SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS GAME NOTES

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1 SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS GAME NOTES DAllas cowboys v ( 4 ) SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 217 Attendance: 7,133 1:5 PM PT san francisco 49ers ( 1 ) LEVI S STADIUM SANTA CLARA, CA Weather: Sunny - 68 degrees FOX Time: 2:59 GAME NOTES GAME BOOK CUMULATIVE STATISTICS TRANSCRIPTS Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Head Coach Jason Garrett QB C.J. Beathard QB Dak Prescott DL DeForest Buckner LB Reuben Foster WR Marquise Goodwin C Daniel Kilgore S Eric Reid RB Ezekiel Elliott S Jeff Heath DE David Irving DE DeMarcus Lawrence CB Rashard Robinson LB Sean Lee WR Trent Taylor TE Jason Witten

2 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Game Notes Sunday, October 22, 217 Beathard Makes His First Start Making his first career NFL start, QB C.J. Beathard completed 22 of 38 passing atts. for 235 yds. His 235 passing yds. are the most by a 49ers rookie quarterback in their first career start. Most Passing Yards By A Rookie QB In His First Start In Franchise History Player Date Opponent Atts. Comps. Yds. TDs INTs QB Rating C.J. Beathard 1/22/17 vs. Dallas Tom Owen 1/27/74 vs. Oakland Earl Morrall 1/28/56 vs. Chicago Jim Druckenmiller 9/7/97 at St. Louis Rams George Mira 11/15/64 vs. Green Bay Beathard also rushed 5 times for 3 yds. and his first career rushing TD. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Beathard became the third 49ers rookie quarterback to register a rushing TD since the merger in 197 and the first since 1976 (QB Tom Owen 1974; QB Scott Bull 1976). Garçon Snags Number 6 With 5 recepts. for 49 yds. on the day, WR Pierre Garçon went over 6 recepts. and now has 62 recepts. for his career. Garçon s 62 recepts. ranks 7 th among all active players. Staley Reaches Milestone T Joe Staley registered his 15 th career start as a member of the 49ers. Hikutini Hauls In His First TE Cole Hikutini notched his first career recept. on a 5-yd. pass from QB C.J. Beathard.

3 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys You were able to take away the positives of recent losses. Anything positive in this loss? No, not right now. It was disappointing. I think all three phases, players and coaches, we ve got to play better than that, a lot better to give ourselves a chance to win. Did you see any questions about the competitive level of your guys at any point during this game? I didn t. I could answer that better when I watch the tape. I felt there was a time there late in the fourth quarter, I think when things were going real bad, guys were close. I thought a few guys pulled the guys together and I thought they finished. But based on the result on the field, I m not going to question effort, but we definitely didn t play well. It was 2-3, you had fourth-and-four at the 28. You didn t kick a field goal. What went into the thinking there? I thought the game was getting away from us. I thought we needed to get a first down there and go and score a touchdown. Ran the ball the play before that. I was expecting to have two calls. That s why I ran it there on third-and-four I believe it was, then came up short. I think they had a screen the next play that got all the way down there. Went the distance. Obviously, a big turning point in the game. Was WR Kendrick Bourne the primary target? Yes. Yeah. It seemed like both offensive line and defensive line got physically dominated this game. What d you see there? Yeah it looked like we struggled. I know from an offensive standpoint, we had a few key plays in that game, especially at the end of the second quarter. We had a guy alone in the end zone with a chance to score and they beat us off the ball protection-wise. Just from what I saw, the defense too, it looked like they were running the ball pretty well versus us and got some pretty good push on their O-Line. The outburst on the bench, did you talk to the players about that? Did you address that afterwards? Outburst with who? Just little tempers flaring. Throwing their helmets down. Did you talk to them at all about that afterward? No, I actually didn t see it, but it s kind of expected when things go like that. As long as you don t lose your composure on the field and guys end up talking it out and staying on the same page. I know the guys were frustrated. They ve been putting a lot into this and definitely we re extremely disappointed today. It s a rationalization, but at some point do you and [GM] John [Lynch] take starting a rookie quarterback for the first time, have a rookie middle linebacker who hasn t played a full game in the NFL. Something like this might happen to you here and there along the way. Every single team in the league, there s a very fine line between being in a game, winning a game and getting your butt kicked. It s not as big of a distance between all three of those as sometimes it seems. Thought we came out pretty strong and I thought we had a chance early in that game. I thought our defense did a great job on the first three-and-out. Sent a punt, we fumbled the punt on the return and they went in and scored, 7-. I know they held us in our first series and the next one I thought we

4 stopped them. I think we stopped them. Ended up getting a defensive PI call, which kept them going. They got up 14-, got in a little bit of a hole. I thought we had a chance to recover on offense. Especially there at the end of the half and missed that opportunity when we got inside the 1, which I thought should have made it 2-1 going into the half and then we come out and get the ball. We came up short. That s why it s 2-3. Started with the ball. Moved it pretty good. Came up short on third-andfour and then fourth-and-four and then it got out of hand after that. So, I know it doesn t look good, but it s a very fine line between all that stuff. When you turn the ball over like that and you miss opportunities, whether you have a young team, a rookie quarterback, a rookie, regardless when you turn the ball over like that and you miss those opportunities, that is the result in the NFL. How do you evaluate QB C.J. Beathard even though he was under so much pressure in that first half before everything was out of control? Yeah, good or bad, playing, C.J. will learn from it. He s a tough kid. By no means was he perfect. He did make some plays in the game and there were some he missed too. It was similar to last week. I think he ll learn from those. I think he came out early, got settled down a little bit as we got going. Unfortunately, we didn t keep the score close to keep them in it and stick with some of the stuff we wanted to. But the type of kid C.J. is, the type of competitor he is, it s going to be good tomorrow to get to sit down and watch the tape with him and really coach him up. What did you see from LB Reuben Foster today, maybe the shorten version on his return? Is there any update on the rib injury? No, there s no update on the rib injury. I know he wanted to go back in the game and he was cleared to go back in the game late in the fourth, but that was me. I held him out just at the end. It was too important. I wanted to make sure we have him next week. The fact that he was good to go there, I m assuming he ll be good to go next week. But, you never know. We ll see what happens tomorrow when he wakes up. Did he have an X-Ray on the rib? I m not sure if he did or not. It s not broken? Yeah, I m not sure. I didn t get the details. I just know he was good to go at the end of the game. 49ers QB C.J. Beathard Press Conference October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys On the play where you were stripped at the end of the first half near the end zone, you had a receiver who might have been open in the back of the end zone. Is that what you saw? Yeah. It would ve been a touchdown. [WR] Marquise [Goodwin] was streaking in the back of the end zone. That was just like we practiced it all week. Got the right look, had everything. Marquise did a great job getting open. How do you think the day went for you overall? Obviously, according to the score, it didn t go very well at all. You never want to lose a game 4-1. Just as a whole, as a team, we didn t play very well. Didn t play the three phases of the game. Offense, defense, special teams just didn t play very well. We ve just got to take a look at ourselves, each and every one of us. And try to get better. Got a lot of things to improve on obviously. Come tomorrow we got to put it behind us and move towards Philly. Something you feel like you can improve on from today?

5 Yeah. I m going to have to watch the film and see it first. There s a ton of things. Whether it be good things that you can do better or bad things that you just need to be better at. In every play, you can look at something and critique it a little bit. That s what I ll do. From your film study this week compared to what you saw today did you feel like Dallas threw some new stuff at you that maybe they hadn t put on film? Yeah. They brought a lot of pressure, SAM, MIKE. I guess that was one of their game plan things. Their deal was to bring a lot of pressure which we hadn t seen them do much of. Is that something you just have to expect? Especially as a rookie quarterback? Yeah, I guess so. When you re a rookie, obviously, you re new to a system. Trying to see what you know. Puts you on your heels a little bit. After we realized that was kind of their deal, I think we settled in. You just never know what you re going to get. You just got to be ready and prepare for anything. There was a play early, it was kind of funky. It looked like two deep cross from WR Pierre Garçon and WR Marquise Goodwin. You ended up completing it to Goodwin. Was that by design? Yeah, that was by design. There was some shuffling on the offensive line due to injuries. How hard does that take to adjust to? Like I said, I ll have to watch tape and see. When I m in there I don t really focus on who s in at offensive line. I m just trying to do the best I can. I trust the guys up there blocking to protect me and block well, no matter who it is. That s what you d expect. You ve had close games these previous five losses. Getting blown out by 3, maybe you guys lose sight of the positives. How do you feel the morale is at -7 right now? After a game, losing like that it s tough. A 4-1 loss, that s tough. I think we ve got the guys here, leaders on this team to move past that. Yeah we are -7. There s only one way to go, and that s up. I think we ve got a lot of season left ahead of us to get better and really turn the season around and make something out of it, just do our best. I think that s what we ll do. We ll go back to work tomorrow, watch the film, improve. Really, you got to put this one behind us like we ve done with the six other games and look forward. Your eyes get pretty big on the touchdown? It looked like that was a pretty nice hole for you. Yeah, it did. It was a quarterback draw. It s a play we worked on all week in practice. I was excited to get the call. I like running when I can, especially in that area. I just knew I was going to get in one way or another. Longer first down run earlier in the game. Was that an option? Where you have an option to handoff or, you chose to sprint on that one. Yeah, that one was. That was a little read-action. It was fourth and really short. It was just an option to read that. They were crashing in I think. Was it RB Carlos Hyde or RB Matt Breida? I think it was Carlos. Yeah, so I can get outside. The line did a good job blocking. You mentioned last week it took maybe one or two plays before you got the nerves out. Did you have any more coming into today just because it was the first start? Obviously, you re nervous, for your first start ever. Same thing, once play one goes by you really don t have those nerves anymore. You really settle down and can just focus on the game.

6 Did you talk to Joe Montana or Steve Young while they were here? I did not. No, unfortunately. On 4 th and 4, in the first drive of the third quarter Head Coach Kyle Shanahan said WR Kendrick Bourne was the first target. Were you looking elsewhere or you were looking at him all the way? On the one where he fell? I mean, we had him. As I was throwing the ball he tripped. If he hadn t tripped on a DB s feet or whatever happened there, it would ve been a big play. Obviously, had I known he was falling I wouldn t have thrown it there. 49ers DL DeForest Buckner Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys That first series started pretty well, especially for you. Watching film, we noticed that if we couldn t get there or he was doing a quick three-step drop, he s going to let the ball out fast. We noticed that he had a lot of tipped balls by defenders. My whole thing was if I couldn t get there, then put my hand up. That s what I did the first drive. I got lucky and got back-to-back bats. It s tough when you get in a big hole, especially as a young team. That just puts you behind the eight ball, doesn t it? Yeah, definitely. We want to start off fast and the first half of the season, we haven t been able to start off fast, we always have to try and catch up. People are looking at this team and saying this is a young team that has some talent. How do you keep going in the right direction even though it s not showing up in the win column yet? We ve just got to stick together. When stuff gets tough like that, we ve got to come closer as a unit and just keep grinding away. In the previous five weeks, we ve been so close. Like I ve been saying before, it s just one play away. There s no excuse for what happened today. We all didn t play as well as we could in all three phases. How do you stay positive when you re in this situation? The previous five weeks we ve been so close. We re right there. Like I was saying, we ve got to come closer as a unit, and just put in that extra work on the off days. Whether it s watching extra film or getting your body right or any of that, we just have to keep moving forward as a team. 49ers LB Reuben Foster Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys What hurts? Everything? My feelings are hurt. We lost, but we have to own up to it, be a man about it and correct everything that we messed up on. Was the hole just so deep that it was tough to dig out of? It was deep, but a lot of people are not healthy. We have to take that into consideration. It is what it is but the important thing is that we need to move forward and not think about the last play because we have another game ahead of us.

7 You gave Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott a nice welcome to Santa Clara shot. How was that dealing with him today? He had over 2 all-purpose yards today. It was alright. Zeke is a phenomenal player. You have to watch out for which gaps that he goes to. He is all around, he can go to the A gap, B gap or C gap, it doesn t matter what type of schemes that you run. He is just a freakish player about finding gaps and really playing good football. How comfortable did you feel calling the plays? It was just like Alabama, calling the plays and getting everybody lined up, but you are not going to have a 1-percent game so you have to just do a good job and if you mess up you have to go on to the next play and not dwell on the play that you messed up on. It was comfortable. The Dallas Cowboys had a lot of big linemen who seemed to be getting out in space and blocking in open space. Was that one of the big challenges today? Yes it was a big challenge. The Cowboys are great. They have a phenomenal running back. We just have to go back into the playing board and get our X s and O s up. Did you say anything or did Ezekiel say anything to you about that big hit? No I didn t exchange any words with him. I just hit him hard, got the cheers and got up and tried to turn up. 49ers WR Marquise Goodwin Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys You guys have been so close, so close, so close. Does this feel like a step back? It feels like a loss. The effort is there. We work our butts off every day. Great staff. Great organization. Great teammates. It s hard to win in this league. When you shoot yourself in the foot with turnovers, offensively, it just can t happen. It s nobody s fault but it just can t happen. San Francisco 49ers QB C.J. Beathard was sacked five times. How do you feel like he held in? He kept his composure. I talked to him before the game and just let him know that win, lose or draw, remember who you re playing for. You re playing for God. Don t get caught up in the people in the stands, whether you make a bad pass or bad play. Focus on what you can control. That s you and how you handle stuff that comes your way. I feel like he did an unbelievable job being a young guy, being in his first game starting in the NFL. It s not just college, it s not high school, it s the NFL. It s the elite or the elite. We ve just got to play better as a whole and help him out so we can help the team out. You had a couple of turnovers early. How much did that throw you out of whack or affect staying with what you were planning to do? Turnovers are always bad, but you ve just got to stay poised. You can t let it bother you. If you do, you re defeated already. It s just one play. Like I ve said before, one play will not determine a win or a loss. I love this team, I love everything about it and I know everybody will come back prepared to play next week. They weren t doing anything unusual out there, were they? It was just a matter of execution? Just executing and not turning the ball over. When you turn the ball over, you decrease your chances of winning by so many percent. When you have multiple of those, then obviously the chances increase even more.

8 49ers C Daniel Kilgore Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Thoughts on the offensive lines performance in protecting a rookie quarterback? Overall, we just have to protect better. There could be different things. It could ve been coverage sacks or just getting beaten man on man. We ll look at it. How did San Francisco 49ers QB C.J. Beathard do today in his first start? Your first start against anybody in the National Football League is going to be pretty nerve-wracking, especially for a quarterback who, in this league, is a position that is held in very high regard. I m sure there are things that C.J. will look at and want to correct and get better at. That s the same for everybody. 49ers S Eric Reid Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys You guys have been so close the previous five games, obviously today wasn t like that. Was that frustrating? It s extremely frustrating. When you work as hard as I know we have, and you don t get the results that you want. All we can do is keep going, watch this film and get back at it on Monday. Were they doing anything out there today that was unusual? Or was it pretty much what you expected? I wouldn t say anything was too unusual. We ve just got to make more plays. What was the offensive line doing that was giving you problems in particular? I don t think they were doing anything extraordinary. We ve just got to get in our gaps, get off blocks, and make tackles. We didn t do that well enough. Just how tough is it to deal with Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott out there? He had over 2 all-purpose yards. Any comments on just how much of a handful he is? I don t know the exact number but he got a chunk of that on one play. We ve just got to do a better job tackling. Better job of executing. We ve got to put this one behind. Guys in this locker room were very much of the glass half-full philosophy. How do you stay positive during tough times? That s all you can do. If you start getting a bad mindset then it will start effecting who you are and how you play. We re going through a rough patch, there s no doubt about that. We ve just got to keep going and try to figure this thing out. 49ers CB Rashard Robinson Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys How frustrating is it for you guys to have to fight from behind? It s frustrating, but at the end of the day it s football. We have to just go out there and make a team play and get the offense back the ball. That s the most important thing. We have to get turnovers and get the offense back the ball so that they can put up some points.

9 What were the challenges with Dallas s passing game today? They just made plays on the ball. There really wasn t anything that stood out. They just made plays when they needed to make plays. On Dallas Cowboys WR Dez Bryant s last touchdown, was there any kind of miscommunication? That s just something we re going to have to go over in the DB room. It was a crazy play. We just have to be better as a whole group. What did it mean to have San Francisco 49ers LB Reuben Foster back in the lineup? It meant a lot. He s a force on the field, somebody who can stop the run. He s a great team player. Playing Mike Linebacker, he s going to be the quarterback of the defense, so it s good to get him back out here after missing however many games that he missed. 49ers WR Trent Taylor Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys It seems like the Dallas Cowboys had such a quick start after the fumble on the punt. It was a little bit of a momentum swing. As a punt returner, you can t let that happen. What were your thoughts on San Francisco 49ers QB C.J. Beathard and how he looked in his first start? C.J. is doing great back there. He s a great competitor. He s a guy that we all love to play for and we all trust back there. Obviously it s not what we wanted today, but I think it will just take some time to get everything rolling. We ll see what we can do. Does this game feel like a step back? Not really. We got whooped today. That s all we can say about that. I wouldn t call it a step back. We re -7, but with the fight that this team has, we ll continue to fight and go back to work next week just like we do every other week. Are you eager to look at the film after a game like this? It s tough to watch film like that, but you have to learn from your mistakes and make sure they don t happen again. So much of this game is about confidence, so the next time that something like that punt return happens to you, do you just block it out? That s what you have to do as a football player, because that s going to happen to you at some point in your career. If you re not a guy who can shake back from something like that, you re not going to be at this level. It s part of the game and you have to move on.

10 Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett Press Conference October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Can you start by talking about the performance Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott had today and the lift that gave you offensively? Yeah, obviously he played well. You know, we re at our best when we re able to run the football. He s a big part of that running game. You know, starts up front with the guys controlling the line of scrimmage. I thought [Dallas Cowboys offensive line coach] Frank Pollack and [Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator] Scott Linehan did a great job getting to different runs against them. It allowed us to attack in different ways, and we wanted to be persistent against some of their looks when they re around the line of scrimmage, and continue to find ways to run it. And I thought our guys did a great job up front and Zeke obviously ran the ball very well. Did you feel you were kind of building to this point with him? I mean, you look what he did in the Green Bay Packers game, especially late, that you were kind of moving toward this--? Yeah, obviously you want to grow. You want to get better each week as a football team in all different areas, and you want to get better in the running game. You know, [former Dallas Cowboys offensive line coach] Hudson Houck, who used to be the offensive line coach here for a long time, he used to say you practice your running game in the game. And early on in the season, because of how we practiced in training camp and how we were able to practice during the week, your best opportunity to get work at it is during games. So, you want to improve in all parts of your football team. I think you have your best chance to improve in the running game and we certainly did that today. What did you think of Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott? Third straight game with three touchdowns and score run on the ground. Yeah, I thought he played really well, obviously. One of the things we wanted to do was control the line of scrimmage and run the football, and when you do that you get so many things off of that. You get favorable coverage to throw at. Your naked game, your play-action game comes alive. I think he s just done a really good job making plays down in the red zone to cash in on some of these long drives that we ve had. And he s playing, obviously, at a very high level. You stressed turnovers. This is a group that had 213 snaps going in or something, just talk about their performance today. Yeah, the biggest thing was just to somehow take the ball away from them, and it started in the kicking game. Then, we did a good job pressuring the quarterback, and creating some sack-fumble situations and cashing in on those. We did a good job on our side protecting the football. Whenever you win the turnover ratio three to nothing, you have a great chance of winning the ballgame. Dallas Cowboys S Jeff Heath, I mean can you talk about his day and then also, an update on K Dan Bailey s injury? Yeah, Dan hurt his groin as he was kicking and getting ready during one of our drives, and he became unavailable to us. And so, Heath is the backup kicker and we hadn t worked on any snap, hold and kicks with him. So, in the first half we decided that we were going to go for it. We went for the two point conversion in order to avoid putting him in a situation where he had to kick a field goal or kick an extra point. At halftime we worked with him and we felt more comfortable that we could try to execute those, and I think for the most part he did a really good job. That s not an easy thing to do, obviously. He talks a lot about this game-winning kick that he made in high school, but the footage is very grey and murky. But, apparently he won some championship game with a 49-yarder. So, we had a lot of confidence based on his past. Obviously, for a guy like that to step up and do that, knock a couple of them through, kick-off as well as he did, he s an awfully good football player.

11 Did you call him over and tell him, and/or what did he say, and how did he respond, and how did that go him being informed? Well, [Dallas Cowboys assistant head coach/special teams coordinator] Rich Bisaccia hit him first and just said, you re up and he knows he s the backup. As you can tell he s obviously got a good leg, but that operation is something that s, it takes a lot of technique, it takes a lot of time to get the snap, hold, kick right, the timing of it all. So, obviously he hasn t had that much work doing it, but again, I thought he handled himself really well. He s a great competitor. So, Bailey got hurt on the sidelines while he was practicing after that initial--? That s my understanding. He was kicking the ball into the net and he felt it in his groin on one of those kicks. He tried to kick again and he wasn t able to function. So, we had to go to the next option. Did you consider going for a field goal there late in the fourth? You know, I think the biggest thing once we were way up, you know you want to be careful about going for a field goal, the potential block, because the operation s not quite as experienced and clean. They ll block and then they run it back for a touchdown. So, we ll air on the side of going for it in the fourth quarter in those situations, and then we re going to give them a chance to kick the extra points. Do you have a feel for his availability going forward? We don t. We ll see how he is tomorrow and we ll make some decisions accordingly. You said that it allowed y all to attack in different ways. What did you mean by that in the running game? Well, that s always what we want to do. You want to attack opposing defenses in a lot of different ways. You want to attack them with personnel. You want to attack them with formation. It starts with run and pass, and if you can run it different ways, run it inside, run it outside, zone runs, gap runs, perimeter runs, misdirection runs, all of those things make it more difficult on the defense. And then obviously when you re throwing the ball you want to throw it different ways, short, intermediate and deep, you want to throw it to different guys, drop back, play action, quick game, all of that. So, the more you can do, the more you can be efficient at, the more difficult it is for the defense to slow you down. You talked before about how Elliott has done a good job of focusing on what he needs to do on the field and not letting everything that s swirling around him bother him. Was this an example of him applying himself? He s done an excellent job really all offseason, training camp and through the regular season just coming to work every day and staying locked-in on what he needs to do. And I m quite sure it s not easy for him. There are some things going on in his life outside of what we re doing over at The Star every day, but he comes to work and football s important to him. This team is important to him. He s a professional, and he practices and prepares the right way, and he certainly gets his mind right to play the right way, and I think today was a great indication of that. Can you talk about some of the pregame moves going Dallas Cowboys QB Rush Cooper as the backup and then Dallas Cowboys DE Benson Mayowa and Dallas Cowboys DE Damontre Moore kind of going short on the D-end? Yeah, we just felt like those were the right moves for our team right now. You know, Cooper did a really nice job in the preseason and throughout training camp, and we wanted to move him to this point. And we gave him some extra snaps during the bye-week, and we gave him this opportunity. Thought he handled himself well in the ballgame. Had good command of what we re asking him to do, and I thought he had poise and composure you know, handling those drives at the end of the ballgame. With regards to the defensive line, we just felt like you know, having the extra linebacker up was going to

12 help us on special teams, and having the extra receiver up was going to help us not only on offense but on special teams. So, those were the decisions we made. Were some of those too wanting emphasis your run defense has not been where it wanted to be, keep a couple extra tackles in there and concentrate on that, and you felt you had the rotation? Well, we ve been going with eight defensive linemen up, and typically it s been five defensive ends and three defensive tackles. So, we wanted to make sure we got an extra defensive tackle up. We want to be strong inside, and then we liked what we had with our rotation, with our defensive ends. [Dallas Cowboys LB] Kyle Wilber gave us some snaps at defensive end at the end of the ballgame as well. How did Dallas Cowboys LB Sean Lee hold up coming back off that? It looks like he did well. He was moving around and it seemed like he was around the ball a lot. He certainly does an excellent job leading our defense, and getting everybody lined up and ready to go. How did it look, it s probably difficult to tell from the sideline, but did you feel like the offensive line played as well in this game as they have all year? Yeah, we ll go back and watch the tape, and look at it play-by-play and player-by-player. But, there certainly was a feeling that we re able to run the ball the way we wanted to. And again, it s a defense that wanted to have a lot of guys around the line of scrimmage. So, we had to be persistent with it and I thought our guys came off the ball well and allowed us to run in a lot of different ways with some success. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott Press Conference October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Is this more like ya ll? Yeah, definitely. All around as a team. We did start off that first series going three-and-out and then, obviously, special teams made a great play. Gave us the ball back, got that touchdown, and then from there we were rolling. We all fueled off of each other. Played within ourselves. Encouraged each other throughout the game and that was definitely to our standard. Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott s performance? To his standard. I mean, that s his expectations, the expectations we have of him. He went out there and played a great game and just let the offensive line open up holes. He made guys miss and did great on the screen again. Making, I guess, my second longest passing touchdown, so now he has both of them. So, he played his game tonight. Was this still going off of what you started in the fourth quarter against Green Bay? I mean you got the running game going and kind of built on that tonight. I think offensively it goes back even further than that. I mean we have had some good quarters and some good games and great halves going back to the Denver game. Moving forward it was just going in the same direction. We took this bye week and figured out things that we needed to tune up and get better in and we did that and executed it well tonight. Offensive line has some stability now and Dallas Cowboys G Jonathan Cooper has been in there three straight games? They are just getting comfortable. [Dallas Cowboys RT La el Collins] LC, it s still his first year at right tackle. They are just getting comfortable with each other. Getting comfortable making calls and blocks. It s starting to come together.

13 What were you thinking when you saw your starting safety having to line up for extra points? I knew he was going to nail it. We ve seen it before. He s done it at practice. We had him ready for an emergency at times. We all were excited. I think that brought another energy, just boost to our sideline. How much do you think it meant for Elliott to have a game like this with all he s been going though? All I can say is he just went out there and played the game, put everything behind him. Stayed within himself. Stayed within the game. Stayed within each and every play and did what he does best. The importance of the win like this after two losses and the bye week? It s exactly what we wanted. Those were two close losses. Losing in two minute fashion and then having the bye week and time to adjust and moving forward, we did everything we needed to do. Looking back, the stuff you had in the bye week, Zeke s out and now he s back. Can you talk about how tough mentally that was on the team and pull out this win to start fresh after the bye? It wasn t that tough. We know a lot of that is out of our control. We are just sticking together. We re just staying tight no matter what happens, no matter what decisions are being thrown at us. We know that is out of our control. That s out of his control, so we re just supporting him, supporting each other. We re just trying to get better each and every day. When you hear three touchdowns in three straight games, that is something that former Dallas Cowboys QBs Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman never did. When you hear that kind of comparison what does that mean to you and where that ranks? We didn t win three games in a row, so it really doesn t mean that much. For me it s about the wins at the end of the day. Touchdowns are great and they obviously help us win, but three wins to me sounds better than three touchdown games. What can you say about Dallas Cowboys TE Jason Witten s catch on that play and it also passed former Dallas Cowboys WR Michael Irving for third most touchdown catches in a career? It was just a great route, for one, by Witten and then a great job with letting the ball kind of fall. I think that is an underrated trait of not necessarily going back and not going to early, not going back to the ball, but trusting it and letting it fall and using his body and he did a great job on that. Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys How close was that to being as complete of a game you guys have played in a while? Offense, defense, everything. I think it was a complete game. I think we came out and executed the way we should have executed. That is why we were so successful. With all of the things you have going on, how much of a release was it to go play an actual game? I put that all aside when I get with these guys. These guys do a good job of giving something else to think about, keeping me up no matter what is going on out there. I am just happy to be out here and be able to play and go get another win. Is it safe to say with everything you have been through that you will never take this game for granted?

14 Yes. Productivity-wise, this game looked a lot like 216 for you individually. Do you think this is the closest that you have been compared to last season? I think it was. We saw in the Packer s game before the bye, the offense start clicking in the fourth quarter, and the running game starting to open up. We definitely carried it over to this game. We came out from play one and the offensive line executed and did a great job making creases for me to go out and run the ball. What did you see in that 72-yard touchdown? It is actually funny, that is the same screen play we scored on last year in Pittsburgh. I had a good feeling it was going to pop again. I tell [Dallas Cowboys QB] Dak [Prescott] that every time, that I have the longest receptions of his career so if he wants to throw a long touchdown, just throw the ball. It is funny you have never had a run of 7 yards or longer, but you have had two touchdowns of that length. Those screen plays are tough, those offensive linemen, they are so athletic they get out there running and get the blocks down field. Cowboys S Jeff Heath Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys How did you find out [referring to kicking the ball for Dan Bailey Dallas Cowboys kicker]? I just found during the game. I didn t know what happened. Dan was warming up, and messed up his groin or quad. They just pulled me I didn t really have time to think about, and just kick it. First non-kicker, non-punter to have multiple extra points in a game since 198. What is it like to make history. It was fun. It was cool, obviously I think we would like for Dan[kicker Dan Bailey] can to do the job from here on out. I ll just be ready if it were to happen again. What did Dan [Dan Bailey Dallas Cowboys kicker] say to you about your performance. He said good job. He actually apologized to me at first, obviously that happens. He was just warming up, and he had a freak pain. He kind of felt bad. I let him know it is what it is. All the guys are pretty supportive of me, and all the coaches are pretty supportive. They did a great job picking me up. Were you hoping to get another field goal chance at the end. Yes, I was hoping for it. It was fun. When was the last time you kicked a point or anything? In practice I kicked, I kicked a little in training camp, and little bit last year. In a game, it was 28 my senior year in high school that was the last time I kicked off. That was the game winner that Garrett says you talk about. I don t talk about it he likes talking about it all the time. It was 28.

15 Cowboys DE David Irving Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Talk about the defensive mentality today. We were focused on stopping the run. Making it one-dimensional, and stopping the quarterback. Good rush lanes, reading the pass protection well, and finishing out. The offense was efficient. It seemed liked they had a faster tempo. Is that something you were looking to do? We were just looking to come out and make sure we had a good tempo and make sure that we were out there running plays. Was there a certain feel that this team had coming into this game? This was a chance to reset. Hitting that button, and going after it--? They came out hard. They were running the ball pretty hard. We decided to stay in the gaps, and shutting that down. Cowboys DE DeMarcus Lawrence Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Was this the most dominant performance of the season for the D-line? We could ve played better. For myself, especially. We re still getting better. You re on pace right now for 25 sacks. Is there something you feel like you ve learned after a couple of seasons in the league and now you re more comfortable? No. I just feel like if you do your job and understand the talent you re going against, you can handle it. They [San Francisco 49ers] had 3 attempts today, so I should get one out of 3. This is a close group. How excited are you about the potential for this group you have up front? It s great. All of us are a group of brothers going after one common goal and that s the quarterback. We re racing to get to him. I m just happy for everybody getting after the quarterback today. Knowing that you re taking on a rookie quarterback today, can you talk about the attack-style mindset you bring into the game? I didn t even know he was a rookie. We have to beat the O-line first. That s the main thing. We can t sit here and worry about the quarterback. If we sit here and look for the quarterback, we re going to get our butts killed. We have to worry about the O-line we re facing, get our keys from them and get to the quarterback. Cowboys LB Sean Lee Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys Do you feel any sense of responsibility or pressure to play, even if you re not at 1 percent? I do feel like I m letting the team down when I ve missed time. I ve had issues with durability and I ve worked hard on improving those. It s something I constantly try to work on. No question, I feel like I m letting guys down. Getting all of our guys back on defense and getting guys healthy with a couple of weeks of practice under their belts shows the type of defense we can be.

16 The D-line seemed so dominating today. Was it the way they played or was it because you were scheming into favorable matchups? It was them playing great and winning 1-on-1s and great schemes from coach. We challenge ourselves as a unit and we had to find a way to step up. We have to stop the run and cause more turnovers. I think we accomplished that today. You stopped the San Francisco 49ers on the first drive, forced a fumbled punt and took that for a score. It was about getting that quick momentum shift. If you look at us last year when we went on a streak and won a bunch of games, we played complimentary football where we were able to get turnovers and they [offense] were able to make a lot of plays. We have to get back to that and defensively, we have to continue to cause turnovers and get the ball to them. What about your defensive mate Cowboys S Jeff Heath stepping up and kicking and making two of three PATs? It was unbelievable. We know how good of an athlete he is. We knew he could kick. To go out and kick, and he hasn t kicked in a long time, and make two of three. And his kickoffs were even more impressive by how deep he kicked them and the hang time. He was kicking them into the end zone or close and he was causing problems. Was he bragging more about his kicks or about how he played on defense? He was humble about it. But he should be bragging. He was unbelievable. Cowboys TE Jason Witten Postgame Quotes October 22, 217 San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys How good was Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott? The last two games I felt like we have been getting our run game going. I just felt like he was so powerful today after contact. Really getting good stretching, good speed out of the backfield, and attacking from the outside. That screen play was huge for us. I felt like he was in the zone. Offensively, although there are areas to get a lot better in, I felt like we were attacking and in control of down and distance. What we talk about being our identity, I thought it showed up. How important is it to get a win like this after the Bye week? It was huge. We went into the Bye and didn t expect to be 2-3. The best thing we did was to go back and be accountable. We watched those games. Oftentimes you don t want that Bye in the beginning of the season if you have your rathers. I think it came at a perfect time for us coming off two tough losses. It forced us to go back and watch. We talked about building on the good and learning from the bad and improving. I thought it showed up today and to get some momentum going forward.

17 REGULAR SEASON - WEEK 7, GAME 7 National Football League Game Summary NFL Copyright 217 by The National Football League. All rights reserved. This summary and play-by-play is for the express purpose of assisting media in their coverage of the game; any other use of this material is prohibited without the written permission of the National Football League. Updated: 1/22/217 Date: Sunday, 1/22/217 Game Weather: Sunny Played Outdoor on Turf: Natural Grass Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers Start Time: 1:5 PM PDT at Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA Game Day Weather Temp: 68 F (2. C) Humidity: 6%, Wind: NW 1 mph Outdoor Weather: Sunny, Officials Referee: Line Judge: Back Judge: Torbert, Ronald (62) Steinkerchner, Mark (84) Yette, Greg (38) Umpire: King, Paul (121) Field Judge: Santi, Aaron (5) Replay Official: Spyksma, Bill () Down Judge: Side Judge: Thomas, Sarah (53) Edwards, Scott (3) Lineups Dallas Cowboys San Francisco 49ers Offense Defense Offense Defense WR 88 D.Bryant DE 98 T.Crawford WR 15 P.Garcon LDE 92 L.Douzable LT 77 T.Smith DT 96 M.Collins LT 74 J.Staley LDT 9 E.Mitchell LG 64 J.Cooper DT 95 D.Irving LG 75 L.Tomlinson RDT 99 D.Buckner C 72 T.Frederick DE 9 D.Lawrence C 67 D.Kilgore RDE 94 S.Thomas RG 7 Z.Martin SLB 57 D.Wilson RG 63 B.Fusco MIKE 56 R.Foster RT 71 L.Collins MLB 59 A.Hitchens RT 77 T.Brown S 29 J.Tartt TE 82 J.Witten WLB 5 S.Lee TE 85 G.Kittle S 35 E.Reid WR 11 C.Beasley CB 3 A.Brown TE 88 G.Celek LCB 33 R.Robinson WR 83 T.Williams CB 32 O.Scandrick WR 11 M.Goodwin RCB 36 D.Johnson QB 4 D.Prescott SS 38 J.Heath RB 28 C.Hyde NB 24 K.Williams RB 21 E.Elliott FS 31 B.Jones QB 3 C.Beathard FS 25 J.Ward Substitutions K 5 D.Bailey, P 6 C.Jones, QB 7 C.Rush, WR 1 R.Switzer, WR 19 B.Butler, CB 23 B.Benwikere, S 25 X.Woods, CB 27 J.Lewis, S 35 K.Frazier, FB 41 K.Smith, RB 45 R.Smith, RB 46 A.Morris, LB 51 K.Wilber, LB 53 J.March-Lillard, LB 54 J.Smith, C 73 J.Looney, NT 76 R.Ash, G/T 79 C.Green, TE 84 J.Hanna, WR 85 N.Brown, TE 87 G.Swaim, LS 91 L.Ladouceur, DT 92 B.Price, DE 97 T.Charlton Substitutions P 5 B.Pinion, K 9 R.Gould, WR 1 K.Bourne, WR 19 A.Robinson, RB 22 M.Breida, CB 23 A.Witherspoon, RB 31 R.Mostert, DB 38 A.Colbert, LB 47 E.Lee, LB 5 B.Coyle, LB 54 R.Armstrong, LB 57 E.Harold, LB 58 E.Dumervil, G 68 Z.Beadles, DE 69 T.McDaniel, OL 76 G.Gilliam, WR 81 T.Taylor, TE 82 L.Paulsen, TE 83 C.Hikutini, TE/LS 86 K.Nelson, DL 93 D.Jones, DL 96 X.Cooper, LB 97 D.Watson Did Not Play QB 2 B.Hoyer Did Not Play Not Active QB 17 K.Moore, RB 2 D.McFadden, CB 33 C.Awuzie, OLB 52 J.Durant, DE 58 D.Moore, T 75 B.Bell, DE 93 B.Mayowa Field Goals (made ( ) & missed) OT Total VISITOR: Dallas Cowboys HOME: San Francisco 49ers Scoring Plays Not Active WR 17 V.Bolden, DB 27 D.McCoil, FB 44 K.Juszczyk, LB 46 M.Nzeocha, LB 55 P.Taumoepenu, DL 59 A.Lynch, OL 62 E.Magnuson R.Gould (42) Team Qtr Time Play Description (Extra Point) (Drive Info) Visitor Home Cowboys 1 12:42 E.Elliott 1 yd. run (D.Bailey kick) (3-2, 1:18) 7 Cowboys 1 7:56 E.Elliott 25 yd. run (D.Bailey kick) (7-74, 3:28) 14 49ers 1 4:28 R.Gould 42 yd. Field Goal (9-53, 3:28) 14 3 Cowboys 2 1:26 J.Witten 18 yd. pass from D.Prescott (pass failed) (12-86, 5:3) 2 3 Cowboys 3 1:58 E.Elliott 72 yd. pass from D.Prescott (J.Heath kick) (1-72, :14) 27 3 Cowboys 3 :43 D.Prescott 2 yd. run (kick failed, wr) (13-8, 7:44) 33 3 Cowboys 4 1:49 D.Bryant 2 yd. pass from D.Prescott (J.Heath kick) (8-29, 4:11) ers 4 6:14 C.Beathard 4 yd. run (R.Gould kick) (12-75, 4:35) 4 1 Paid Attendance: 7,133 Time: 2:59

18 Dallas Cowboys San Francisco 49ers RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD E.Elliott C.Hyde R.Smith C.Beathard D.Prescott M.Breida A.Morris C.Rush R.Switzer Total Total PASSING ATT CMP YDS SK/YD TD LG IN RT PASSING ATT CMP YDS SK/YD TD LG IN RT D.Prescott / C.Beathard / C.Rush / Total / Total / PASS RECEIVING TAR REC YDS AVG LG TD PASS RECEIVING TAR REC YDS AVG LG TD D.Bryant P.Garcon J.Witten T.Taylor E.Elliott M.Goodwin C.Beasley C.Hyde A.Morris G.Kittle G.Swaim A.Robinson R.Smith G.Celek R.Switzer C.Hikutini T.Williams 3. K.Bourne 2. M.Breida 1. Total Total INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD Total Total PUNTING NO YDS AVG NET TB IN2 LG PUNTING NO YDS AVG NET TB IN2 LG C.Jones B.Pinion Total Total PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG FC LG TD PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG FC LG TD R.Switzer 1. 1 T.Taylor [OUT OF BOUNDS] 2. [OUT OF BOUNDS] 1. Total 1. 1 Total KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG FC LG TD KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG FC LG TD C.Beasley. 1 R.Mostert [TOUCHBACK] 2. [TOUCHBACK] 3. Total. 1 Total Dallas Cowboys FUMBLES FUM LOST OWN-REC YDS TD FORCED OPP-REC YDS TD OUT-BDS D.Lawrence 1 1 K.Frazier 1 D.Irving 1 J.Smith 1 T.Crawford 1 X.Woods 1 6 Total San Francisco 49ers Dallas Cowboys vs San Francisco 49ers 1/22/217 at Levi's Stadium Final Individual Statistics FUMBLES FUM LOST OWN-REC YDS TD FORCED OPP-REC YDS TD OUT-BDS C.Beathard 2 2 M.Breida 1 1 T.Taylor 1 1