The first game of Week 3 lived up to the hype of a primetime game for "Thursday Night Football". In a showdown that went to the final minutes of the game, Thursday's contest was arguably be the most entertaining matchup of this season's series yet.
The San Francisco 49ers offense produced a come-from-behind rally in the final eight minutes of the contest, but fell just short to the Los Angeles Rams, 41-39. Despite an unfavorable outcome, there was a lot to take away from the 49ers loss.
Here are some of the notable postgame quotes following the 49ers Week 3 loss.
Kyle Shanahan on Pierre Garçon's first-half performance:
"It was a tough way to start, the situation we were in, especially after Sunday vs. Seattle. I knew it was going to be tough. We wanted to come out here and play well. To start out with the first play as a pick, basically a pick six, I think they took it to the two. I knew that was going to be tough, so I just went up and talked to him, looked in his eyes, he looked fine. He said, 'I'm ready to go. I'll be alright.' He responded pretty well the next drive."
Shanahan on the progression of the offense in Week 3:
"We had more opportunities, had some better looks, guys made some big plays. It's a matter of time. We went against a couple tough defenses the first two weeks. This was a challenge too. They have a lot of good players over there. They made plays also, but our guys responded. I think our guys felt pretty strongly that we didn't play to our capabilities the first couple weeks. By no means did we today either, but I thought we did improve at least on the offensive side of the ball."
Shanahan on his message to the team following near comeback:
"I was proud of the guys, how they fought. We just need to get better. We've got 10 days until our next game. It's a division opponent in Arizona. I know we're all excited for that. Right now, it is a grind to play on Thursday, but the benefit of it is you get a little bit more time to recover. I think we do need that now, so we're going to have rehab for the guys to get healthy and try to get the players away from us for about three days. I just really challenge them to use those three days away to get their bodies and minds right, because we plan on them coming back Monday and we plan on getting better each week. I told them, 'When you're 0-3 and you're facing some adversity, you either get better or worse.' If you have mentally strong people, I believe we can get better from all this stuff and I believe we do have the right guys in that room. I don't really care about the record right now. I care about how guys are responding to it and I want these guys to come back Monday ready to go and ready to fight to get our first win."
QB Brian Hoyer on the 49ers offense picking up:
"Well, we should've scored more. You'd like to score more touchdowns when you get in the red area. But, that was just the way it was going. We knew we had to score touchdowns. We saw that was how the game was being played. When that's the case, obviously you always want to score points when it's a close game and it's nine to six or whatever it was. You know that's the kind of game that's being played. When you go out there tonight and you know that you're going to have to score 41 just to tie it up, then that's what you have to do. Maybe you take some more chances with throwing the ball. Throwing it up to Marquise (Goodwin), letting him make a play. Calling a go to Pierre and letting him run underneath it. We just knew that we didn't have a lot of time and we had to take some big plays."
WR Pierre Garçon on his 59-yard reception:
"I was just playing football. It was nothing spectacular. It was just like we were practicing for. We call a play and at the end of the day we know what we have to do from the quarterback to the offensive linemen to the receivers. We have to catch whatever the quarterback throws. We have to keep playing football and every play matters. We just have to finish the plays and score touchdowns."
RB Pierre Garçon on the 49ers offense not finding a rhythm until the second half:
"We had penalties and turnovers. We were pretty much shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to eliminate that part. We have to play the way that we know how to play. We started showcasing that at the end of the game. If we could have just come out like that, it could have been a different outcome for us."
WR Trent Taylor on the production of the 49ers offense:
"I think as an offense, we always knew we had it in us. It was just a matter of time until the pieces fell together. It was good to see our offense move the ball a little bit more than we have in the past couple of games. I think we're going to continue to grow."
C Daniel Kilgore on the 49ers loss:
"It is always frustrating when you lose. Sure there were positives overall but when you lose, that is the biggest thing to us. And we will look at it. We have a long weekend, 10 days before our next game. It's another divisional game, we will take care of ourselves, look at the film and get ready for Arizona."
