SAN FRANCISCO --Quotes from 49ers players and coaches after the season's Week 5 game.
Head Coach Mike Singletary
Q: On what he says to the team after a game like this.
A: "I'd say we have to go back and look at the film, obviously, as a staff. In a game like this I think our coaches, all of us, have to do a better job preparing the guys. Obviously, they were not prepared. Our players have to take their share of it as well. We did not play very smart today, so that's basically what I say."
Q: On whether this game is a setback.
A: 'You know what, I wouldn't say setback I think, because we're going to handle it the right way. The biggest thing for us is, when you don't play well, when you're not doing things on offense that you know you have to do against a team like this, when you're not playing smart football on defense, a game like this is going to happen. So, yes, I think it's one of those things that I did not think that we were capable of doing. As far as the setback is concerned, I wouldn't use the word setback, I would just say it will be a wakeup call for some of our guys. Just as I said before the season started, we have to play great football. We have to execute on both sides of the ball. We cannot give the ball away. And at the same time, we have to execute on the defensive side of the ball. When we don't do that against a good football team, this is going to be the result."
Q: On whether this loss takes some luster off of the 3-1 start.
A: "Well, I'll say this: the most important thing now is to do what we have to do after looking at the film, make the adjustments, make the assessments and get ready to go when we come back."
Q: On why he was animated on the sideline.A: "You know what, I'm not going to go into it. I won't even go there because, it was just… Number one, I should not have done that. Even though the player was talking to me, I should not have said what I said. And it wasn't anything bad, it was just something that shouldn't have happened. As a coach, I just needed to overlook that and move on, but you get caught up in the heat of the moment."
Q: On whether the team was overconfident:
A: "Overconfident… You know, the line between overconfident and confident, I think either you're confident or not. But overconfident? I don't really know if that makes any sense. When you get right down to it, if you're confident to play a game and you come up short, and it's just one of those things where, once again, when you play a team like today and you don't execute. It's going to come up."
Q: On whether he saw any lack of effort from his players.
A: "No no no no. I saw a lot of guys just not executing. But lack of effort? That's something that we don't do. We're going to fight. We're going to run the ball, but we did not do a good job executing that's really the bottom line."
Running Back Glen Coffee
Q: On whether the disappointment of the loss outweighs his first career touchdown.
A : "Yeah it is because when I think about it I think about the loss instead of my touchdown. That is something that you have to watch the film then go back and correct the mistakes and try going forward."
Q: On whether this is a setback.
A: "I don't believe in setbacks. There are bumps in the road and there are things that can slow you down, but there are no such things as setbacks. You always improve. You can always take something from a loss. So it won't be a setback."
Q: On what he learned.
A: "A lot of things. I can't specifically tell you right now, but there are a lot of things I can learn from today's loss."
Tight End Vernon Davis
Q: On the lack of composure for the team in today's game.
A: "As far as preparation I think that we did a wonderful job. We prepared as much as we could all week long. The defense looked good, the offense looked good and we were ready for the game but we came out here and made a few mistakes and they got the momentum and the whole game changed. We started getting penalties. It was a lack of focus, we lost our focus and we can't do that. When the game changes like that we've got to do the same thing that we did in Minnesota – keep on trucking, keep on going, the offense has got to click, and the defense has got to click. We just have to be as one. "
Q: On wishing that he could play instead of having a bye week.
A: "I wish that we could play. I'm ready to play, I don't want to take off, I'm sure that most of my teammates feel the same way. I'm sure that they don't want to take off, they want to play because we lost – it's as simple as that."
Q: On the impact of this loss continuing into the season.
A: "It's definitely a gut check. We have to come out from the start, we've got to be clicking and we can't take any plays off, can't get penalties, we've got to be cautious of the mistakes, protect, block and do everything that we're supposed to do to get the play done."
Quarterback Shaun Hill
Q: On what he could have done better.
A: "When we see the film, I'm sure we'll find more, but I know I left a few plays out there. When you lose a game like this, you've got to look at the quarterback first."
Q: On what he was able to take away from this game.
A: "Hopefully, everybody has a bad taste in their mouth and won't forget that. We, as a team, made some uncharacteristic mistakes that we haven't done most of this season. We came out of character a little bit today, and we know that's something that we need to fix. I hope, like I said, people have this taste in their mouth and won't forget it."
Q: On whether the Atlanta front seven did anything differently that caught the team by surprise.
A: "Luckily, for us, [QB] Alex [Smith] and I and [QB] Nate [Davis], we started looking at some of the stuff they've done last year. Coming into this game, we knew it was a bye week for them. We knew that they were going to give us something that we hadn't seen. We looked at that stuff. I know the o-line looked at a lot of that stuff. They brought a different game plan in here today than we'd seen in previous games, and we kind of anticipated that and we had answers for it. We had some miscues. There was a different guy a lot of times, like I said, including myself. We had an idea of what they were going to do and that they we're going to do something different, and the things that they did we have actually seen."
Q: On what Atlanta did today that it hadn't done earlier in the season.
A: "They played a lot of man early. They brought some pressures that we haven't seen from them much this season. The big play to Josh [Morgan], that was a pressure we haven't really seen much of. We saw it in the San Diego game, preseason game. Saw it last year in a game. I believe it was the San Diego preseason game, but it was also in the San Diego game last year. I may be mistaken on the preseason game it was in. But, like I said, we've seen that stuff. We were prepared for it. We were prepared for something different than they played in the first three games. We just weren't able to attack it enough and execute well enough against it."
Linebacker Patrick Willis
Q: On what they did on offense.
A: "They came out and they did what we thought they were going to do with formation shifts. They did a lot of things to keep us thinking and anytime you are thinking about it, it slows you down."
Q: On how physical their offensive line was.
A: "I give them credit, they won the game. We can't take that away from them. As far as them being physical, I didn't think they were the most physical team we played. They played well, but at the same time there was a lot of cheap stuff in there. I feel like that's football and that's what it is. Sometimes you see that much stuff going on, you say, 'Wow, where was the unsportsmanlike conduct stuff.' But, they won and that's what it is."
Q: On how difficult it was to contain their offensive weapons.
A: "They have a good offense. They have some special players on that offense. If they get the opportunity to make the plays, then they are going to do it and I feel like today we gave them the opportunities. That's something that we can't do as a defense if you want to be in the top three and we gave them opportunities and they took them and made things happen on them."
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-49ERS GAME:
- GAMEDAY LIVE:Complete game coverage from AF.com
- GAME CENTER:Stats and more from the NFL.com Game Center
- VIDEO:Video interviews and highlights from Falcons-49ers
- THE BEAT BLOG:John Manasso's take on the Falcons win
- J. MIKE'S MISSIVES:Thoughts from the Managing Editor
- FIRST TAKE:Exclusive interviews with Mike Smith, Matt Ryan and more
- TAKE TWO:Video interviews from the Falcons locker room
- GAME NOTES:Milestones tracked from the Candlestick Park press box
- INACTIVES:Gameday inactives and starters
- GAME QUOTES:Transcripts from Falcons interviews | San Francisco
- FORUMS:Talk about the game on the FalconsLIFE message boards
