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“Foerster said that three of the 49ers’ biggest touchdown plays this season — the one to George Kittle in Mexico up the sideline, Kittle’s second TD against Washington and the 75-yard touchdown to Deebo Samuel — were not in the game plan, not on the play sheet.
“Not one of them,” Foerster said.
It belied an aggression from Shanahan that feels like has ticked upwards this year.
“He calls something based on what he sees in the game that isn’t even on the list, and they’re usually big hits and big plays because he just knows what is going to work,” Foerster said. “He’s just looking. Where’s that dagger? Where’s that play that I think will really get them on this one?”
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“I even pulled him to the side right after final roster cuts just to tell him, ‘Hey, Mr. Irrelevant making the team is huge,’” Williams said. “You don’t see that a lot, especially at quarterback, where there’s only two to three spots to be had. I thought that spoke to his preparation.”
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“We’ve won a lot of games in a row and done some good things, and I think it’s easy to look over things,” Shanahan said. “But your goal isn’t just to win those games. Your goal is to be the last team standing and you have to get better each week at that. And sometimes human nature, when you’ve won so many games in a row, people stop looking at how to get better. They think they’ve arrived, and you need to show them on the tape and you need to speak it because players aren’t always seeing it that way.
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“The Cowboys are an aggressive single-gap team. They fly upfield to cause disruption, but when they miss, the runner can get into the secondary, where Dallas struggles to tackle. This issue is particularly problematic on outside runs — the 49ers’ specialty.”
Brendel’s playoff prep aided by team effort at home with newborn
“Zan gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter Frankie Austin Brendel, on Sunday, Sept. 8, at 7:41 a.m. PT at El Camino Health in Los Gatos....Five hours and 44 minutes later, Brendel lined up for the 49ers against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium in a game the club had to win in order to hold onto the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs.”
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“The lanes we gave him, anyone could have run through,” Bosa said. “Tom Brady could have run through them.”
The craziest thing about Brock Purdy’s improbable rise? The praise is deserved
“From the last pick in the draft, Purdy is now the hinge player who will decide the postseason. With him playing at this level, the Niners have the potential to run through all in front of them. Any dip versus the Cowboys on Sunday, and their season will come crashing down. Let’s take a step back to understand just how bananas that is.”
“We still not cool,” Williams said with a little smile. “We got some repairing to do. It’s fine. Sorry doesn’t do nothing. I’m already viral. Everyone has seem me getting my cleats lifted off the ground. So, sorry don’t go far.”
“If we could get it, if he’s healthy enough to do it, his being able to instinctively take that ball and run with it … is really a dimension that [the 49ers’] defense has a difficult time adjusting to.”
“As for this Purdy character — I want to be careful with my words here, because I am like you, gobsmacked by his sangfroid. But I am also a realist. I can’t keep expecting this rookie making his seventh start (including playoffs) to keep answering the bell with slithery escape jobs and consistent reads. At some point, the NFL gets you, and you face turbulence, as I just saying to my friend Joe Montana and his *four* turnovers in the 1981 NFC championship game.”
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