San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly lost his father on the Friday before Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears, but he still coached in Chicago at the urging of his mother. He will not have his usual Monday afternoon press conference as a result, but we have the transcript of his post game press conference.
Kelly discussed the weather being an issue for the team but said it’s not excuse as Chicago was able to handle the inclement weather better than they did. Kelly did say the biggest issue for the team were the penalties. The 49ers racked up 106 yards in penalties and again came out of the first half in the game, and entered the second half flat.
The offense only was only able to muster 54 yards in the entire second half, 19 yards in rushing and 35 in the air. After a few weeks of decent competitive production, the team regressed back to where it was weeks ago.
Where do you even start with this game?
Obviously, I think the penalties are the first thing that I look at. Coming off the field you look at we had 106 yards of penalties and they had 40. So we lose a penalty battle by 66 yards and I think we had some critical ones. Obviously we got the blocked punt and ball returned to the four. Thought they scored, ball returned to the four, then excessive celebration puts us on the 19 with this type of weather, That yardage is huge to get you closer. We had a shovel pass, it looks like a huge gain, we are back in the red zone and we get a holding penalty. That drive at the end of the first half for them, get a PI penalty in the end zone and that is huge and gets the ball down first-and-goal from the two I think. The first thing you're looking at are the penalties and those hurt us in today's game.
Why did you make the QB change?
I thought we needed a spark on offense and needed to get something going, so give Blaine a shot at throwing. We knew we were going to be throwing every down, so give Blaine a shot. That was it, nothing more.
How did the weather conditions affect the passing game?
That's a good question and I think they did a good job. You look at Matt and Matt threw for 180 and through some deep balls and completed some deep balls. He seemed he had a pretty good connection and we couldn't handle the weather very well from the passing game standpoint.
With the wind not blowing were you expecting it to be...
Yeah, the ball was slick and it was really the ball itself. It had nothing to do with the wind. The wind wasn’t blowing at all down there so the ball was slick. But again, it was the same for both teams and that is not an excuse. They played in the same conditions we played in.
Colin only have five attempts on throwing the ball. Were you maybe too cautious?
No, I was just watching how the ball was coming off his hands and what our chances were of completing it. Maybe I was too cautious, but we didn't look like we were doing much in the passing game and when we had some called we either need to get it out quicker, we got a rush coming and they have five guys on the line of scrimmage trying to stop the run game, so we are going against the rush there but there were more called than five.
Did the weather impair Colin? No other issues?
No, I think that was the only issue. Today's weather. There are no other physical issues
What do you think of Matt Barkley’s development?
I can tell you this was was first time I saw him so I thought he played very well and did a nice job managing an adverse day. I thought he played with poise today and threw some real catchable balls.
It was another day with better run defense but the pass defense was challenged again.
That was the big thing with our guys. Obviously it turned into field position really when it was coming down there a little bit especially in the first half. We ended up with those two field goals and it was a field position game and really they weren't attending any passes either until the two minute drive. Then, in the two-minute drive, I think all of a sudden they realized Matt could handle it and did a really nice job of pushing a ball down the field. We were almost hoping that we would get the ball back there. If we get a stop on third down, we stopped them on first and second down, if we get that stop on third-down, it's a little bit different story coming in at halftime with the lead as opposed to being down by one. Again, I thought we did a good job in the run game but we did not do a good job with the pass defense game, especially with the inclement weather.
Did your guys upstairs get a good look at Dontae Johnson on the sidelines?
They said you was out of bounds and if he is called out of bounds there is nothing that they can do for it anyways. It’s a non-reviewable. They don't say he wasn’t out and then go back in and so that's what our guys upstairs said. He declared him out and you're not allowed to challenge one, from my understanding. At least that is what I was told.
Do you think practicing in Florida instead of cold-weather had any bearing on how this game turned out?
No, and I am not going to make any excuses. It wasn’t like we could go practice in Saskatchewan this week. It is what it is, and both teams played in the same weather. I don't look at that as an excuse and so both teams had to deal with it and I think they dealt with it better especially in the passing game.
Can you put your finger on what the challenges are with the secondary?
Again, I gotta look at the film to see what went on today. There was a lot of slipping and sliding and I don’t know where the guy’s were feet wise and things like that but on some of those deep balls we certainly weren’t close enough to make plays.
Will you be going back to Colin next week?
We haven't had any discussions about it. It was my decision to make a move to see if we can get a spark, to see where we were. At that point of time of the game we were down a couple of scores and obviously we got to throw it a ton. So maybe just see if we can get a spark for the team. There are no permanent decisions.
On the punt, was Phil Dawson in on that decision?
Phil knew exactly where he could go from. So that was the 31, so a 49 yard field goal, that was definitely out of his range. So it paid off for us. We pinned them down there. We got a blocked punt on the next one and the field position changed so it was a field position game. Phil felt comfortable where we had the ball on the next one and he could hit it. So I look to him to make those decisions and whether he feels comfortable whether to kick it or not kick it.
Do your guys know not to do snow angels?
Yes, they know that. They understand the rules of the game. Donte is allowed to do whatever he is doing celebrating but I don't think he can go to the ground, so it's just going to be a single person celebration and you can't use any props. We go over all of this. Just not a disciplined place by us on our side of the ball and we will reemphasize what we have to do in terms of discipline and poise in terms of play. Play with emotion and not let a emotion play us. I like when guys have a emotion but not when it jeopardizes us and what we have and what really jeopardizes as far as the ball on the four in that situation. Because they thought they scored in that situation but in reality the ball was on the 19. I know our coordinators do a really good job of showing things that happen around the league so we learn from other people and I’m sure we will really emphasize that again this week.
Focus on the running game was because of the weather, not because of what the defense was showing or how Kaepernick was throwing the ball?
It was snowing pretty bad and it had nothing to do with any individual player. The weather situation didn't dictate that we were going to be able to throw the ball a lot today.