ALEX SMITH

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How can this team win if it does things opposite from last year? **"I mean you're certainly not going to win doing the opposite of that. Losing the turnover battle, not executing in rhythm, all those things that I think we did last year to win, yeah we didn't do them today. We didn't execute and we didn't execute in a lot of phases, especially on offense."

Was there still a little hangover from preseason and that streak of not putting the ball in the end zone?"I don't think it was necessarily due to a hangover. I thought we came out and we probably had more production in that first quarter than we did for a while, so I don't necessarily think it was a hangover. Certainly we failed, I think, to get any rhythm. We had some chunk plays there early, but we failed to sustain a drive. We failed to get into any kind of rhythm with the run and pass. Once it became a couple score game, pretty one-dimensional, we still failed to get much going."

Were your interceptions due to feeling like you had to make a play? "No, to be honest, the one right before half, it was tough. The play call came in, and we got what we were looking for. Really it was a miscommunication between me and Donnie (Avery) as far as where he was going and what I was thinking. It cost us three points there right before the half. Those are the little things that add up and all the sudden you look up and the scoreboard looks like that. The second one, when I threw that ball I didn't see the corner. I was looking at the safety and I thought Donnie (Avery) had him. I was just trying to give him a catchable ball and the corner made a good play on it. Then the third one there at the end, the tipped ball, It's tough. Any time you lose the turnover battle like that, three-zip, you're not going to win many of those."

That first interception, was that a one-man route?"No. We had one-on-one outside though, and that's what we were looking for. We had one-on-one with Donnie. They matched him most the day with (Jason) McCourty and it felt like that was what we were looking for back there. We had talked about it all week and like I said, it was miscommunication, him hitting in there towards the post and just wasn't working out."

Coaches have been talking to you about being a little more aggressive, are any of the interceptions a case of that?"I think you're looking at it from a decision perspective. I think really the only one, obviously I'll have to look at the film, but the only one that jumps out at me as far as decision was before the half. Looking where we're at on field position and maybe just taking your medicine there and checking the ball down to Jamaal. The other two, as far as from a decision goes, at least for now, they probably weren't bad decisions. Just didn't get it done, didn't execute it."

Does this affect your confidence or your concern at all?"Yeah, to be honest a little bit of both. No question, you walk off the field there during it and it stings. Yeah it hurts. It's frustrating. It's not fun playing football like that and going out there. It's not fun losing and certainly losing like that. At the same time it is one game. We've got a lot of football ahead of us and we've got a big one coming up. No time to sulk certainly at this point, but yeah, with that we certainly recognize what we put out there today and just not good enough. Not close to good enough."

How much does it sting to lose an opener and know what you have coming up on your schedule? "Yeah it was tough. We recognize that our schedule is tougher as far as teams and their record last year, but I mean at this point we're focused on Denver and ourselves a little bit. When you have a game like that, really it's going to be looking at the film, being honest with ourselves in what we did and what we've got to get better at. Whole lot of little things add up to pretty big stuff out there as far as lack of production and all of that execution. We've got to get better from it." 

Jamaal Charles didn't seem to get his hands on a whole lot. Was that something Tennessee did? "No. It's hard to tell. Certainly once there, once in the second half and things got away a little bit, you're a little bit once dimensional. We just failed, failed to get him the ball. Absolutely. One of our biggest playmakers, if not the biggest playmaker. Certainly need to get him involved more. That's on all of us though. For me, I'm kind of worried about executing and doing my job." Was Donnie Avery just the one guy that was open? "I don't know. It would be hard to tell you off the top of my head. Certainly we felt like, yeah, it was an opportunity there for him. We felt good about that matchup and doing some of that. I don't know at this point. It's hard answering just walking off the field. It was something all week. We did feel like we had a good package with him and could get some things done."