The 49ers crushed the Patriots Sunday afternoon, controlling the game on both sides of the ball and forcing Bill Belichick to bench former MVP quarterback Cam Newton.
Kyle Shanahan’s offense allowed the 49ers (4-3) to work the edges of the Patriots defense, stretching the field horizontally with outside runs and quick passes that resulted a time-of-possession ratio of nearly 2-to-1.
Fourth-string running back Jeff Wilson set a career high in rushing yards and scored three touchdowns before suffering an ankle injury. Jimmy Garoppolo, in his return to New England, completed 20 of 25 attempts but two of those incompletions were interceptions — one on an end-of-half Hail Mary.
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Here’s what the 49ers had to say about their win:
Head coach Kyle Shanahan
On Fred Warner’s interception: It was a very impressive catch. Any time the ball is low like that and you get fingers under it and not trapping it, it was a heck of a deal, a very impressive play. The D played unbelievable the whole day.
On the defense: It was an extremely physical game by our team in all three phases. It was fun to watch.
On the team’s identity in its last two wins: How it’s been the last two weeks is how we’d hope every week is, obviously. But when you play defense the way our guys have been playing, to run the way we have been, and just how physical all our guys have been playing … Every play, it seems like the last play for our guys. I’m just very impressed with the character of our guys individually, which adds up collectively.
On defensive backups playing well: Extremely impressed. Both those safeties to come in and have the game they did, and Jamar Taylor who wasn’t here until a couple weeks ago … since he’s come in, he’s played unbelievable.
On Jeff Wilson’s ankle injury: I know he’s hurting. Hopefully we’ll get better news tomorrow but it’s not looking great right now.
On Deebo Samuel’s injury: Those (hamstring injuries) take time. Hopefully the severity won’t be too bad and he won’t miss too much time.
On facing the Patriots: Going against a good defense is always a challenge and I always enjoy going against Bill and his team. Anytime you play well against a team coached by him, it means a lot.
On his running backs: We knew on Monday if Jeff was healthy, he’d be starting. We weren’t sure until he got a lot of practice on Thursday. Otherwise we would have gone with Hasty. We were able to rest Jet, play him only on third down and that will help him going forward.
On Kyle Juszczyk: He made some huge blocks like he always does. Kyle is the best fullback in the game. He’s been huge for our team since he’s been here. One of the best leaders and best blockers.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo
On returning to New England: Yeah, it was a cool week. Just a lot of emotions, a lot of memories. Especially coming back here, seeing the same stadium, hearing the same songs they used to play, a lot of memories came back. A lot of emotions out there. But it was a fun night.
On finishing off games with the lead: That’s always in our mindset, especially offensively. When we got them down, we got to keep them down, don’t want to give them any chance to breathe. I thought we did that tonight.
The O-line set the tempo up front. The backs ran hard. Started from the first snap and carried its way throughout the whole game.
On the Patriots defense: They were mixing it up a lot. They mixed in the zone, they mixed in the man, gave us some different fronts we weren’t expecting. I thought our guys handled it really well. The coaches on the sideline, the adjustments we had to make, whatever it was, the communication was real clean tonight. I think it transferred down the field. It showed.
On the 49ers defense: Yeah, that group, you can’t say enough about them. It starts with the D-line. Those guys get after the quarterback, especially when we get them a little lead like that. Just let the dogs loose. It just carries out. Guys making plays. Four turnovers today. Whenever you can do something like that as a defense, it helps the whole team. I think we played great complementary football. Yeah, that’s a great recipe for a win.
On delivering Belichick his biggest home loss in New England: It really was never in my mind. I obviously wanted to come here and get a win. To me it didn’t matter if we won by 1 or 100. It was go and get the win. That was the mindset we had this week. Same mindset we had last week. Just got to keep that mindset the rest of the season.
How the team feels looking forward to Seattle: We’re in a good spot right now. We’re playing well, all three phases. We’re playing together. I think it’s just a mindset that we have as a group. You could feel it, felt it in the locker room today from the guys, felt it all week in practice.
It’s a good feeling when you’re in that groove. We just got to keep this thing going, keep stacking ‘em.
On his missing victory chain: I gave the victory chain to the running backs. Those guys earned it tonight. All of them. They were playing their ass off, running hard, getting those extra dirty yards. Kind of the staple of our team.
It was an exciting night, a lot of emotions. Couldn’t imagine it going any better than this.
On Hroniss Grasu’s second start of the year: Hroniss did a great job. He really did. Like I said before, they gave us some looks we weren’t really planning for, expecting. The communication between all those guys up front with the tight ends getting it all figured out.
Thought he did a great job. When those guys play that well up front, it sets the tone for everyone offensively and defensively for the rest of the game.
That’s where it starts. That’s our team.
Tight end George Kittle
On the 49ers’ offense: We have complex offense so we’re figuring stuff out and learning how to play together. This was a step in the right direction and tomorrow’s another step
On Kyle Shanahan: He was on a hot streak tonight, calling play after play after play that they couldn’t stop. I love seeing that and being a part of that.
On National Tight End Day: National Tight End Day is good for the Niners because our whole team embodies it: have fun, play fast, be physical.
On Jeff Wilson: Jeff Wilson goes to a dark place before every game. It’s different than it is in practice, You can tell he’s angry. He attacks it. He wants contact, he delivers contact. It’s crazy.
On what he means by a dark place: Football is a violent sport and if you don’t kind of go to that dark place and be violent and be physical, you’re not gonna last very long. Coach Shanahan always talks about you know kind of find a dark place. I’ll never forget the first person I saw like go into a dark place, Pierre Garcon; his mindset when he went into a game, it was incredible. He’d punch himself in the head after first downs and stuff. That was the first look I got. The longer I’ve been here and the more Kyle has talked about it, everybody kind of goes in that dark place. It’s a violent game. It’s fun to be a part of a team with a bunch of psychopaths, because I fit in really well here.
Linebacker Fred Warner
On defensive disrespect because of injuries: I feel all that noise outside the building is irrelevant. We know what we’re capable of and we’ll work every week to get better.
On how they’re doing it: Obviously it starts with Saleh’s play calls and how he and coaches get us ready. You have to give credit to guys stepping up. They play big roles and ball out. Guys who’ve still been in the lineup, we take great pride being out there.
On rebounding since the loss to Miami: We’ve talked about it a little bit. We needed that wake-up call to spark a fire underneath us. That wasn’t who we were. We’ve put back-to-back performances with dominant defense. We have to stay humble and put our nose to the grindstone.
On 49ers offense: We’re on the sideline and you’ve got guys like Jeff Wilson with his mindset and the way he runs. We’ve got the best back in the league and we use all of them. That O-line doesn’t get talked about enough. As a defense we feed off that so we get extra rest.
On his interception: We just came out and they ran a drift by the receiver. It turned to an over route. Cam made a bad throw where I obviously came up with it. That’s a total defensive effort.
The entire team as a whole getting turnovers was huge for us today.
On 49ers being psychopaths, as Kittle said: “Psychopaths” is a great word to use. We all have something off. Kyle says when you have something off and impose your will on your opponent, you see the result.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick
On the game: We were clearly out-coached, outplayed. Just out-everything. So we need to just keep working here and find a way to just do everything better. We’re just not performing at a good level right now in any area. So that’s across the board. We just got to get back to work and keep working and find a way to play better than we played tonight and coach better than we coached tonight. So really there’s not much else to say about it. The 49ers are a good team. Kyle did a good job, like he always does. And but we just, we just didn’t do enough and look at what the results were.
Asked for his assessment of the game: I just did that. I think I just assessed that. We got better last week. We needed to get back on the practice field. We definitely got better. We improved in some areas. It didn’t show up on the score. We still have a lot of work to do, but some of the things that we worked on were better. But we’re still a long way from where weneed to be. That’s obvious.
On planning to play Cam Newton: Yeah, absolutely. Just wanted to give Stid [Jarrett Stidham] a little experience here.
On disappointment in the offense: Yeah, I just said that in the opening statement. I said that we didn’t perform well enough in any area, offense, defense, special teams, running, passing, defending the run, defend being the pass, ball security, tackling, blocking, none of it was good enough. Maybe I left something out, but we just got to do a better job allthe way across the board. I don’t think everything was bad, but there was enough bad for the results to be bad, so we need to improve in all areas.
On whether he’s surprised: I don’t know.
On Cam Newton’s struggles: I think I already covered that. I think we need to do better job in all areas. I don’t think there’s anything you could say that we don’t need work on. So they all work together. Obviously we weren’t good on third down on either side of the ball. We weren’t good in the red area. The opportunities that we had we didn’t, weren’t able to capitalize on. We turned the ball over. One takeaway, basically. So we just, just need to be better everywhere.
On his team’s effort level: I thought we competed hard. We just didn’t do things well enough.
On defensive breakdowns: As I’ve already said several times, that was a part of it, for sure. Fundamentals, some scheme, coaching, playing. Everybody contributed to it.
Patriots quarterback Cam Newton
On the team’s performance: Very disappointing, but we just got to be better.
On if he’s physically OK: Yes, sir.
On his mindset: I can’t allow myself to feel sorry for myself. I know what the issue is and you just have to attack it and do better.
(You know what the issue is? What is the issue?)
Me not playing good.
(Is there something leading to that?)
It’s simple. Play better.
Summing up what went wrong: I can’t speak for everybody. I just stick to the man in the mirror and I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t — in no way shape or form did I put this team in a position to compete, and that’s inexcusable. This is the National Football League where a lot is put on the quarterback and I have to deliver and I haven’t done that. Quite frankly, it’s evident. So here moving forward I know what the issue is, like I just said, and I just have to be better.
On getting through rough times with the offense as a quarterback: It’s a lot of it mental. I’m not going to point fingers at nobody else being the fact that I just didn’t get the job done. And when you have a performance like that going against a team like this, what happened tonight will happen again. So like I said, it’s a distasteful taste and feeling, but yet here moving forward you just got to get on a roll. We just got to get one. Once that happens — we just got to start with tomorrow, come back, review the film, and don’t put too much into understanding life’s lesson. So with that being said, I understand what’s expected, and only thing that I can control is putting a good body of practice in a week and put myself in the best situation.
On confidence he is “the guy”: Without a doubt.
On his interception thrown to Warner: That’s sad when you have to think about it. Yeah, I just lost him. I lost him and I seen — I just eyed Jakobi too much. I should have just threw it away, got down. The decision-making is inexcusable and I think that’s the most frustrating thing, being that once you pride yourself on certain things, that — facing — and you’re doing or doing things that you’re doing, it even makes matters worse. So the point of emphasis all year has been protecting the football and you know you have to protect the football. And when you do not protect the football, that’s when you kind of question a lot of things. But yet at the end of the day, we’re just going to come back to the drawing board starting tomorrow and I have full faith in the coaching staff and to be prepared. So it’s just about player production.
On the health of his right shoulder: It’s fine.
On his mechanics: Well, I’ve just been pressing. I don’t think it’s anything with mechanics. It’s seeing the situation at hand and I caught myself just pressing too much. The energy is definitely been off for me and at times it’s not rewarding when you’re just going out there with this aura about yourself that’s not you. I love playing this football game. I have fun playing this football game, but the performances here hasn’t been somewhat delightful for me to have fun in doing so. So I just got to be better. And a lot of things starts and stops at that position and I understand that. And I have put this team in a rut with the performances here, and yet just start over with Monday and see where it goes.
