On whether DT Fletcher Cox will participate in training sessions Wednesday: "Yeah, Fletch should go today."
On moving G/T Todd Herremans to right tackle: "Todd actually finished the game at right tackle for us. So it's just depth purposes. We'll see. The biggest question we have is how does [G/T] Matt Tobin respond to a couple days in a row of practice. We've got today. Our Tuesday deal is just an hour. We're not doing a ton of running around. It's a light day for us. So the biggest question with Matt in terms of his availability on Sunday is how does he handle a Tuesday, how does he handle a Wednesday, how does he handle a Thursday and then we'll go from there. But to get us depth at tackle spot, the next maneuver is Todd going back out to tackle and bringing a guard in the game."
On Tobin adjusting from tackle last year to guard this year: "He's been great. I think a lot of the things those guys do in that second o line group, and they've got to be able to play every position, and he's handled being a guard-tackle very well. Filling in that [G/T] Allen Barbre role all for us. Barring the injury, he would have been our sixth offensive lineman. It's good to get him back out there. The one question we have and with that type of injury and the nature of that injury is how does it hold up on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and see where he is at that point in time."
On having any potential frustration from RB LeSean McCoy: "No, we haven't had any conversations about it. One thing I know about LeSean and everybody loves is he wants to win. I know he knows we're 3-0. He's had more carries this year in the first three games than he had last year. But obviously the same five guys blocking for him is part of it to do with it. We've got to do a better job in the run game just overall, but I think he's excited that we're 3-0. Sometimes they come in bunches and you can string a couple games back to back."
On whether he's seen McCoy pressing and trying to find the perfect hole: "No, I don't see anything in terms of how LeSean has approached things. There are a lot of times that there wasn't a lot of movement on Sunday, and that's kind of what we're dealing with."
On what the offense could look like if it plays to its potential: "I don't know what it looks like. I just know we're never satisfied no matter what the ultimate outcome is. There is always a chance to get better at it. A chance to clean up the penalty game. There's a chance to clean up individual techniques. Sometimes it's the run game, sometimes it's the pass game. Sometimes it may be a drop. Sometimes it may not be a ball located in the right spot. But I don't think you ever play a perfect game, coach a perfect game, whatever. We've got a bunch of guys that have the same mentality in terms of they're never really satisfied. They know they can always do a little better, and you get excited to get back out on the field on a Wednesday and train to improve yourself."
On the importance of running the ball even on days when it's not going too well: "Good question. I don't - we're not striving for balance just for the sake of balance. But I also think you just can't totally go one dimensional and say we're going to chuck it every down. There is a little bit to it in terms of if everybody in the stadium knows what you're going to do, then that makes it a lot more difficult. Obviously, they're going to scheme up a lot more pressures in terms of trying to attack in protections and get after the quarterback a little bit more. Sometimes a run just takes a little pressure off the quarterback from a rush standpoint. Obviously, you want to gain more yards than you did. But I think the fact that not allowing them to gang up on just one aspect of it does help you. But we do need to be more productive in the run game right now."
On whether he's more impressed by his team's phyical or mental stamina: "I think it's both. I don't think you can single one out over the other. One thing I stated to our coaches at the beginning of the year. Like the group of guys we had, the only thing you didn't know going into the season is how would they handle adversity? And I think they handled it very well. No one blinked. No one flinches when we get in the situations that we've been in in the first three games. They know we've got to play a full 60 minutes. That's what this league is. Very rarely are there games that are more than a one score game. That's what this deal is all about. So the team that can be mentally strong enough to handle that but also be physically conditioned to handle it is ultimately going to be successful. I wouldn't pick one over the other, you have to have both."
On 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh: "One thing about Jim, he's won everywhere he's been. He won when he was at San Diego. He won when he was a player. He won when he was at the University of San Diego. He won when he was at Stanford. He's obviously been very, very successful with the 49ers. He's a competitor. He's a grinder. He's got a passion for this game, and his teams kind of reflect his personality."
On whether he has a relationship with Harbaugh: "Yeah, we coached against each other. I know Jim. I got a chance to visit and watch the 49ers practice when I was at Oregon. So we have a relationship with all the guys. You meet them at league meetings and get a chance to spend time with them in the offseason. But I don't call him during the season or text him or any of those things. But I have a great deal of respect for him. He's a hell of a football coach."
On his opinion on the NFL ruling that Washington NT Chris Baker's hit on Nick Foles was legal: "I just heard it when we were walking out here. I'm still under the impression you can't blind side a player whether it's a quarterback or not a quarterback going back towards your own sideline. So I'll touch base with the league officials before we play again. That's news to me that that's a legal hit. I know the referee threw the flag pretty quickly and kicked him out of the game. I don't know if they're going to reprimand the official for making that call. Everything we know and we've taught is you can't blind side a player no matter if it's a quarterback or not. And there's also a rule from my understanding is that the quarterback on the change of possession is a defenseless player. And that's in the past too. So we'll get it clarified so we don't get put in that situation in the future. But we're kind of hands off on the interception on the quarterback just because that's the way we've interpreted the rules."
On what stands out about the 49ers: "Well, what side? Offensively, they've got a lot of weapons. They were a little different in this last game. This is the first time they played a lot of five wides to start the game. I don't know if that was because [TE] Vernon Davis was out. Now it sounds like he's going to be back and if he is back, he's a handful. He's probably the fastest tight end in this league. He's got legitimate speed from the tight end spot that can stretch you. But you've got a quarterback that's a dual threat guy that can hurt you both with his feet. They've called more designed quarterback runs than any team we've faced in my two years here. So you've got to be really conscious of [QB Colin Kaepernick] Kap in that situation. Two really good wide receivers in [Anquan] Bolden and [Michael] Crabtree that can catch the ball, and they're physical receivers and good on the offensive line. On defense, they got some guys, when you talk about the best in their position in the league with [LB] Patrick Willis and [DT] Justin Smith, they really stand out. They're solid on both sides of the ball, really well coached. It's going to be a big challenge for us going out there."
On DT Bennie Logan being extremely active Sunday: "He really was. He started off preseason camp and was nicked up a little bit. As camp went along he was getting acclimated. Was coming on towards the end of last year and picked up where it was. I think our defensive coaches had him credited with eight contacts with the ball. For a nose guard, that's a lot during the course of the game. But Bennie, year two, more comfortable not looking in the stands and saying 'Wow, I'm actually playing in the NFL.' He's really dialed into the game. He's a smart football player, hard worker. He's stout. Built the way we want him. He's a real long arm guy in there. He's got really good levers trying to keep the center off of him and making plays. He can hold off of center and get off the block and make tackles. That is really a bonus sometimes in a 3 4 defense at the nose guard position."
On whether college coaches are starting to change the perception of college jumping to the NFL: "No. I don't lump everybody in. Everybody tries to paint one brush and call everybody one thing. So when one college coach isn't successful, college coaches can't do it. When a college coach is successful, college coaches can do it. You have to look at the individual. Some guys have gone into situations where it wasn't a real attractive situation to begin with. So no matter who went in there, whether it was a college coach, NFL assistant, former NFL coach, they may not have been successful. Sometimes I think it's unfair to paint either one as success is attributed to where they came from, or not success is attributed to where they came from. Jim's a really good football coach, Pete's a good football coach. They'll win whether they were coaching in high school, college or the pros."
On the relationship between Foles and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin: "Yeah, I think all those relationships are constantly growing. But they seem to have a little bit of connection even before I got here. You know, Nick's rookie season when he played for [QB] Mike [Vick] and Jeremy was really healthy and they had a neat connection going on then. That's why it was so disappointing when Jeremy got banged up a year ago in training camp because you really saw how those guys kind of connected on some things. So I think it's obviously something we need to continue to grow. We've still left meat on the bone. There have been some sometimes when we've missed Jeremy a couple of times. He's really been open in all three games we've played. I don't know if we've gotten him the ball enough, to be honest with you."
On the popularity of the jet sweep in the NFL: "I haven't seen it much in the three teams that we've played. I think Seattle does it a lot. But we're not playing Seattle yet, so I haven't studied their film. I haven't seen it a ton from San Francisco nor Washington or Jacksonville. So we get into the season, we're kind of one game one week, kind of focusing and studying those tapes. I'm sure we'll see it as we go down the road. I got a chance to watch Seattle that first Thursday night game. It was a chance to watch football because we hadn't opened up yet and saw a little bit of that with [WR] Percy Harvin. But Minnesota was doing the same thing with Percy. A lot of it is personnel driven."
On whether he has players like Percy Harvin who can make use of the jet sweep: "Well, [WR Josh] Huff, we haven't gotten a couple days out of practice from him, so to try to say let's start scheming things up, we need to make sure Josh can get back on the field."
On Nick Foles' reslieince: "I think players, no matter what position, admire toughness. You look at just what this building is like when [former Eagles S] Brian Dawkins shows back up. There is an admiration for someone that's just a tough, hard nosed football player. I listen to guys that were here in the past and just talk about [former Eagles T] Jon Runyan in terms of what he brought to the offensive line with his toughness. I think you've got to respect Nick. I've said it all along. I saw him do it in college. We hit the heck out of him when we were at Oregon and he played at Arizona and he just kept getting up and throwing and standing in there. I think it's a very underrated quality for a quarterback. It's not something you can see at a pro day. It's not something you can see at the Combine. They're never getting hit. They're doing everything in shorts and T shirts and all those other things. But you've really got to study the tape. It's quality in this league that you have to have. Because no matter who you are playing that position in this league, you're going to get hit. It's a difficult deal that you're dealing with in terms of you've got some big, angry people running after you and trying to take you down. To stand in there and not worry about it and know you're going to get hit, but you have to deliver the ball on time is a really underrated quality at that position. Right now he's really shown what I've seen all along from him. He did it in college, he did it in the pros. I think our players here understood it. It didn't take Sunday's game for them to admire his toughness. They've seen that before from him.
