The San Francisco 49ers star linebacker has been a part of the high times for the 49ers, and now he is getting a chance to experience the lows as a starter. The 49ers lost 27-6 to the St. Louis Rams and are now 2-6 on the season.
Bowman is one of the leaders of this team, and he spoke with the media following the game. The Rams sent out a transcript of some of his comments, and it is sobering (video here and here). Well, maybe not sobering since I think most of us were plenty sobered about the 49ers reality. But it is pretty hard to read this knowing what Bowman has put in to come back from his knee injury.
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It also happens to be a realistic assessment of a team that is not nearly where plenty thought it might be heading into this season. It is a team with problems in both talent and coaching. Hard work is important, but if you are not diagnosing the proper problems, or not properly executing on what you learn, it really won't matter how hard you work.
(On losing the game)
"We lost, so...it's just how you respond to everything later that happens. I think if you want to be looked at as one of the best teams you have to get over the hump. Everybody loses, it's about how you respond. When I signed up I signed up to play through wins, losses, or whatever. This is the type of team we have. There's no genie that's going to come through the door that's going to make us...we've got to put the work in. We've got to come together as a team and keep moving forward."
(On giving up big plays)
"I don't know. We held them off so much. A part in the machine just didn't work as well and they got a big play. There's three phases to the game and we as a defense, it's our job to keep them out of the end zone. We did a good job with that for the most part today, but if they don't have those big plays I believe we still have a big shot to win the game."
(On the struggles on offense)
"I can't comment on the offense. I wish I could go ask the coach to go play running back or something but that's not how this business works. We have to do our job that we signed up for. I'm sure that the offensive side will get it together soon."
(On what is causing the team to struggle)
"We come to work every single day and we put the hours in. It's not like we're sitting on our behinds. I don't know...it sucks."
(On losing games)
"It's hard to deal with. I'm not going to sit and act like it's not. At the end of the day there's 16 games on the schedule and you can't run from (them). You're going to have to play and if you had a bad week this week you don't want to have the same kind of week next week. Like I said, we've got to go to work and see if we can get this thing right."