49ers 30, Steelers 7
KYLE SHANAHAN: Injuries, only one. Amrby got looked at for concussion by the spotters upstairs, but he's cleared. We're good.
Q. You go up 20-nothing, you don't score, you force three-and-outs for a while. How would you assess the way this game opened up?
KYLE SHANAHAN: It opened up as good as you could hope for. 28 minutes of really good football, then two minutes of really bad football. Just the offense not coming up with points there at the end. Even giving it back to them. Then us not getting that short yardage, the two penalties we had. Them scoring at the end of the half put a little damper on it.
It was awesome, we got the ball back, answered on the first drive. Pretty smooth sailing from there.
Q. The fast start, was that a theme?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Not really. I mean, I don't make a lot of themes. It's stuff I feel like it's understood. We always try to get off fast. That's always our goal. I was glad we did it.
Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: That was huge. We waited a long time for this game. First games are always weird. You think about it forever. You overthink it. For a couple weeks now, just wanted to get to this game and get us started. Once kickoff happened, it felt normal. Glad to get that first one out of the way and get a win while doing it.
Q. How important was the first drive, 65-yard drive?
KYLE SHANAHAN: It was huge. I thought we really let them back in it. We were there in field goal range with that run. We had a free play 'cause they got jumped off-sides. Thought it was going to be third-and-two, give us a chance to going for it. If we didn't we could kick a field goal, run time off and have a chance for a touchdown.
Somehow I heard off-sides, a timeout after that. I'm not sure what happened. We weren't able to come through with that. We stop them on that third-and-one, I think we're good. They bounced that run, got a personal foul on it, gave them some light at that point.
Q. The extra point on the field goal, sigh of relief?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, definitely. We felt so good about him in practice every day. He's been great. He had a couple struggles in the pre-season game, then got hurt. But he healed a lot faster than we expected, so he's been pretty good here in practice.
You still want to see it in the games. Given the delay of game at first, we did that just to make it harder for him (smiling). He looked great there. Continued through the game. He did a hell of a job.
Q. (Question regarding snaps being affected by three and outs.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: That made it a lot easier. Our number was between 30 and 40. That's what we said going in. But that was hopefully we can keep it there. That's what we were going for. We made it a little easier with some of the three-and-outs. That's why we kept him out there at the end for most of it.
Q. What did you see from Brock?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I thought Brock had a good game. Made some big plays. Got some explosives there in some tight windows. We had some issues in protection. Not just issues, we knew that going in. Hope you can hold onto it when those do happen so we don't turn it over fumble. I thought Brock had a hell of a game.
Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, exactly (smiling).
No, it never goes according to script. It's always a little bit different. I'm trying to remember it all now, but I don't think we had a third down on it, which was huge.
Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: We got a different look than we were anticipating. But we were still expecting it to go there. Aiyuk did an awesome job beating his man. Deebo was number one in the route, we were expecting a lot of people to go with him, leaving Aiyuk alone. Aiyuk did what we thought he would do. Good route, good throw, great protection.
Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: A lot. All of our guys. Got some pretty good eligibles. You don't go in thinking that it's all going to be Aiyuk like it was today. You go in with it pretty balanced.
The thing, me looking at stats right before I came in, any time you throw it eight times, all eight of them are completions, that means you're doing some really good stuff.
Q. Fourth down, too, actually.
KYLE SHANAHAN: That's right.
Q. Do you call that? A little bit of a sign of confidence you have in Brock?
KYLE SHANAHAN: A little bit. It's also how hard they are to run against in short yardage, which you saw the play before on that.
They're a really good team. Really tough to stop in those situations. It's always a little bit easier to run it. You think it's easier to run it. I think you saw that on the first one. We thought we'd get it to the side. George had to bow around the guy a little bit, but Brock made a perfect throw which allowed George to turn up the field. That was huge.
Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: Reap happy for him. I got to see both of his sacks. Drake put in a ton of work in this off-season, a ton of work going into training camp. Had a setback when he got injured. He had to miss a lot of training camp. He's worked his butt off to get back. When I get on the plane, I'll see how he played overall. He has that type of ability, see his effect on the game.
Q. You were up 20-nothing. You have a lot of respect for that team. Could you have imagined that level of domination?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No. I mean, they didn't move the chains. We got them on three-and-out. Took them a little bit to get going. We were able to answer. We were able to jump it. I don't think it says a lot. It's just how the game went in week one.
But we got a lot of respect for that team just watching how they were at the end of last year, watching them all season, the pre-season, knowing Mike, how he has the team. They didn't make the plays today, but that team's going to be there at the end.
Q. With Brock, did you get the sense this meant a little more to him?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I'm sure it did. We can guess that. Brock is pretty steady. You don't see much different each day. He's very faith-based person. I think that gives him his foundation as much as anyone I've been around.
He's taken this whole off-season as good as you can with the quarterback being injured. I think today was six months ago where he had this big surgery. He's done everything he can to come back. He handles the pressure well. Really doesn't change. I think that's why the guys love him. I think that's why he'll continue to get better.
Q. 2019 the defensive line dominated. Are you feeling something similar about this one?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, all you ask is for the chance to be like that. I think we have an opportunity to. We got a long way to go before that. But I liked our first start today.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
KYLE SHANAHAN: Guys, thanks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports