After the San Francisco 49ers embarrassing 30-7 preseason loss at the hands of the Houston Texans quarterbacks Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick took some time to speak to the media, talking about some of the shortcomings that occurred during the game.
Starting quarterback Alex Smith talked a bit about the lapse of protection he received from his O-Line:
Pass protection was so good last week against the Raiders, did you think you had solved that issue? That that was sort of not an issue anymore?
"You know, yes I had the couple sacks there and then obviously felt the pressure on the pick and felt like getting hit. I have to look at it. It'd be hard for me to say at this point. Who knows what happened. I don't want to rush into conclusions or judgments or anything like that. Obviously there's room for improvement for all of us, so we'll see what the film says. It kind of sucks at this point just after the game, but it's kind of the truth. I'm not playing. It's tough to see what was going on at the front sometimes."
Where would you say the offensive line is right now?
"It's not something I'm worried about to be totally honest with you. We've got a great group up front. Those guys work as hard as anybody. They're talented. I think tonight-and protection doesn't always just fall on them, it falls on everybody sometimes. We'll look at it and see. I think a couple times, the guys got on edges and it can be tough, so."
I hope Alex is right, for the sake of his own health.
I'm sure Alex really appreciated this question:
[Texans QB Matt] Schaub played good the first half, just about every starting quarterback in the NFL played through the first half in this third game. You didn't. Would you have liked to have gotten into a rhythm and played that long?
"Under normal circumstances I'd say maybe I want to play a little bit more, but to be honest with you, coaches have done such a great job at practice, we get so many reps in throughout the week. It's the way he wanted to do it, and don't see a problem with it. I've been in years passed where we've put a lot of stock into preseason, and we've put up really good numbers and win a lot of games, and two weeks into the season, no one really cares. So coach took a different approach to it a little bit, and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. Obviously we took our lumps tonight. It was a rough one for all of us, and you look at it and get better."
Harbaugh's vision to 'shake things up' in and around the 49ers will come with it's growing pains, and I think that was evident in Saturday's loss. Hopefully the next few weeks will be enough time for the 49ers to look like an NFL team again.
As for Kaep, he definitely knows how to talk to the media, keeping things extra P.C. and making sure not to step on anybody's toes.
How hurried did you feel? How rushed did you feel back there? It seemed like you guys were under a lot of pressure.
"That's something you have to deal with as a quarterback no matter where you are at. Right now we're still trying to pick up on things. We're trying to adjust to different things. So, right now every position is going to have problems from time to time."
Truer words have never been spoke.
Were you disappointed and would you like to see more points scored offensively?
"Yeah, being an offensive player, you always want to put points on the board. You want to put as many up there as you can, but right now there's still a lot of learning we're doing. There's a lot of progressions we're still going through, and really we're trying to get amped up for this season. This is practice for this season to make sure everything is right then."
Kaep did a great job with this question. "Would you have like to see more points scored offensively?" Is that a serious question? No, I think Kaep wants to make sure his offense scores zero points for the next five months.
Was there anything positive you took from tonight's game?"
You can learn a lot from games like this. As much as you hate to have them, sometimes you learn more from losses than wins."
Knowledge dropped. Wise beyond his years.
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