OPENING STATEMENT:"Alright, as far as the injuries go, Phillip Gaines and Chris Owens had the collision there at the end of the game. Phillip has a concussion, should be okay, was feeling better last night by the time we got back. Chris Owens caught his knee pretty good there with a bone bruise, his lateral collateral ligament there was sprained so he's pretty sore today. We'll just have to see how he does down the stretch here. Cyrus Gray fractured his hand and they casted it up. We'll just see how that goes – potential surgery or just leaving the cast on there, couple options there, both of which he can come back relatively quick on and be ready to go. And really for the most part, that's really it. Donnie Avery is doing better, although he had the surgery, but he feels good. We'll just see how the time goes on; normally those are six-week type injuries. And then Eric Berry is making progress. I appreciate the way the guys battled in the game although it obviously wasn't good enough. The thing that I take from that is it's very hard to teach physical football. We were playing if not one of the most (physical) teams in the National Football League; it's very hard to teach that. And so when you can build off of that right there as a foundation as we go forward here and that's an important ingredient to take into this bye week. And then we've got to work on some of the execution situations that we have and we'll get that fixed. And some of the base fundamentals, we've got to keep working on those things and to get ourselves better. But again, those are things that you can change and get better at. Again, the heart of a football team, if you don't have that, that's a tough thing to build. Time of possession I thought was a big factor in this game, in particular first half – compare first half to second half, we were able to maintain the football a little bit better in the first half than we did the second half. A couple of the penalties that normally just don't happen with special teams had a little bit of an effect on that just as far as another potential offensive series and/or time with that second penalty. But given the opportunities when you have the football in your hand from an offensive standpoint, you've got to sustain drives, in particular as you get into that latter part of the third quarter and fourth quarter there, you've got to make sure that when you've got the ball, you keep the ball and you keep your drives going. That's where some of our execution can be better right there. And like I said, we're going to get that thing right as we go down the stretch here. So it's important that we step back here and as coaches we evaluate what we're doing, look in the mirror first at what we're doing, making sure we're putting the players in the best position to make plays. It's important that the players – they are going to get a little time off here – that they use it wisely and rest up and we've got a couple nicks and bruises, make sure we get those cleaned up, and so when they come back on Monday that they are ready to go. And that's when they'll reconvene here. Before I turn it over to you, congratulations to the Royals. That's a definite positive in this whole weekend here, so we're very proud of them and the job they're doing and support them as they take that next step in the playoffs and know they're going to do a great job. So the time is yours."
Q: Why only four carries for Jamaal Charles in the first half?
REID:"Really, and I know you look at this stuff so I'll detail it for you a little bit. We only had a few series that half. So in series six – that was the beginning series – we did pretty well with that drive and it was fairly short. We only ran 15 plays in the second half so there wasn't a lot done there. We came back and had a couple carries for him that next series. They were just kind of okay, we probably didn't block it up as well as we needed to. And really, it ended up being that seventh series in there, that's where he didn't get any carries. We were moving the ball okay but we probably should've given him more opportunities right there. And then really the rest of that was two plays in the two minute and we were kind of out of it right there. But we could've done a better job in that one series, that seventh series, we could've done a better job of giving him more carries and a better opportunity, in particular – when I say look in the mirror – that third and one. If I had to do it all over again – and this is hindsight – but I'd probably come back and hand it to him and give him an opportunity to make a play."
Q: You referred to the 49ers as one of the most physical football teams. In your mind, what makes a team more physical than others?
REID:"You'd know by what you see on tape and their ability to play up front and how they go about their business up there, how they tackle. Those are all things that are ingredients to it, how they sustain it through four quarters."
Q: You talk about taking this as a learning moment for your team being tough and physical. Is that more because it happened to them or is there anything in the team development that you need to do in practice where you can develop it?
REID: "No, I'm saying that we matched them physically. That's one of our strengths I think of our football team right now is that we're physical and we're a tough team. There's some things fundamentally and our execution that we can do better than basic fundamentals, techniques that we can do better, but I think one of our strengths is, right now, is that other part, but we've got to clean up a couple of things in the execution part."
Q: You mentioned third downs and sustaining drives. What happened with third downs as the game went on?
REID: "Yeah, two times. Yeah, so there were two snaps. We ended up winning that battle as far as the third downs go, but if you're keeping stats, which I'm not big on because those last two were the two most important ones. We just, we missed out on them. We had a third and four, had (Demetrius) Harris running there across the field. We missed him there a little bit by an inch or so, close throw and then the third and one; we lost out on that one."
Q: You had a lot of third downs and you threw every single one. Was that because of the defense you were facing?
REID: "We thought we had an opportunity there to throw the ball. Like I said, that last third and one they could've gone either way with that. Probably should have run the ball as it's all, as we're sitting here. Listen, we did fairly well on the third downs. It's those last two stinkers that, oh man they got us."
Q: Are there times where it's too much Jamaal because you didn't get the ball enough to him yesterday and in Tennessee in which you lost.
REID: "Listen, there's that chance. I think sometimes the numbers and how games play out, things work out sometimes that's how it goes. We're playing against a pretty good defense too. You've got to give them a little credit."
Q: What have you seen from the offensive line and their development through week five?
REID: "We still have room to improve. I'm saying that with this, but they've done some nice things with, like I said, with plenty of room to improve. They're playing as a unit, taking pride in their job. That's what I think."
Q: Is there improvement in a sense that Alex is not running as much as he had been?
REID: "Yeah, there was one. There were really two. He came out on that one when he threw it to 84 (Demetrius Harris) also, then he had the one scramble for four yards or whatever. I would say yeah. I think, the way I see it is their communication up front is better. We're playing, we've played some pretty decent defenses here over the last few weeks and they've thrown, coming into it knowing we've got some guys kind of piece mailed in there in some positions. They've thrown some things at us. I've seen our guys be able to pick those up better as time has gone on here. I think that would be one reason here to say they're getting better."
Q: There was a play by Dee Ford yesterday that has made its way around. He looks like he went after (Frank) Gore then peels away from the play.
REID: "Yeah, he probably thought it was a play action there, at least that's the way it looked. I haven't had the chance to talk to him on that, but I know it probably didn't look the best, but listen, he did some good things too. He'll look back on that one say and I'm sure he'd say the same thing you're saying, what was I doing?"
Q: You talked about the communication up front, a lot of that comes from Rodney Hudson. What have you seen from him?
REID: "Rodney's kind of the, he's the one in charge of that group and takes a lot of pride in that and he's the steady force in that group. He's playing good football and I'm saying all of these things telling you we can get and will get better, but he's doing a nice job."
Q: Five weeks in, how do you rate how the special teams have done? They have been kind of up and down.
REID: "Yeah, that's probably accurate. Anytime somebody goes down, you bring those core guys up to your offense and defense, and so Dave's got guys that we're piece mailing in there and then the continuity is huge on special teams. We start that in the OTAs. We're not making excuses for it, but sometimes that shows a bit. There have been some good things too. We've got to get everybody playing together and doing a better job there."
Q: Was the 12th man call a miscommunication?
Reid: "That's my fault, I've got to count it and make sure that we've got the right number on the field."
Q: That's afterwards, why did an extra guy run onto the field?
Reid: "Again that's my fault, I'll just leave it at that."
Q: How do you feel Frank Gore did in general?
REID:"Well, listen, he did a nice job, you've got to give him credit. And I would tell you on our side, we did a pretty good job of sacking their quarterback. There's a give and take and we put ourselves in position to possibly have three interceptions. We've got to take care of that business there and make sure that we come down with the football in those situations. But Frank had a good day and I don't think that that was the overall reason for the outcome of the game. We had opportunities; we've got to take care of them. There are certain things we've got to make sure we take care of."
Q: How do you approach third-downs when it comes to executing in the second half against good opponents?
REID:"Yeah, so we do, we need to take care of that. The 15 plays that we had in the second half, we've got to make sure that we take advantage of all of those. And then in order to extend drives, if you're in a third down situation, you've got to make them. And I thought really the last two were the two primary ones that put us in a bad position down the stretch of the game. I've got to make sure that I'm dialing up the right things at those times and then if they are the right things, then we've got to execute. It's that simple. We did fairly well, the last two were really the two primary ones."
