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Opening statements:**
"I'm very excited this week to go to Indianapolis for a great football game, a tremendous challenge, obviously. We're just going to have a good week's practice and get ready for the challenge at hand."
On whether he changes his coaching at all based on margin of defeat:
"I don't really have a philosophy about if you lose you do this. Each week is a new week to me, and we've got to go out and get ready to play the next game. Every game has its own set of issues and parameters as to why you played the way you played, why you did what you did. But, I think it's as important that as you move to that next week, you continue to learn from week to week. But, in terms of being nice, being hard – no, I'm going to be myself week-in and week-out and have our staff go accordingly."
On who the starting right tackle and right guard will be:
"[T Adam] Snyder and [G] Chilo [Rachal]."
On whether Snyder moved back to right tackle:
"Yes. Right tackle."
On whether he will still alternate right guards:
"No."
On whether Rachal is the starter:
"Chilo is the guy."
On whether he considered T Barry Sims at right tackle:
"Did not, no."
On whether Sims is solely the backup:
"Yes."
On whether WR Brandon Jones will play this week:
"Brandon will be active. He will be active this week. In terms of playing time, we just have to wait and see on that, but he will be active."
On what position Jones will play:
"He's right behind the X, [WR Michael] Crabtree."
On S Michael Lewis' status:
"Michael Lewis is fine, ready to go."
On whether Lewis will help in covering the tight end this week:
"I'll put it this way: As far as the tight end is concerned, it was more about our technique than the tight end. So, rather than saying Michael Lewis is going to come in and help us with the tight end, the guys that we had on the tight end have to do a better job covering the guy. It's as simple as that. But, Michael will certainly help when he has a chance to cover the guy, but that's really what it came down to."
On whether Colts TE Dallas Clark is similar to Texans TE Owen Daniels:
"They're different in their own way. I think they're both guys that the quarterback has formed a relationship with, sort of like our quarterbacks with [TE] Vernon [Davis]. The tight end and the quarterbacks always have that relationship, and that's certainly the same situation."
On whether Lewis will start:
"Yes."
On whether he has given any thought to playing LB Ahmad Brooks more:
"I don't know about more, but we're always looking to try to get him in more. I think he's a full go right now. His knee is a little banged up and he's trying to get back, but I think he continues to get stronger, and that's good for us."
On whether he considered G Tony Wragge at all for right guard:
"No."
On Colts DE Dwight Freeney:
"He's a guy that just comes off the ball. You talk about reckless, relentless. He is the ultimate pass-rush guy. So, we're going to have our hands full trying to protect against him. You've got the guy on the other side as well. Both of those ends come up-field extremely well, spinning and turning and fighting and everything else. So, we'll have to do our job on them"
On how the team prepares for Colts QB Peyton Manning changing the play at the line of scrimmage and whether the team will have anyone try to mimic that:
"We may do a little bit of that, but all the gestures and stuff is for you to get caught up in it. Sometimes, it doesn't mean a thing. I just think it's important for us as we go into this game is really to focus on our technique and really focus on the communication, and I think we'll be fine. We'll let all of the other stuff take care of itself."
On whether he has thought of doing anything different with calling in the play:
"We have."
On who will call the plays in the huddle:
"It will be [FS] Dashon [Goldson]."
On whether he could sense that QB Alex Smith can do the job:
"Absolutely. Yes."
On what Smith has shown in terms of poise:
"Alex is a totally different guy today than he was even six months ago. He's just a totally different guy. I think his mindset is clear. The thing that spoke volumes to me about him was in the offseason he had a chance to move on and go to another team and make more money. But, he decided to stay because he felt that he wanted to be a part of what was here. He wanted to finish what he started. To me, that speaks volumes for who he is and the kind of person that he is. So, I'm excited for him going forward and I'm not going to build too much into it. I'm going to let Alex's play speak for itself as we go forward. We'll go from there."
On whether he has to do anything to help build up Smith's confidence and establish a relationship:
"I think, first and foremost, with all of our players, one of the things that I always strive to do is build relationships with them so that they have an idea of who I am and I have an idea of who they are. I think the better the relationship, the better you understand when something's not right. If Alex is not looking right, if his eyes aren't right, if his body language isn't right, you have a better idea of feeling that and trying to get ahead of it and being proactive rather than waiting until something happens. I just think that it's extremely important that with the quarterbacks, with your skill people, really, as much as I can try to have them understand that this is the way I want our relationship. This is what you can expect from me, this is what I'd like to be able to expect from you and let's go forward with that. I try to be the same person every day, and consistency, I think, is huge. When you have players out there playing and they don't know what you're thinking, what you're feeling or whatever, I don't really want anybody to ever think twice about where I'm at. If there's something there, Alex knows that I'm going to tell him, 'You know what? I don't like that,' or, 'This is good,' or 'I'd like to see you do that more.' I think we have an open-dialogue relationship, as well as [QB] Shaun [Hill]. It's the same with both of them. I'm very open and honest with them and expect that to reciprocate itself."
On him building a natural rapport with Smith:
"It's just a very natural thing for me, to me it's as natural as with your own kids, with your own family. It's very important to me, if I'm going to be the coach, I need to know how I am responsible for 'okay, these 53 guys, then these 53 guys in some way, somehow, at different times I'm going to establish a relationship with every one of them. That's very important to me. Relationships is what makes everything go."
On what S Dashon Goldson gives the defense with the helmet radio that LB Joe Staley didn't:
"I think what happens is that you have responsibilities. There's one guy that's responsible for the 'Close' call which is [LB] Takeo [Spikes] and another guy that's responsible for making the calls, that's [LB] Patrick [Willis]. Then you've got a guy that's got to relay the information on the back end to the defensive backs, and sometimes when Pat gets it, sometimes he's in his game here and you're talking to the D-line and the DB's are so far back and then maybe on the headset the last thing the guy sending the call in said is, 'make sure you watch this, make sure you watch for the bang-8, make sure you watch for the deep route and that's the one bit of information that you don't get out. I think it makes it difficult, so I think that it's one less thing that Pat will have to think about. I think he understands the importance of those guys having it back there because if there's a mistake back there, then nine times out of ten it's going to reveal itself on the scoreboard. If there's a mistake on the front line, hopefully somebody can go and make a play and make a tackle and we'll talk about it. If it's on the back end, then it's hard to recover."
On whether the communication is even more important facing Indianapolis this weekend:
"Yes it is, absolutely. Yes indeed."
On whether there was a specific moment when you noticed a change in Smith's body language:
"No, I just think that during training camp, during the season when I named Shaun the quarterback, I told Alex at that time 'I don't want you to lock yourself in a barn,' or say 'Shaun is the guy-get out.' It is that I want to continue to develop a relationship. It's a long season; you never know when you're going to need the other quarterback. I just wanted to, every chance that I got, tell him, 'hey, are you continuing to develop here? How is that going,' and the answer was yes every time. To me, he's been a true team player, the ultimate team player throughout the whole process."
