Jacksonville Jaguars Media Conference

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Coach Kyle Shanahan

Visitors Postgame Press Conference


49ers 34, Jaguars 3

KYLE SHANAHAN: No injuries right now. I'm sure there will be some tomorrow, but there's nothing right now.

Q. What impressed you the most?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Just how we overcame a bunch of stuff. I didn't think we played perfect ball by any means. Which you never do. I was just happy that the mistakes we did make, we always overcame. I was real disappointed getting those first two turnovers and not scoring on either of them, having to punt.

Then when we get the third turnover, we actually score ourselves on defense but we have to call it back, and that was strategic so we could let the offense do it. Finally we were able to do one, and being able to get that fourth one was cool. It was playing complementary football. Took us a while a little bit back and forth, but I thought once we were playing well on both sides, that's when the score became what it did.

Q. Would that penalty would not have been strategic if you hadn't been one of the ones on the field?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Was I one? Yeah. No. I would have been mad at whoever did it. No, I was mad at myself.

I thought the play was over. We couldn't see, and everyone jumped up, so when that happens you're getting out there to start to congratulate people coming back, and they're not coming back to congratulate us, they're running back at us. We know the rules, definitely. We know you can't go on the field. I personally thought the play was over.

They ran right by us, and it was very unfortunate because it was a good learning experience for our team. We do show that stuff. But it was short lived because we ended up scoring.

We can live with it, but good learning example for us.

Q. I'm not sure if you went back to it, but that first play was a five-man front on defense. Was that something that you had charted out over the bye?

KYLE SHANAHAN: No, and I think we've mixed that in a little bit throughout the year at times. I think we did it versus Pittsburgh on one of the first couple plays, and I know we did it versus Minnesota, I believe, on Mooney's pick there in the first quarter. It's something we mixed in, but no, I thought their playing was real good today, and it seemed effective.

Q. What did you think of Nick Bosa today?

KYLE SHANAHAN: I thought he was great. I think Nick has been playing great all year, but for him to get the sack and stuff, cause a turnover, I know how much he loves playing in Florida, too, so it was cool to have a big game for him today. I thought all of them played big.

Q. What was it like having Steve Wilkes on the field?

KYLE SHANAHAN: I mean, I ran into him a couple more times. I hear his voice wherever he is. I enjoy him down there. We'll ask the players how they thought. Excited to talk to Steve on the plane, see what he thought. But that's nothing against you guys or anything, but I've been coaching a long time, and I think that's one of the most overrated things in the world.

But I enjoyed him down there today.

Q. What was your thought process on trying to get McCaffrey at touchdown there at the end?

KYLE SHANAHAN: 18 games in a row is a big record. If we had a chance to do it, I was going to try to do it for him. It's a little nerve-racking. Last thing I want to do is get him hurt, but it was big-time for Elijah to run the ball like that to get us down there. Brock and I think Ronnie made a huge 3rd down throw, I believe, that gave us a chance, and once we got close, we told him to stay loose because we were going to try. Got close. Wish we could have done it for him, but I think that was a pretty big accomplishment to do it for 17 games straight.

Q. Did you have to explain it to Doug at all?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, he said he knew. Right when I saw him, I was like, hey, I hope you know why we were trying to do that, and he was very well aware. He said they were talking about it. Hopefully it didn't offend him too much.

Q. You know people would have -- some people here may have freaked out if McCaffrey got hurt. You were ready to assume the risk and take the heat if that happened?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, I try to make decisions not based off of having to talk to you after the game. I try to make it on what I think is right for the team. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong. But I'm not going to think about you until after the game. Then I can just deal with it.

Q. Has Ambry made strides in practice to give you the confidence to make that move today?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, Ambry has made a lot of strides even going back to training camp and stuff. It was nothing against anyone in particular. Just wanted to see D'mo in the nickel a little bit. D'mo has got kind of a knack for that, and it'll be fun to go watch him on the plane, see how he did.

But for us to make that choice, Ambry was the next man up outside.

Q. What were your initial impressions of Chase Young's impact?

KYLE SHANAHAN: From what I saw there, it seemed like he had a big impact. I know watching him and Nick there on that same play, I'll see when I watch the tape, but just having them out there and allowing our rotation to go, and from what it looked to me, I thought we rushed collectively the best that I had seen. I'll tell you guys tomorrow after I watch it on the plane, but just watching it live on the sidelines, it seemed collectively our group had their best game yet, and that's the goal.

Q. The sequence at the end of the first half, beginning of the second half, I know you always strive to do that, but could you breathe a little bit easier after basically a 10-point possession?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, that was our first time this year I felt like we did it right, that we scored on the last play of the second quarter and we started out with it in the third quarter, and then we got that touchdown. That's what we try to do every week. We were successful this week. It was very nerve-racking watching them ice our kicker, then the TV network ice our kicker. I didn't know what was going on. That third kick was a little tight, too.

But it worked, so glad.

Q. On Purdy's first touchdown pass, was that like a no-no-yes?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, that was honestly one of -- I can say this because he played his ass -- played well, but that was like one of his worst decisions I think he's made since he's been here, and it took me a while to get over it. I thanked him for the touchdown, but that was not a good decision.

He was fortunate with it, but he made a lot of really good plays, and if you are going to make a bad decision and it's still a touchdown, in the grand scheme of things, you can tell me it was a real good decision. But he knows that. He knows what he did wrong. But he made them right.

Q. Spinning it into a positive, the fact that -- too many picks, too many mistakes by Brock, the fact that that was the first drive but he obviously still wasn't scared and was still slinging it, does that tell you something that he still wasn't playing scared despite the adversity?

KYLE SHANAHAN: I think he's been playing the same way all this time. You don't feel it from him at all. That's why I've kind of been -- I know he's had some turnovers here on our losses, but you ask anyone who's watched all those games and stuff, he was one of the best players on the field in those games. You're always responsible for those turnovers, but there's sitting there saying he's taking too many bad decisions. That was one definitely. It's going to happen with guys. But I love having a guy who isn't thinking about that. He's trying to make the right decisions, letting it rip, and he'll live with the consequences and try and get better when it's not.

Q. You guys held Doug Pederson and Trevor Lawrence off a bye without scoring. Is this what you envisioned your defense to look like, and is it as simple as you guys winning early downs?

KYLE SHANAHAN: I think it's just playing one game at a time and not getting caught up in anything. They had a bunch of big plays. It seemed like it. They got a number of -- they got it going with their screens a number of times. We had some big penalties that hurt us. They had some explosive plays that got down there. Every time it seemed like they got going, our guys just never stopped. You don't get points until you cross the goal line or kick it through the uprights, and our guys made so many plays when they were getting down there, they just were relentless today, and kept going for that ball, and eventually everything took care of itself.

Q. How close was the decision on Trent, and how do you think he kind of --

KYLE SHANAHAN: It was real close. He was adamant that he was going to play. He was able to do enough to, I'd say, whatever the percentage is, 80 or whatever, but it is tough because last thing I want him to do is go out there and reinjure it or make it worse so he can't play next week.

It was tough. We talked about it a lot, all the coaches and him. We're going to keep a hard eye on him as it went, but I thought he performed well under the circumstances, and the biggest thing was just talking to him there on the sideline. He didn't zing it, got out healthy, and no setbacks. I don't have to answer Eric's questions.

Q. What did you see on the touchdown (indiscernible) it looked like Brock was working with zero room with the line in front of him?

KYLE SHANAHAN: Yeah, it was a look we were hoping for, it just takes a while. BA is running the in route, and George is running out route, and it takes a little bit of time to get down the sidelines with the leverage I believe that 33 had on him, and Brock just tried to wait for it and waited as long as he could. I was so pumped he got it off, but he had to throw with some anticipation and didn't know if George was going to be able to get to it because he had to bow around a little rub of man coverage, but beautiful touch on the ball. George has the skill set to explode through it, and that was a huge play in the second half for us.

DraftScripts by ASAP Sports

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
139075-1-1002 2023-11-12 21:36:00 GMT

ASAP sports

tech 129