hamp, because he said you could tell by how the guy's hand moved that the ball hit him and then that's all they saw but he couldn't 100% see the ball but he said you could tell how the hand moved and with it being Thursday Night Football, I thought for sure they'd have a bunch of camera angles so once he believed that it happened, we threw it thinking we'd get some better angles and they told me that he didn't and then about two minutes later I heard all the guys in the box freaking out saying they saw another angle and it was a fumble.
Q. So the official told you they didn't have the --
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, they only know what they see. They didn't see what everyone else saw on TV.
Q. Who told you that the finger moved?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Hamp. Yeah. Brian Hampton. (Laughter).
Q. With all the offensive stuff, Renardo Green's interception came at a really good time so just how did he make that play, and what did you see?
KYLE SHANAHAN: It was huge. I just saw it looked like they sailed it a little bit over DK or maybe underthrew it and he cut in front of him. It was a hell of a play by him. Hell of a job by Malik, too, getting in the pick. Thought a rookie stepped up big-time today, all of them, but Renardo was huge coming in for Mooney. Mooney was a game-time decision. Tried to get him going. He tried to go, but workout didn't get well before the game and Renardo and the whole defense stepped it up.
Q. Your team has faced some of these games before early in the season when things aren't going right, has won a lot of them. Is that something you communicate to them or do you feel it in a week like this where this team just has the feeling that it's going to be able to pull a game like this out?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, I mean you, you know that we're sick about those two losses that we had and we know, you know, I talked about some losses are harder than others and when you feel like you had those won, especially division games, that's made us sick about it, and, you know, we've gone on a stretch here the last two years where we won a lot of games in a row and a loot of the fourth quarters and some of these win streaks the last two years haven't been that tight. Guys have been able to relax a little bit and stuff and we've been talking about how these two losses are a reminder of how the NFL works. I think we got a little spoiled in that way of just human nature of sometimes feeling too relaxed and you can never feel too relaxed.
I thought we played real well in the second half, but that doesn't mean it's easy to win. It's kind of -- that's how it works. We played well, they played well. They came back and made some plays which made it tighter and I was glad that our guys could fight through that, realize that games are really never over where you can just sit and chill in the fourth quarter. You got to go beginning to the end and we got that experience today.
Q. What did you see in Guerendo? Did you feel like he was on the verge of breaking a big one?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, you always feel like guys are close. We were running the ball pretty well all day. When they're really going to commit to stopping the run and try to get in those eight-man fronts, we got a good bounce read where we got outside and usually when there's not two safeties there, which I don't think there were, you break them and he's got the speed to do it. Said he's a hair, an eyelash slower than Raheem and they had a pretty fast guy chasing him, but he said he wanted to give that to Juice so it ended up working out well and got to run more time off the clock.
Q. Did you want to see him slide there at the end?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Hell no, we want him to score. (Laughter) I don't think he slid. That's what he's claiming. I think he got -- I think 21's a fast player, and he get him a little bit there at the end I think. I'll see it. You guys saw it. But ended up working out better for us.
Q. Given how Mooney has matched up with DK, was there some pre-game concern about how you're going to deal with Metcalf?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Not really. I mean, he wouldn't have done that anyway tonight, just being on an injury and I think D-Mo is one of the best corners in the league. I love D-Mo and we got a young rookie in Renardo stepping up. I think Ike's done a hell of a job. I think we got a lot of players in our secondary.
Q. How close was it with Chavarius? I mean, we saw him --
KYLE SHANAHAN: It was close enough to where it was a game-time decision. You know, he went and worked out and it was close but couldn't go.
Q. Another special teams blunder I guess you would say. What can you do about that now? There's like one a game now. Do you go in there? Do you get involved? What can happen now?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I thought the special teams made some plays today. They got a fumble for us, a huge recovery, which I forget whether that led to a field goal or a touchdown. Last week they scored a touchdown with a blocked kick returned for a touchdown. I thought we didn't have a great kickoff and from what I say live, we had an unblocked guy who missed a tackle and then they hit the lane, so we got to get better at tackling. Would love to get a better kickoff and stuff and we got to keep challenging ourselves as coaches, as players, everybody. You know, especially when you got some guys down on defense. You guys can see that and it's even worse on special teams when that happens. But we got to do better. But I'm still happy they made some plays today too.
Q. Are you challenging the kicker to make a tackle?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Hell no. I don't. (Laughter) I don't know how I feel about that anymore. When they breakthrough and they're the only line left I would never be the teach that says just let them score, but dang that's two weeks in a rue and I just got his name last night and Matt was unbelievable today. He was three for three on field goals and that was huge for him to stop them. It looked like they could have scored if he wasn't there. I just hope he's all right.
Q. You got his name last night -- (inaudible).
KYLE SHANAHAN: The first time I seen him, yeah. Yeah, I don't waste thoughts on stuff that I don't need to know. Like same with all the injury questions. I really don't learn stuff I don't need to know.
Q. The strategy to have him kick it right at the goal line, you wanted it to be further than that?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, you would like that and it was struggling with a little bit so when that happens, you try to get more air on it so it gives our guys time to get down there, but it obviously didn't work. All right. Thanks, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports