Opening comments:
"The injury report - [TE Garrett] Celek, he was X-Rayed, they were normal, so it's a high ankle sprain is what I've been told right now. Other than that, bumps and bruises. We'll have more on that tomorrow. Questions?"
What did you think of the officiating throughout this game and--?
"I'm not going to comment on the officiating."
Did you have a problem with the call on DT Quinton Dial?
"I'm not going to comment on the officiating."
What did they tell you though on the play that occurred on the sideline? What happened on that play?
"Are you talking about when the player went out of bounds, came back in bounds and caught the touchdown pass?"
No, I'm talking about the sideline violation, unsportsmanlike conduct.
"Yeah, I was told that he bumped into somebody and that was the flag. That's what I was told."
How do you view this game, division leading team you take to the last play or so. Do you look at this as a positive or is this strictly a loss for you?
"It's a loss. What I see in the positive are the things that we emphasized in ourselves, in terms of defensively with the run fits and tackling and going after those things. I see the positive in the offense, in terms of the reads and picking things up and improvement there. But, it is a loss. We lost the football game."
When you look at what they did last time, you played the same team and what your defense did today against the same group, is that progress to you?
"Yes, I believe there is progress. But we're in the business of winning games. We have to win games."
How would you assess QB Blaine Gabbert's play?
"I thought Blaine has continually gotten better as he's been in here and I thought today he ran the offense well. There's obviously always things that we need to clean up and get better at, but I think he's continually getting better."
Do you think your team is getting better each week?
"Well, this week I will say our team did better. Our team did get better."
You said Gabbert ran the offense well, like any specific things he did?
"Protections and getting us in and out of runs, all of those things. I guess when I say, using your brain, arm and your feet."
How about in the way he's delivering the ball. Are you happy with that?
"Yeah, I am. We still have areas there where we have to clean it up, but the consistency that keeps going up too."
On the final third down play, could Blaine have gotten rid of the ball to avoid that 4th-and-20?
"Well, we would have liked too and I've got to take a look at that one. You don't want to take a sack there at all. We obviously don't want that. So, if there's a way to get rid of that ball, we need too."
Did you guys have that blitz accounted for, you believe?
"We thought we did. Again, I have to look at that one. I'm not going to talk on that one all the way. I was looking at our whole deployment."
Your tight end, Vance McDonald, until a couple weeks ago had never caught more than one pass in a game and now all of a sudden he's sort of emerging a little bit as a guy you can go too. Has that been coming gradually or suddenly? How would you assess that?
"Well, you can you go back to training camp. I've always said that's a group I've always been really impressed with. Our tight end room, we have felt really good about since the beginning. The way they work, the players that are in that room, the way they work, the coaching, it's really a good room."
You talked about last week kind of tackling tentatively. I assume you addressed that with your team. Did you feel like they got they got the message?
"Today we went after the tackles. We didn't break down. We saw the stuff that we emphasized in practice. We saw the getting after it. You saw the pursuit and the tackling."
Do you have any theories on why your team plays so much better at home than on the road?
"No, sir."
Do you expect QB Colin Kaepernick to be with the team tomorrow and from then on pretty much?
"From what I know, as a general rule after any surgery that we have, the guys stay away. All of our guys. [DL] Glenn's [Dorsey] not back either. I'm not sure what day they come back, but they keep them away from everybody for infections and all that stuff. Then they come back to do the rehab."
So you're not sure --?
"I'm not sure if it's exactly tomorrow. I don't know. I didn't check, but we have a protocol for that."
When's the last time you've talked to him?
"What I usually do when guys have surgery, I text them after their surgery after I get a run down that things went well. And, tell them give me a buzz if they need it. I'm not going to pepper them. I don't pepper any of them."
So, that was sent the day of the surgery?
"Yeah, after the surgery. But it was he and Glenn, there were a few calls I had to make that day, texts."
Can you talk a little bit about the D-line and how they fit together with Dorsey being out now?
"That group, people play multiple roles. It's always been that way. So, that's the way we approach that. Next man up. We come in and we play. So, that group has to be able to fit together - the puzzle pieces. So, today you had the base downs there and Quinton Dial was moved over to the left. [NT Mike] Purcell was playing on the right, and then [DT] Tony's [Jerod-Eddie] in and [DL] Arik's [Armstead] is in and [DT] Tank [Carradine] played some end, and you see him in some three rush. That's just the way we do that."
What prompted you to give Purcell the start and from what you could tell, how do you think he played?
"Arik was just a little sore, so we wanted to have him in the dime rush stuff."