Matt Breida – September 22, 2020
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Tuesday, September 22, 2020
RB Matt Breida
(You’re obviously still getting work and being productive, but your number of carries per game is down from what you’ve been accustomed to obviously with the 49ers. Does that phase you at all? Does it make any difference to you?) – “It doesn’t make any difference to me. Like I’ve been saying before, we’ve got a plan every week. I trust in the plan. I trust in the coaches. All of us have a role to play on the team and whatever our role is, we’re going to play it to the best of our ability.”
(It felt like when you got stopped at the 1-yard line, you guys weren’t able to really get the ball in on that specific possession. Was there any sense in your mind on that play that if I don’t get in the end zone, it may not be beneficial for us? That I need to get in the end zone on this play?) – “You want to score every play you can, don’t get me wrong; but no, that never went through my mind. We’ve got a bunch of great players on our team who can get in the end zone. We draw up plays every week for the red zone for different guys to get in the end zone, so it never came across my mind that we weren’t going to score. So no, I wasn’t worried about it.”
(Your yards per carry is good. You almost scored a touchdown. You had a key first down on a pitch out to the left. You are playing well. What has Head Coach Brian Flores or Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey said to you, if anything, to sort of ease any concerns you might have about not having more carries?) – “They haven’t said much. I mean it’s understood since Day 1 that whatever they ask me to do – I’ve told them since Day 1 – I’m going to do. I’m not the type of guy who’s going to complain about how many carries I get, how many yards I get, if I make it to the Pro Bowl. At the end of the day, we want to win and we want to win championships. That’s what we’re paid to do. If was paid to worry about how many number yards I would get, then that’d be a different story. But I’m paid to win championships and that’s our end goal. So we just want to win.”
(That being said, obviously that’s a great perspective, but when the club’s losing and you still aren’t involved as much some might have thought you’d have been, how hard is that?) – “Any time you lose it’s tough. You’re a competitor. You don’t want to lose, but I’ve been through this process before and we have a great team, so like I tell everyone, just keep being patient and we’re going to get things turned around and we’re going to get it together. Everything’s a process. You can’t expect things to just turn around overnight. We’re in the right direction. We barely lost this last game and there were a couple plays on every phase that we could’ve played better. We could’ve ended up with a win. So we’ve just got to keep working on the little details and things will start coming together.”
(You mentioned those couple of plays and is that the kind of mindset that’s going through the building right now? If you guys score at the 1-yard line or you guys get a pick-six from LB Kyle Van Noy there or an interception late from CB Xavien Howard, is it really a play here or there that you guys could’ve won this game and you have a different outlook going into this week?) – “Yeah, like I said, it’s everyone on the team – players, even the coaches – everyone feels like we could’ve done a better job during the game and we’re all going to keep working to make sure that we can make sure that we can finish games because we’re right there and like I said, we have a great team. I’m very confident that we’re going to do big things.”
(You’ve been part of one of the big turnarounds in the NFL being on the 49ers last year. When did you see the tide turning with the 49ers and what were the signs?) – “It goes all the way down to my rookie year when we were I think 0-9 at one point. No one believed in us and then we started winning. I think we won like the last five out of our six games of the season, and I knew we had it in us. I think that year we lost like six games by three points or less or something crazy like that, and in the NFL, that’s what it comes down to is those three points. And like I was saying, the little small plays that no one really pays attention to make a big difference in the game. It’s the same thing here. We’ve just got to finish and we’ve got a bunch of great guys, great coaches, great management that got us in the right direction, so we’ve just got to finish now and put it together.”
(You talked about the importance of team success. What do you think the difference between 1-2 and 0-3 is, looking at the importance of Thursday’s game?) – “Like I was saying, we just have to finish. It goes all the way down to the little small details, just like this last game. Like you guys were saying, a couple of plays here and there that we all could have made that could have made a big difference in the game. I think once we get those corrected and we learn how to finish, we’ll be a great team.”
(Specifically about the running game, how far away is it from where you think it ought to be and what are the missing elements?) – “I think we’re in a great position with the running game. I think all of us have been running the ball well. Me, Myles (Gaskin), Jordan (Howard), Patrick (Laird) – whoever we put in the game, we’re going to run the ball well, and I think we’re right there. Like I said, I think we’ve just got to finish as a team. I think in all the phases, we all could do a lot better and we’re going to.”
(In terms of the quick turnaround from Sunday to Thursday, as a player who plays one of the more physical positions, what do you have to do to get your body ready for that?) – “Just rest. Get as much sleep as possible. Get as much treatment and recovery as possible, and like you were saying, it’s one of those things where it’s mental. Both teams are going to be tired. We just played a game I think what, two or three days out? So it’s just all mental and whoever’s prepared more mentally I believe is going to win the game.”
