Four days later, Steve Wilkes’ controversial call on a no-blitz play at the end of the first half of the 49ers’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night was still a topic of discussion.
As the 49ers try to move on from the loss to the Vikings and focus on the Cincinnati Bengals, Wilkes’ play call that ultimately landed Minnesota was brought up again when Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters on Friday.
A day after Wilkes took full responsibility for the call, Shanahan blamed himself when responding to a question about conversations between coaches this week.
“Just about football, about the reality of what happened,” Shanahan told reporters on Friday in Santa Clara. “There was a timing issue for us not being able to make that decision, that’s without a doubt for me.” I am the one who can stop this and that is why I take ultimate responsibility for everything. But when asked 2 days ago about the call, he knew we couldn’t cancel that time and she made the mistake of not calling the deadline so we couldn’t call her.
“But I didn’t have any problem on the call in terms of what we do. I like the all-out blitz. It’s not something you can do at that time. So we just talk like that. We talk about football, nothing else.”
When Shanahan spoke to reporters on Wednesday, he explained that Wilkes “got it wrong” and offered a frank assessment of the situation.
On Friday, 49ers general manager John Lynch was asked what happened this week during an appearance on KNBR’s “Murph and Mac Show.”
“I think one thing I hope everyone realizes and appreciates here in the Bay Area and 49ers fans, the faithful, wherever they are, they have a head coach who is one of the most honest people you’ll ever meet,” Lynch said. “If you could be inside our room internally, we would tell you and all of our team would tell you how much confidence we have in Steve and that has been expressed as well.
“But both things can be true. You can have a lot of faith and not like a particular call. Even in that quote that was pulled, where it certainly wasn’t supposed to be called that, there was a lot of context about why Steve So he described that and the series of events that led up to it, and that he had a lot of faith and all that stuff.
Shanahan, Wilkes, Lynch and the 49ers are hoping to move on from the controversial call when they host the Bengals at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.
RELATED: Charvarius Ward defends Wilkes’ blitz play call
A rebound performance is what all parties involved need to remove the bitter taste from their mouths.
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