A day later and the Colts non-practice list continues with a couple of small additions. No further word on Reggie Wayne, although Colts President Bill Polian said he still expects Wayne to start on Sunday. This will make tomorrow's final injury report all the more interesting. I still see no reason not to expect Wayne on the field, but it's something to pay close attention to. We'll definitely have some kind of update tomorrow afternoon. After the jump we've got post-practice press conference transcripts for Manusky and Raye.
49ers
Did not Participate in Practice
SS Reggie Smith (groin)
LB Takeo Spikes (shoulder)
DT Aubrayo Franklin (not injury related)
Limited Participation in Practice
DE Ray McDonald (ankle)
Full Participation in Practice
CB Marcus Hudson (shoulder)
RB Michael Robinson (shoulder)
Colts
Did not Participate in Practice
RB Donald Brown (shoulder)
DE Dwight Freeney (knee)
DT Eric Foster (shoulder)
WR Anthony Gonzalez (knee)
CB Marlin Jackson (knee)
K Adam Vinatieri (right knee)
WR Reggie Wayne (groin)
TE Jacob Tamme (hamstring)
LB Ramon Humber (illness)
Remember to check out Manusky and Raye transcripts after the jump...
Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky
Post-Walk Thru - October 29, 2009
San Francisco 49ers
On the assignment of facing the Colts:
"Peyton [Manning's] a very good player, has been for a number of years. He's like a coach out there. He knows exactly what he's doing. We've got to do our job."
On Manning:
"Just from quarterback-wise?"
On how Manning plays:
"All those Pro Bowls. He's a talented guy. I have the utmost respect for him. He's played a lot of football in this league. He's like a coach, actually. He's out there coaching up his guys, and he's doing a good job of it week-in and week-out. He's been doing that since his second year in the league."
On preparing for all of Manning's signals and changes pre-play:
"I think you've got to kind of just sit back and watch what he's doing and take it from there. He's seen thousands of looks, and we're just going to try to play our defense and hopefully everything will work out."
On how much of the signals are for show and how much are actual adjustments:
"I'll tell you the truth, I'm not in their meetings. I don't know. Maybe it's show. Maybe it's not. He continues to do that, and it gets defenses a little bit flustered because they think one thing is coming and another thing is coming. He does a good job of it. He handles the pace and execution pretty well."
On whether he warns his guys to stick with the play and not pay attention to those signals:
"I think you've got to. He'll change calls at the line of scrimmage, which he always has. Everybody knows that. You've just got to adjust and overcome it."
On whether he anticipates being in nickel or dime often:
"Yes, pretty much because of their 11 personnel package that they have."
On whether all those adjustments happen after the helmet radio is turned off and whether the team has to counter-adjust on their own:
"Yes, I think Peyton has been with Tom Moore there a long time. They feel comfortable with Peyton taking control of it and rolling with it. I don't know how much they use the headsets. Peyton needs to look and see what he's looking at on the field and then go on from there."
On whether FS Dashon Goldson will counter what Manning does at the line, in terms of adjustments:
"You've got to move around. You've got to move around the safeties and show them - you can't show them. You've got to play your defense though. That's what you've got to do. You've got to go in there and have confidence in what you're playing and going through with it each and every snap."
On what changes with Goldson having the green dot on his helmet and calling the plays in the huddle:
"I think it just helps him out a little bit on the back end from a communication standpoint. [Secondary coach] Vance Joseph will be talking to him a little bit about certain situations. I think that will help us out, at least on the back end."
On who talked to LB Patrick Willis:
"Vance."
On the writing on his arm on game day:
"It's just is for personnel and stuff, personnel that they put in the game and sometimes they don't signal. So, I don't know where else to put it. I don't have another place so I just put it one my arm."
On whether that's something he's always done:
"Yes. Pretty much."
On whether you can fool a quarterback like Peyton Manning or whether you have to out-execute him:
"I'd love to fool him. I think both. I think you've got to out-execute him. He's a talented quarterback. He's seen all the looks. He knows what Cover 2 looks like. He knows what Cover 4 looks like. He knows what man looks like. He's pretty good at it and he's talented. He's been doing that for a long time. So, I'd love to."
On the Colts playing in 11-personnel most of the time:
"A little bit of 12, a little bit of 11, some 22 as well. They're mostly 11 personnel, I think, for the majority of the game. That's what we're going with."
On 11-personnel:
"Three wide receivers, one tight end and one back."
On 12-personnel:
"Two tight ends and two wide receivers."
On whether he gives the play to Vance Joseph, who then calls it in to the player:
"Yes."
On how that is different than hand signals:
"I think it's a situation where you can give them a little bit more information, ‘Be alert to such and such' based upon situations that teams have had in the past. So, you can give them a little bit more information. With [LB] Patrick [Willis], taking that out of Patrick's hands and putting it into Dashon's gives Pat a little bit more freedom to get the closed call, get all that thing settled down and playing the game. Letting Dashon do it is a good thing."
On LB Takeo Spikes' status:
"We'll see today. We don't have practice until later on today, but it seems like he'll be going."
On why CB Shawntae Spencer guarded Texans WR Andre Johnson last week:
"Well we just played left and right. That's what we did. We played left and right and the majority of the time, [Spencer] was on that side. So, that's how it kind of worked out."
On who is grading as the team's best pass rusher:
"I think [LB] Parys [Haralson] is a violent guy. [LB] Manny [Lawson] - I'm just talking from a linebacker's perspective. [LB] Ahmad [Brooks] looks like he's been picking up his game. We'll try to get a little bit more reps out of him. [DT] Justin [Smith] is a pretty good guy inside. Across the board, the more we can get pressure on the quarterback, that's what we're looking for."
Offensive Coordinator Jimmy Raye
Post-Walk Thru - October 29, 2009
San Francisco 49ers
On whether the offense has changed philosophically with QB Alex Smith:
"None."
On whether that was a no:
"None."
On whether quarterbacks with different talents change the offense at all:
"No."
On what WR Michael Crabtree does for the offense:
"Well, I think he played well in his first outing last week. I think he was somewhat of a - he had some chemistry with Alex Smith, obviously, because he had been here the week during the bye and they had thrown together, and he demonstrated an ability to catch the ball when he's in close confrontation with a defensive back. He has good burst off the line of scrimmage. I think it will help our perimeter game, which will, going forward, be necessary because of the effectiveness of the tight end inside. So, I think what he showed or demonstrated in the game Sunday will help us on the edge and the horizontal stretch of the defense will give us another avenue, another outlet to be able to get the ball and make them defend the whole field."
On whether the team becomes more pass-oriented with Crabtree and TE Vernon Davis:
"I think so. I don't want to give you a misguided opinion that - what we were striving to do all along is to create balance. More passes or more of a running, whatever that connotation is, I think the apt description of where we would like to go with the changes that we've made, which will take some time to achieve more balance."
On whether the team will go with more of a spread look:
"Maybe, but if you remember the game, that's what we opened the game in Sunday with [QB] Shaun Hill. We opened the game against Houston in three wide receivers, a tight end, one back and spread. We went three-and-out and punted the ball. We could. I think it depends on the opponent that we're playing. We're not going to be stubborn and try to jam a square peg into a round hole. But, that would be something that we would mix in because of the people that we have. We would mix that, and it wouldn't only be the way it has been in the past, only a third-down part of what we do. It could become a part of what we do early on as we see the opponent that we're playing, if it fits the plan that we have going forward."
On whether the implication of "square peg and round hole" is not trying to force the run:
"Yes."
On if he believes the team can still run the ball against eight-man fronts:
"Yes, I still think there are some elements of the run that you can still have. I think that the illusion of what happened in the second half of the Houston game has everybody, or most people, thinking that we've discovered this new Mecca or utopia kind of deal. I have to remind you, Alex Smith has been here all along, and the direction that our intent was to go was to help that position and our team with [RB Frank Gore]. That hasn't changed to the extent that we would become a one-back football team and create some other problems for ourselves that, outside of the locker, we are aware of that may not be apparent to the defensive teams that we're playing."
On what QB Alex Smith changed in the game when he came in:
"He was the life. What he did, what he infused in the psychic of the team offensively, the way he threw the ball and the way Frank was able to, in the second half, get some openings in the running game, I think we have to be careful to understand the structure and the circumstances of it was a 21-0 ball game when he entered it. His first drive, and maybe even his second drive, went for scores. Then we had a backed up situation and we had to punt. Then the third time he was in it went for a score. Then we had the ball with 1:38 and one timeout and a chance to put the ball in and get the game into overtime or win it. There was a foul on the preceding kick and we started at the 5-yard line, which made it a little more difficult. The things that he did, have to be weighed a little bit with the score and the time of the game. Not minimizing what he did, because that is a half of football that most quarterbacks in the NFL would love to have."
On what Smith brings that Hill did not:
"He is more comfortable in a drop situation, throwing the ball to all areas of the field, horizontally and vertical. I don't know if they knew that before they saw him play because they didn't have any tape on him to prepare for him because all they had seen was Shaun. To flip the script and go play different than they had practiced in preparing for Shaun Hill, all of a sudden they were playing with a guy that is comfortable reading out their entire play and playing to his strengths, which is throwing the big ends, throwing the ball up in the vertical crease and throwing the ball to the boundary. It was a little bit different for them."
On whether he would like continuity at the quarterback position the rest of the season:
"It seems like since we started there has been a different back, a different wide receiver, a different quarterback, a different tackle, a different guard. There has been a different something all the time. I think continuity, different form the way you all think and the way you all see it, continuity is very important to playing offensive football. Familiarity and continuity are things you are striving to get. So to answer your question, I would like to see us get to a point where we have a functioning five guys that have played together and are working cohesively together, a healthy situation in the backfield, wide receivers who have been here and have some cohesiveness and coordination with the quarterbacks. Going forward, that is what we hope to achieve. That would be nice."
On what the Colts defense presents:
"They present a defense that prides itself on rushing the quarterback. They play the run on the way to the quarterback. They are structured and built to play with the lead and they are in a building where they have an advantage with the noise and the snap count, so it has a bunch of problems that it creates. They have two defensive ends that are truly outstanding rushers. They have a perennial Pro Bowl guy on our offensive left and they play on the artificial surface inside where they have a little bit more of an edge because of that. So, we'll have a bit of a challenge ahead of us trying to be able to negate and slow that down and do the things that we want to do to attack them the way that we'd like to."
On whether it is a priority to get QB Alex Smith acclimated with two minute situations because of the delay of games during the Houston game:
"It was a problem on Sunday, yes. He wasn't the only problem. He hadn't had a competitive two-minute situation since awhile back because during this time of year, you get one on Thursday and a half of one Friday, you have to let the starting quarterback get those, but also in there, was a wide receiver that had no idea, that had not been in a two-minute situation before. He didn't know the alignments and calls and had to be coached through some things. Some formation things got screwed up, but we have addressed that this week and hopefully going forward, we will be a little bit better operating in that situation, but it was a problem last week because there were some people there that hadn't physically, even though they'd heard the words, hadn't physically been in that situation before and Alex hadn't had one - if I had to go back and check, I think since probably the week that we played Dallas, in the exhibition season."
On the final delay of game and the timeout was called:
"Critical. That's the mechanics of it. If you notice, [Coach] Sing on the sideline, asked the official for the timeout and I think Alex saw that and turned to walk and didn't turn himself to Mike Carey and asked for the timeout and this official, if you don't turn and get your hands over your head and ask for it, you didn't get it. So that was a critical point. At that point, there was 47 seconds to go. On third down we clocked the ball on the chunk play. Prior to that, we were operating in a three down deal with one timeout. It was third-and-six that went to fourth-and-six that went to fourth-and-11, which was the difference between us converting and being able to add on and get the ball in a position to kick. We should have used the timeout because the time was more important at that point than the timeout. The coach asked for the time from the boundary which he's allowed to do and that wasn't acknowledged and then when Alex saw the clock and turned and saw Mike doing [timeout signal] to the official, he didn't turn to Mike Carey and ask for it, so we got a five-yard delay and that five was big because now you are trying to convert fourth-and-11 as opposed to fourth-and-six."
On them taking a chance downfield on 4th-and-11:
"Yes, you had to throw it. You had to try and get in the air and hope to make a play. Then we would have been in another clock situation and then trying to get to the boundary to be able to get into range that we could get our kicker on the field."