Kevin Patullo

Q. What are you seeing from the 49ers defense on film? (Reuben Frank)

“They do a good job. They’re really, really well coached. [49ers defensive coordinator Robert] Saleh does a good job and he’s done a good job for a long time. They fly around to the ball, they’re very physical, so it’s going to be a good test. I think when you watch – I know they’ve had personnel changes throughout the season, but they play extremely hard. They’re disciplined. You can tell they know what they’re doing within the scheme, so I think they’ve done a good job at this point. They did a good job against Seattle. I know they gave up a lot of yards, but they held them when they needed to, so it’s going to be a good test.”

Q. When you have a team like that that’s had a bunch of injuries at the same position, how do you balance trying to attack what might be a weakness versus not getting out of yourself? (Dave Zangaro)

“I think you said it right there. You have to be careful. You don’t just chase it, right? You have to really just be in tune with what you want to do and what their scheme is about. Maybe not so much players at times. You can do some things, but you have to be careful you don’t push all into that because, ultimately, they’re going to do what they need to help their players as well with their scheme. So, if they feel like they need to change, they may adapt, too. So, you just have to be careful with that.”

Q. If you do get Eagles RT Lane Johnson back on Sunday, what does he allow you to do that you normally can’t do when you have a Hall of Famer-caliber player there? (Jeff McLane)

“Yeah, Lane’s the best right tackle in the game, so if we get him back, it’s tremendous. He’ll add so much to everything. Just even his leadership, his play-style ability, run-pass [contributions], doesn’t matter. It’ll be a tremendous lift for the whole entire offense and I think you’ll feel the energy if he’s out there.”

Q. As far as the scheme, is that 2023 game against the Jets instructive at all this week or is it different personnel? (Zach Berman)

“Yeah, I think you always look at past games against coordinators and different influences they have on stuff. I know he wasn’t the play caller that year, but obviously it was still his defense. So, you still always look at past games and past history things when you go against opponents that you’re kind of familiar with because there are some things that can pop up, but yeah, you look at that.”

Q. How much of a luxury is it to have a quarterback who’s got so much Super Bowl and playoff game experience? (Reuben Frank)

“I think it’s great. I think when you look at our whole team, we’ve got a lot of experience in different spots, which is tremendous. And so going forward, it’s going to pay dividends for us for sure and his leadership in those moments and ability to [say], ‘I’ve been here, I’ve done that’ is really a big lift for us on offense that he can handle anything that’s going on out there in the moment.”

Q. What did the Jets do well that day that shut you guys down? (Bob Brookover)

“We had a bunch of turnovers. I think, like, four. So that was kind of what went on. And then just on third down, we were just kind of choppy a little bit when you look at it, but taking care of the ball was something that we did not do in that game in the red zone. We didn’t finish a couple of those drives.”

Q. Have you studied 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan much over the years in terms of what he does from a system? What do you think of his operation? (Mike Sielski)

“A little bit. I’ve watched some of their stuff and some of the guys that have come off that staff. I don’t really know him too well, but they do a really nice job of coming off the run game, play-action, and exploiting teams in that area. They like to do what they do and really press into that. They do a lot of different personnel changes and things like that, but I don’t really have a ton of background with him in that kind of system.”

Q. What is the strength of their defense? (Brooks Kubena)

“The 49ers currently, when you watch it, they do a really nice job of mixing – they’re trying to show you shells and then take away certain players, so that’s really what they do a good job with.”

Q. Is there anybody who has been a big influence on you as you became a play caller? (Reuben Frank)

“When you go back, even through my history as a coach coming up, I think [former NFL head coach] Chan Gailey is somebody, when I first started, he really took me under his wing and just watching him do different things and we were in different places together. We had a situation when I was with [former Chiefs head coach] Herm Edwards, we had no quarterbacks and we went down to [former Chiefs QB] Tyler Thigpen who was our third-string quarterback. He only knew a no-huddle system and he really never called plays before. We ended up switching the entire offense in the middle of the year to basically go to a spread no-huddle, which nobody was doing in 2008 in the NFL and [ran] a pistol [offense]. We were the first team to [run] the pistol and Chan was all about doing whatever you had to do to win the game. I quickly learned that from him and I was obviously with him in other spots and then being with [former NFL head coach] Frank [Reich] in Indianapolis who was a really good play caller and set up things really, really well. And then just being here throughout my time with everybody and going through the process, I think those are the people you just pick and choose and things. And then just watching in the offseason and when you get some spare time, other play callers like [Rams head coach] Sean McVay and [49ers head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] and these other guys do a really nice job of setting things up. You just watch and see how they do their things.”

Q. You’ve had the flexibility midseason to change things week-to-week, which is what you guys have done. When you go into the playoffs, what bag are you reaching into? How much is there, how much of that works, and how are you looking at that in this game? (Brooks Kubena)

“I think game-by-game, you’re just doing whatever you need to do to win the game. So, we will do anything and everything we have to, to put our players in a position and give them a chance to execute and win the game.”

Q. Do you think resting two of the three guys on the interior offensive line will help them in terms of mobility and what you guys have done versus what you haven’t done in terms of moving them, pulling them, et cetera? (Jeff McLane)

“Yeah, [Eagles head coach] Nick [Sirianni] talked about it the other day, resting guys, anytime you can rest guys, it gives them an advantage going into the next weekend. And I know mentally all last week those guys were into it and trying to help everybody out and really still getting mental reps, which is obviously one of the biggest things, too, at this point in the year. You don’t practice as much as you do early in the year whether you’re playing or not. So, you have to get all those mental reps as much as you can going forward. So, I think all the guys being in tune to even what we were doing last week and just being available and pushing through meetings and everything was a big help for them.”

Q. Along those lines, how valuable was it also for you to start planning ahead towards who you guys might be playing? Were you able to get a jumpstart and figure out some things that weren’t working or not working as well as you had hoped? (Martin Frank)

“Yeah, so throughout the week last week we had to balance certain things we wanted to look at going forward. Some of it was look at ourselves, some of it was try to see who we may be playing. Obviously, it transpired later in the week but just look at those types of things. And then the middle of the week I was focused on the game to try to help those guys within the game and play the best I can. And then some of the other staff was working on the opponents we may be playing, so we tried to really spread it out to get as much done and really have a little bit of a jump this week going forward.

Q. When the offense has been up and down throughout the year, what makes you confident that you could find more consistency at this time of the year and peak when it maybe hasn’t always happened during the regular season? (Cayden Steele)

“Yeah, really up to this point, our whole goal has just been to win games and that’s what we’re trying to do is win as many games as we can. And obviously now it counts even more. So as far as game planning going forward, it is whatever we need to do is what we’re going to do to win the game. So, I think we’ve spread it out to do totally different things from game-to-game, week-to-week. And so that’s where we’re at. We’ll just do whatever we have to do and keep pushing forward.”

 Q. What does Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni bring to the team every week? (Michael Lee)

“I’ve been here with Nick and I was with him in Indianapolis. Week-to-week, day-to-day, his energy, his passion, everything you want in a leader who stands in front of this team in team meetings and at practice, he gives you. His attention to detail. We talk about core values all the time. Toughness. Together. Detailed. All that stuff. And when we look at those things, that’s what he embodies and he brings that to the team and every day he’s consistent in who he is. You’re not going to get somebody who goes back and forth on what they say, and I think when he speaks, everybody receives it and they’re ready to go. I think that’s the biggest thing is his leadership and his detail. When he says something, everybody knows it’s time to go. I think it’s impressive from what he’s done from [2021] until now, the amount of games he’s won and the changes and the things we’ve had to do within the roster, whether it’s staff, roster, ups and downs throughout a season, he’s done a tremendous job and giving everybody the opportunity to do their best, whether it’s players, coaches, everybody. That’s what he’s all about is giving us in this organization a chance to win each and every day.”

Q. The 49ers play a lot of nickel. Do they do that based upon a lot of the personnel they’ve seen or are they willing to stay in nickel against heavy personnel? (Jeff McLane)

“They do both. If you look at game-to-game, I think there’s certain games where they went a little more base [formation]. In certain games they’ll be a little more nickel to almost everything. I think it’s probably more philosophy going in with them. That’s kind of that system. He’s done that before in the past in other places [49ers defensive coordinator Robert] Saleh has been. They do a little bit of both.”

Q. You mentioned the Tyler Thigpen story earlier. In some ways, that’s an extreme example. Last week, in some ways, did that help you sharpen when you have a different group of players you have to prepare? (John McMullen)

“Yeah, last week was fun because those guys got to have an opportunity to go play against a starting defense, everything like that, and go try to execute. Pushing a plan, getting a plan in place, and giving everybody an opportunity to do their best in moments. A lot of those guys hadn’t played. Obviously [Eagles T] Cam [Williams] going against [Commanders OLB] Von Miller at right tackle. This was legit stuff in the game. We try to give them the best opportunity we can to succeed. Going through that was fun because you’re trying to find different ways to let everybody show what they can do and have opportunities and we had some opportunities. So, it was a fun game. The energy was up and it was a good moment.”

Q. If I can ask two questions about this past game. The first being about getting the snap off quicker – was that an initiative? Was it something that was the byproduct of this game in particular? And also short yardage situations – is the play calling different in terms of the tush push or the quarterback sneak when Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is not in there? (Zach Berman)

“So, to answer your last question, we did some things, what we wanted to do in this game with short yardage, that was a little bit different just because we felt like personnel-wise and what they had done, we wanted to change that up. And then as far as getting the plays off quicker, it really just came down to how we structured some of the play calling as far as getting it into [Eagles QB] Tanner [McKee] and how they were orchestrated at the line [of scrimmage]. We didn’t have as many things available for him to go through, so that made a little bit of a difference.”