DE Myles Garrett (10.13.23)
Myles, first of all, just how do you feel about PJ Walker starting his game and the outlook for you guys with PJ?
“I got confidence in our quarterback, whether is four (Deshaun Watson) or it’s PJ, whoever it is, those guys are going to do their job to the best of their ability, and we’re going to play off of them and make them right if anything happens.”
Myles, even at full strength, the margin there against a team like San Francisco is somewhat thin. Just how much are you looking forward to this game Sunday and the opportunity to make a difference?
“They say to be the best, you got to beat the best. So it doesn’t matter what your lines are looking like, what the depth chart is looking like. You can’t account for that. Not like they can’t account for that. You just have to go out there with who you got and play ball. Any given time, anything can happen. So we’re going to go out there and heads held high, full of confidence, ready to rock.”
How’s your foot feeling?
“Awful, man. I’ll be in a boot after this.”
Speaking of going against the best, going up against Trent (Williams), what’s that matchup like and how much you got to relish those specific one-on-one matchups?
“I don’t know what the matchup is like. Yeah, I’ve never seen the man. We’ll see what it’s like when we line up, but on film, he’s an exceptional athlete, a very talented player. He’s shown that for a long time now. I’m definitely looking forward to the prospect of going against him, going against anyone of that kind of caliber on the offensive side is exciting, and you want to be able to go against them and show them what you’ve got and what you can do, and I know he’ll say the same vice versa.”
Myles, you’ve dealt with a lot of injuries and played through them. Can you kind of identify what Deshaun (Watson) is going through right now as he tries to get that shoulder better?
“I sympathize and empathize. It’s tough with injuries and I know if it was any way different, he would be playing, but he’s got to make the best decision for the team and for him. He can’t give 100% if he don’t feel like he can play the game that we know he can play and lead this team as best he can on the field. And it’s his best decision to sit back and let us play.”
We know that Joel Bitonio has already been ruled out for this game. How unfortunate to see that iron man streak kind of go by the wayside, 102 games?
“When you say iron man streak, I’m thinking like Joe (Thomas). So no disrespect to Joel, but had someone who did it for a very long time. But I know Joel. He’s going to come back full force, ready to go when his numbers called, so he’s healing up. We’re going to rock with what we got out there and have some fun.”
The fact that Kyle Shanahan likes to move his offensive pieces around the way he does, especially with a lot of the pre snap eye candy that he likes to throw at you and the versatility of their playmakers. Just what type of challenge does that present for you? Knowing that they’re going to move around a lot and they don’t have one specific role.
“They’ll move around a lot, but they still all got to get set by the time they stop the ball. So as long as we know who’s where, we’ll be all right. As much they’re attacking in their offense, we’re attacking the one defense. So we’re going to play it to the best of our ability and we know what we can do. We know what our matches look like and I’m going to roll with that because we’re happy about it. We know what we got on our end.”
Jim Schwartz was saying yesterday that looking back at that Ravens game, one of his biggest disappointments was that you guys didn’t hold the field goal after the first turnover. Felt like you had a chance to help the rookie (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) out, kind of help the offense out. Going into this game with PJ (Walker) quarterback and everything the 49ers is bringing, do you feel like the defense is taking more responsibility?
“No. Same responsibility, same standard, no matter who’s at the quarterback or what the depth chart looks like. F it, we ball. So the offense is a part of the team, their own entity, and we’re going to take care of them and play complementary off of them. But end of the day, we can’t change our standard or our goals for that game based off of what they’re doing. We got to play the same level and intention every single time we step on the field.”
And JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) said your defense versus their offense, kind of like an Ali Frazier type of matchup. Does it feel like that to you?
“Ali – Frazier. I think it’ll be fun.”
Christian McCaffrey specifically, what makes him just so hard to defend?
“I think he’s dynamic. He can catch the ball this way, he can run the ball, not scared to stick his head in there and block, and he can run between the tackles and ability to run outside. Very versatile in what he can do, and I’d be accountable for all those things that he’s willing and able to do.”
Brock Purdy doesn’t make a lot of mistakes with his football. You have a reputation for making quarterbacks make mistakes with the football, but when you go into a game like that. You know a guy is really careful. Does that excite you? Like the opportunity to be the guy to finally make him make one of those critical mistakes.
“Absolutely, you know, going against a guy who tends to make mistakes, it excites you in a different way. We really got a chance. But you look at a guy like Purdy, it’s like really got an opportunity to change the narrative or be the one to break the streak, per se. So you want to be able to say that as careful as he was, we were the ones to get him off his streak or his high horse, his confidence, whatever it is, you want to be able to stop that momentum for them.”
What do you see when you watch him (Brock Purdy) on film? He seems like he’s really calm when he’s under duress. What do you see when you watch him on film? That he doesn’t make those typical mistakes.
“He plays free, he plays without pressure. He’s been doing this for longer than he has. And the offense feeds off of that. They feel that kind of energy, that kind of presence that he exudes, and it makes them function so much more smoothly. Just because he never feels like he’s under duress.”
How can you best impact the game when these guys get rid of quickly?
“Collapse the pocket, put the tackles or the guards in his lap, bat down some balls. He’s not the tallest quarterback so we can get our hands up and try to make it difficult for him to see. It also affects his head.”
Are we going to see a Brock Purdy tombstone this year for Halloween?
“All depends on when the decorations go up. So it might go up beforehand, it might go up after. Plan to go up after.”
So the graveyard is returning?
“Graveyard is returning.”
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