Linebacker Derek Smith and the 49ers defense, playing without a leader in safety Tony Parrish, faced a great challenge in the Seattle Seahawks. In the latest edition of 50 on 50, Smith talks about going against the NFL's top-ranked offense, what the team will take from the game and losing Bryant Young in the second quarter.
Coming out of the game, there were things out there in all phases of the game that we got better in. There were also things out there in all phases of the game where we didn't execute like we should have. Those are the reasons why we didn't win the game. I wouldn't say there is a moral victory at all. I would say you could take some good football out of that film and learn from it, and you can take some bad football out of that film and learn from it. Everybody can learn from that game.
We forced them into some three-and-outs, but we were just doing what we were supposed to do. We were playing our assignments, playing leverage and techniques and making tackles. We were doing what we were supposed to do as a defense.
We lost Tony Parrish in the Chicago game, so playing without him calling the shots was a little chaotic at first. Toward the end of the game, everything started to settle down. The success was a result of more than just one variable. Things in the second half of the game really started to settle down and the communication was good, but we definitely missed Tony out there. Tony is a great player and did a lot of communicating back there, so we definitely missed him.
When Bryant Young went down, I saw him lying on the ground and I was like, no, not BY. He's such a great person, great player, and he's a leader. To me, he's the keystone of this team.
As far as Seattle's #1 ranked offense goes, I don't even pay attention to those stats. I knew they were good. That was not motivation for me. I really didn't know they were ranked that high until the media asked about it afterwards. It was a division game. We wanted to get the win, that was the motivation and we didn't get it done. Other than that, it's on to Tennessee.
We want to win. That's what we are looking to improve on. We need to improve on everything that we can so we have things pointing to where they need to in order to get a win.
