The San Francisco 49ers are 8-0 after a thrilling 28-25 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on "Thursday Night Football." Here's what both locker rooms had to say following San Francisco's win in Week 9.
Niners Liners
Kyle Shanahan on QB Jimmy Garoppolo's performance:
"He played great today. He played in rhythm and made a lot of off-schedule plays. They've got a great pass rush. They have some real tight coverages. They mix up a lot of stuff. I thought Jimmy played a hell of a game. His best game yet, probably."
Shanahan on Garoppolo's efficiency on third downs:
"That's usually where quarterbacks earn their money. You can do a lot of things on first and second down. You can mix and run or pass and kind of even out the game, but on third down that pass rush is coming and they always even out their coverages and blitz call. You need a good guy back there and everyone knows how well Jimmy can throw. He was on tonight throwing. He got it to the right spots and when it wasn't there, he made plays with his legs."
Shanahan on being 8-0:
"It'll be nice to get a couple days off here. Probably get a chance to sit back and reflect a little bit, all of us. That's the good thing about playing a Thursday night game. I'm glad we were able to pull that off so we could enjoy our few days off; 7-1 would not have felt nearly as good. You only feel as good as your last game. We're really excited about being 8-0, but it doesn't mean anything. It just means we can enjoy our couple days off even more."
QB Jimmy Garoppolo on his on-field chemistry with Emmanuel Sanders:
"He's picking things up very quickly coming from a similar offense (in Denver). Just his body language on routes, I can kind of anticipate what he's going to do. I think we have room for improvement but I'm pretty happy with where we're at.
"He's savvy. He knows what to do, feels space when it's zone and he beats the guy when it's man. It's a nice combination. He's so smart that he just does things that, as a quarterback, you love to see, and it makes it easy on you to throw the ball to him."
Garoppolo on having a strong performance in Week 9:
"We've done a good job of winning in different ways this year, whether it's offense, special teams, defense and mix-and-match all of them. That's how you create a good football team, though. You're not relying on one part and everyone's playing together and playing complementary football, and I think that's where we're at right now."
CB Richard Sherman on watching the offense put up big numbers on Thursday night:
"It's awesome. I'm so thankful for them. Jimmy G played his balls off. Our offensive line did a great job. Running backs, everybody deserves credit, Kyle for drawing it up. They executed great the whole game and they were clutch down the stretch."
Sherman on what the win proved about the team:
"You're thankful for your offense. You're thankful for how they played. We let them down, myself included. You have to get him (Andy Isabella) tackled at that point. The guy breaks, we have to get him down. I have to make that tackle and get him down and give us a chance to continue to defend. It's humbling for the defense. We need to be humble; that was a humbling game. We need to be humble on all levels, and I think there's accountability on all levels. We'll watch the tape, and we'll watch it critically, and everybody will watch it and judge themselves critically. That was not championship football."
TE George Kittle on Garoppolo's performance:
"He's pretty good, I don't know why people think he is. He makes some pretty gutsy throws out there doesn't he? Goodness gracious. In addition to that strong chin-line he's incredible, goodness gracious. I can't say enough about how he brings us along whether it's on the sideline or in the huddle and the leadership that he has. The fire that he has too, he just gets the people going. To see him make those plays and allow him to get people off his back that say, 'Hey, maybe he's not what we think he is.' When everyone in this building and in this locker room knows what he is. It's fun to see that."
Kittle on his mindset when he catches the ball:
"Score, don't let them tackle you, make them tackle you. Safe to say creative angles. I wasn't the most mobile person tonight and they still took creative angles on me. Try to be as violent as possible and see if they can match your intensity."
DL DeForest Buckner on the team finding ways to win:
"A couple years ago, we were finding ways to lose. We couldn't find a way to win. Just to see the growth in this team. It's still a pretty young team. Guys are learning to finish those games and find a way to win."
WR Emmanuel Sanders on his 22-yard catch on 3rd-and-4:
"What a throw by Jimmy. It was one of those throws that, obviously, I made the play, but I couldn't even take the credit, I couldn't even pound my chest, because I just had to point at Jimmy. That was definitely a 'Dilfer Dime', watching SportsCenter or whatnot, but it was just so easy. Literally, I turned my head and the ball fell in my lap. Jimmy was on fire tonight. I remember after he threw the touchdown to (Dante Pettis). I walked over to him on the sideline and told him 'Man, you're blinking right now. I'm loving it.' What a great night for Jimmy."
Sanders on what makes the 49ers locker room so unique:
"It's very unique. When I first got here...obviously to start a season undefeated 8-0, you've got to have a special locker room. You've got to have a special group of guys and I didn't know what to expect when I first got here. Coming into this locker room and seeing the guys, I really loved it. I think it starts with Kyle and just seeing how he is. The guy is wearing Yeezy's with a backwards hat when he walks into the team meetings. He's making us laugh, but at the same time we know how to focus. I think this team is just a reflection of him."
LB Dre Greenlaw on recording his first-career sack:
"It feels great, credit to my coaches for making the call, and credit to the defensive line and the guys up front for making it happen."
WR Kendrick Bourne on the impact Sanders brings to the group:
"I think it's his route running. He runs his routes a certain way, so he gives Jimmy good indicators of when he's going to break. As a young guy I just watch stuff like that, how he threw that ball today, he threw it before he was even looking. Emmanuel runs his routes, giving indicators of when he's breaking, like leaning into a guy and breaking so Jimmy sees that queue and he can just throw it. Jimmy makes great throws already, so if we can run great routes for him and make it easier for him, the better he's going to play. The better we'll be overall."
Cardinals Quotes
Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury on the Cardinals overall effort against the 49ers:
"Effort continues to be there from the first game on, we got way down and they battled back. I think effort is continuing to stand out week in and week out. Execution wasn't what it needed to be tonight, and that's a very good football team. We've got to give them credit, they made a bunch of plays there. On third down they kept them on the field and then defensively that's a really good group, physical up front, got a great pass rush and put us in a lot of negative situations."
Kingsbury on the 49ers scoring a touchdown to end the first half and calling a timeout there:
"I wanted to get a Kodak timeout, one of those looks at it and wanted them to hopefully burn their best play. They ran a play and it worked for us initially, but then obviously looking back on it, would've rather gotten that stop. It just didn't work out for us this time."
QB Kyler Murray on how the Cardinals fared against the 49ers:
"That's a great team, they're undefeated for a reason. Got guys on the d-line, it's tough, but at the same time, three points. We lost by three points, we were there the whole time. I think we just have to make a couple of adjustments and I'm confident with our guys."
Murray on if the Cardinals performance took the 49ers by surprise:
"I don't know. I know what we're capable of, I know we're a good team. It's just frustrating at times, but we're going to continue to get better."
WR Larry Fitzgerald on the Cardinals offensive performance:
"We feel like we left a lot of plays out there. We had one play for 88 yards, so that was kind of deceiving on the numbers. They did a good job on the back end rushing the passer. They are a really good defense. They are a top-five defense in the league. Glad the way we ran the football, and were able to control the line of scrimmage in the run game and hopefully we can build off that and try to bounce back next week in Tampa Bay."
