Not surprisingly, the majority of Geep Chryst's Thursday press conference focused on the San Francisco 49ers offensive line.
The group allowed nine sacks a week ago to the Cleveland Browns. In Blaine Gabbert's previous four starts, the quarterback was brought down just eight times total.
Chryst was asked for his reaction to the loss in Cleveland and how the team can correct the problems it faced during the game. The first-year offensive coordinator also spoke about Joe Staley and Andrew Tiller's significant contributions to the 49ers during a trying season.
When you look at the nine sacks, what's that a reflection on?
"The coaching phrase is lack of execution. You'll hear that all the time. ... But it's a reflection of trying to give help. Sometimes a person that was giving help was the one that got beat on the sack. It also is often time's a reflection of the score of a ballgame. If you're behind in a game, there's a tendency to want to catch up and get through the air, caught up.
"But there was a series of factors where we had an opportunity to make a play, especially in the first half, in the first portion of the third quarter and we failed in almost every instance to make a play. And that's going to affect the outcome of the game, affect your emotions and affect the stat line."
Has Staley had to take on more responsibilities this year?
"First off, I think that the battle that he had with (Chicago Bears defensive end) Willie Young in the Chicago game was really fun to watch. Young had mentioned how he told his kids not to bug him because he's going up against Joe Staley. He put extra time and extra effort in. So you've got motivated players going against a Pro Bowl tackle in Joe.
And then like I said, we've been conscious of giving some of these younger players help, whether it's Marcus (Martin) or Jordan Devey or Andrew Tiller. We're trying to give those guys help, so often Joe is on an island. That's a frustrating, hard thing to do and we've got to make sure that on any game plan, it's balanced enough that he's not always got the tough task on the play. But I appreciate how hard he's been playing. Oftentimes, when you watch those end-zone copies, he probably sleeps well at the end of the day because there's a lot of battling going on."
How has Tiller been playing?
The two teams have met on only 11 occasions since 1974, but San Francisco has defeated Cincinnati eight times, including twice in the Super Bowl.
"He's done a nice job and kind of settling into himself. I think the game is slowing down. I think that's the one thing you hear. ... Andrew's done a heck of a job because he's come in and continued to play well and make plays, and I think the game is slowing down for him, at least from what you see on tape.
"He's seeing where the linebackers are. He's got a long way to go and this will be a heck of a challenge against a very good front seven. But you've got to give him credit because he's ramping up quickly."
