Indianapolis 30, San Francisco 18
KYLE SHANAHAN: -- it's been a month. That's tough. It was tough really the last two weeks, losing three in a row. We just added another to it. Doesn't make it any easier.
I told the guys they got to be tough-minded, they got to stick together. I think we got guys with high character in there. I think we've got good enough football players. We have to handle whatever we're going to get and come back and play better next week versus Chicago.
Q. You told the team to be tough-minded and stick together. Do you think they've done that up to this point?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, I think they've definitely done that. I've never felt anything close to our team breaking.
Q. What has been going on this season with the defensive pass interference penalties?
KYLE SHANAHAN: We're not doing good enough. It's been a struggle all year. Today was the worst. It's always harder getting your footing out there and stuff, but it is for them also.
Until the end, until they started making some of those, we gave them too many explosive freebies, especially the two touchdown drives in the first half.
Q. (Indiscernible) it seemed pretty clear you couldn't really get anything from it.
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, that was a mess-up by us. I didn't see it at all. I'm looking down, looking at the stuff. We knew there was a fumble. Everybody was yelling out there was a fumble and stuff, to throw it.
It was very weird, but the headsets completely went out. That's why if you see me sitting talking to the guys. I was like I threw it because we thought it was a fumble, but I can't get ahold of anybody. They were going to give it back to me, said it was all right, let me take it back. NFL called and said I had to stick with it.
Once we talked to them, we knew we were kind of screwed on it.
Q. What were the elements like today? How did that affect quarterback play?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, I think we struggled to throw and catch a lot more than they did, is what it looked like.
Q. The second quarter, what adjustments or changes did you make?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Nothing. Nothing changed fronts or coverage-wise the entire game. I think we came out hot the first quarter. Avoided all those third downs on the first drive, from what I remember. Had the run game going. Got the explosives.
For about two quarters after that it felt like it was always three-and-out. We couldn't make the big play whether it was on a pass or a run. When we couldn't make the big play means you got to do well on third down. I think you guys saw how that went.
Q. Four straight losses, do you have to look at some personnel changes?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I think we have changed personnel a lot each week in these four games. I'm not going to make some drastic right now. I'll go evaluate the tape and stuff, hopefully get a couple more guys back this week.
We'll look at who gives us the best chance, evaluate those guys through the week and go off of that.
Q. Will you start with Jimmy Garoppolo as your starting quarterback next week against the Bears?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I would guess so. I'm going to watch this tape and see if guys are healthy first of all, know where our guys are at. It was good for Jimmy to be able to get healthy enough to play in this game today.
Q. The pass defense issues, what can you do next? Change personnel? Change the scheme?
KYLE SHANAHAN: You got the guys that you have in your building. Every time a guy messes up, you can change and give someone else a shot. We work pretty hard at that, so do our guys throughout the week to try to get the best guys out there.
Obviously today it did not improve. It's going to get tough to get guys off the field with those PIs. Stuff isn't going to get better if we don't fix it.
Q. Other than those two good drives, what went on in between?
KYLE SHANAHAN: We didn't get a big play in those others. Had a couple opportunities for them, didn't get 'em. In the first drive we hit all of them. On the last drive we hit all of them. Both of them we avoided third down on all of them, got a bunch of explosives and it seemed pretty easy.
It is tough to get explosives every drive. We had a few opportunities big time for it. I think one we had a illegal guy downfield, one we had a holding, I think we had Ayiuk alone across the field, got tipped with the holding before he could let it go. You come up short on those explosives.
When you don't get those explosives, you either have to move the chains running ball or do something on third down. We didn't do anything on third down today.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
KYLE SHANAHAN: You lose four games in a row, I'm the head coach of this team, I expect it and I deserve it.
Q. Have you felt like you've gotten in a play calling rhythm for a whole game this season? Is that working out okay?
KYLE SHANAHAN: No, I don't think I've got in a great rhythm. I think we've done it on a couple drives, but we have not sustained that. No, I have not felt comfortable with it.
Q. What did the Colts do in the second half that made it difficult for you to run the ball?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Playing eight-man fronts all the way until we scored on the drive with those three passes in a row. They were doing eight-man fronts the whole game until the last two series. When you do that, you got to cut somebody out of a gap. I don't think we did a great job of doing that. We couldn't get through that front eight.
Q. You said Friday the conditions, who they were going to favor. They outscored you 30-9 after things got bad out there. Why do you think it was they were able to function so much better than you?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I don't know. They did better in the rain. There's not one answer for that. They got 53 guys, we got 53 guys. They obviously handled the conditions better.
Q. (Indiscernible) got off to such a good start on the first drive. Do you wish he got the ball more as the game went on?
KYLE SHANAHAN: When you go three-and-out as many times as we did, there's going to be a lot of things you wish you did. I don't think we got those drives. I felt like we played in the first quarter and I felt like we played in the fourth quarter and everything in between seemed like we couldn't make a big play on first or second down, which does happen, but you have to move the chains on third downs so you get another set of calls, and we didn't do that.
Q. Do you think Jimmy was injured at all by the calf injury?
KYLE SHANAHAN: Didn't look like it at all to me. You can ask him on that. I think the whole offense and the whole team didn't play good enough.
Q. How do you feel Jimmy's decision making was?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I didn't think there was a ton of bad decisions. Just missed some throws. Obviously the ball got away from him a few times.
Q. Why is there such a big difference between the first explosive drive you had and the last?
KYLE SHANAHAN: We went three-and-out. We didn't stay on the field. You got to get a first down to stay on the field. We got a number of explosives in the first drive. Felt like we went three-and-out five times in a row or something like that. When that happens, you're not going to see anything. You're going to see three plays and no first downs.
Q. The PIs, those aren't young guys, rookies, who are committing them. These are veteran players who should be able to have that part of the game down.
KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, rookie, veteran, whoever, especially when you have some on some third-and-longs and stuff, we can't give them the freebies. We got to make them earn it, and we didn't always do that.
Q. Is it more execution, lack of discipline, things that aren't working with the offense?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, it's a lack of discipline when you get a couple penalties. We can do better at that. There's times I don't think we throw and catch very well. Then you got to make some big plays, which we had a chance at the run game early on but we didn't get that going for three quarters after that. A combination of everything.
Q. You mentioned you would guess Jimmy Garoppolo would start next week. What is your process over the next few days?
KYLE SHANAHAN: I got a whole team to worry about. Not just thinking about what the quarterback situation is right now. I'm going to evaluate everything, see where our team's at, see what gives us the best chance to beat Chicago, see what our options are.
That's what you go into each week, finding out our options. We had two quarterbacks hurt this week. Jimmy was able to come back and play. We'll see if Trey can come back, we're still not sure yet. Got a lot of things to figure out.
Thanks, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports