Opening statement: "Well I feel pretty good about that one. That was as good a win as I can remember being a part of. Really proud of our players. They never flinched, you know, there was never a moment or circumstance that made them nervous in this ball game. And kept fighting, made some great adjustments. Great team victory for us."
On his halftime message to the team: "Just a short, quick message to them at half time. It was, we just need to play a little bit better. We need to execute a little bit better than what we had been doing in this first half. I don't know if that made a difference. It was more the heart of the players. Just down after down, they never tired mentally or had doubt. They didn't flinch, they didn't get scared, they just kept fighting."
On what it means to score 21 unanswered points on the road: "Well, it means a lot. It's a great character builder for a young team to really know and trust and believe that they can and will do well. They believe that they are good enough to do well. And not quit or getting scared out there. That's big. That's the way we wanted them to play and that's the way they played."
On the consequences of staying on the east coast last week: "Oh, I mean, it worked. We won, accomplished what we set out to do. That was our intent when we left 10 days ago, to get two wins and our guys did. I thought we had great training. You know, our guys worked. They came closer together, they grew stronger, they practiced really well in Youngstown. Thought they were fully acclimated to the time switch. But, it's mainly how do you gauge that, how do you measure that? There's no way to do that. And how do you gauge the heart of our football players? I mean, they're the ones that made it happen. And so many guys, (DT) Justin Smith, causing that big fumble at the end of the game, I mean, the pursuit, the hustle he showed. I mean, that's where the story is to me. It's not that we stayed back east for 10 days. That is minimal to what the real story is. But with (LB) Patrick (Willis) (and) (LB NaVorro) Bowman, we're all over the field. Patrick Willis, and NaVorro, (S Donald) Goldson had a bunch of tackles. We got three turnovers that were huge in the game. Our defense keeps coming up with the big turnover. And (QB) Alex Smith played a great game. Cold blooded game from him. All the receivers were involved. (WR) Mike Crabtree made some big time catches in the ball game. (TE) Veron (Davis) was getting open, catching the ball, running with authority after the catch. Thought our offensive line played extremely physical and well. Big time, got things fixed I thought. With the pre-snap penalties, I think we only had one in the ball game and it was loud and noisy. And then to grind out those first downs at the end of the game. (RB) Frank (Goore), as we predicted we would do, played on a really sore ankle, and what a tough guy he is, goes for over 100 yards. It's just that guy's got so much heart, it's unbelievable. Thought (RB) Kendall (Hunter) did a nice job. Great team victory. I mean, you just go up and down the roster on this one. Special teams, offensive, defense, great team win."
On if he needed to see Gore warm up before he determined his role in this game: "I mean he was coming to the stadium to warm up I think just in his own mind and make sure that it was right. He didn't do much all week. I mean, he couldn't. But he did a lot of treatment is what he did. I really didn't need to…you're asking me, did I need to see him warm up? I see something in Frank that I've seen from the first time I met him and that is a guy with a huge heart and just a warrior out there. I know what that word means, warrior, in the context of football, but I think it applies to certain to guys and Frank is one."
On what adjustments he made to slow QB Michael Vick in the second half: "We just, we really went with our plan. We didn't make a lot of adjustments defensively other than just play better. And the one thing our defensive coaches talked to our guys about at half time was better angles on Vick, taking better angles in tackling him. You know, he's going to get out of things and he's a heck of a football player, but our guys hung in there and they didn't flinch and just played better. Just played a little bit better in that second half and found a way to get it done."
On QB Alex Smith's two nearly perfect series in the 3rd quarter: "I think it's huge for a quarterback. You don't have many 20 point comebacks as a quarterback and when you do, that's definitely a character builder for the football team, for the quarterback, for everybody. What's perfect in this game? I don't know. I guess they judge that by quarterback rating and he had a perfect quarterback rating and was 9 for 9 in the third quarter, that's pretty good. Really proud of him too. Such a tough guy. I mean he doesn't really say boo about anything and gets hit, takes hits, runs, you know. I thought he threw with real good accuracy today, was seeing things well, seeing lanes, seeing throws and receivers helped him out too. (WR) Mike (Crabtree) caught a couple balls that were a little high and made those look easy. I think as a quarterback, when you have guys that are doing that for you, that builds your confidence as well. Good team victory just up and down. I thought there was some great, heroic play by our guys up and down the roster."
On the thinking behind the 3rd and 7 play on the touchdown drive: "We thought they were going to be bringing pressure in a man coverage and with that particular sweep, when you block down with two receivers, you usually get the coverage people to go with them, so you can get a two for one on that. That's what we were hoping we'd get and we got and we were going to go for it on fourth had we not picked it up, so we knew we were in a four down situation there. And it was a great call by (offensive coordinator) Greg Roman."
On what he told his team at a timeout at the end of the game: "I was just telling them what we were going to do. We were going to run the same exact play that we had run the two previous plays and we needed a yard. And just embrace the moment, embrace the pressure to perform right now and our guys didn't flinch."
On what it means to hang in there after a 20 point deficit at halftime: "Huge, huge. Yeah, we talked about that a little earlier. It reveals character, it shows character, it builds character. It's great…all those things. I'm proud of our team."
On if this is the biggest win he's been a part of and if it tops the Orange Bowl: "It feels like it (jokingly). I can honestly tell you that every time you win a game, it's like this is six hours of just the greatest feeling there is. This plane ride home's going to be great. This feels like a good a win as I've ever been associated with in football. It's going to feel that way for six hours and then the plane will land and I'll start thinking about Josh Freeman and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But the next six hours are going to be pretty darn good."
On if they are going back to San Francisco: "Well, that's where we're going. Yeah, that's where we're scheduled to go. Youngstown was good to us, thank you very much, Youngstown."
