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Q: What happened yesterday?**
Tuck:"I think they started fast and we didn't. We were able to, for the most part, fight back. We've had games where we didn't play well in spurts, but we found a time in the game where we made our own spurt. That didn't happen Sunday. They really played with more passion, more energy than we did all game. The game of football is funny, man. It's one of the only sports where you can go from having that high of winning the game against Kansas City to the low of losing a game like that on Sunday. I really don't have any other explanations for it than that."
Q: Did their team speed on offense surprise you guys at all?
Tuck: "I don't think it surprised us. I just don't think we matched as well as I thought we would have. They definitely put their athletes in positions to be in space and made it very difficult for us to corral them. They got that ball into [Tavon] Austin, [Stedman] Bailey and those guys' hands early with the fly sweeps or the smokescreens that they were throwing early. It kind of got us out of our rhythm, and like I said, and we weren't able to recover from it."
Q: What is the key to get past a loss like this? What are things that you will look for from the guys in the middle of the week?
Tuck: "To be honest with you, losses like this are a lot easier to get over than those ones that come down to the last drive of a game. Obviously, it's very embarrassing to be a part of something like that. But I think that drives you to kind of just have a short memory and throw it out the window. We've watched the film. We've done our corrections on it. I think the best thing for us now is to turn all of our attention and our focus to what lies ahead, and that's this bloodbath that I think we're about to have against the 49ers. Big rivalry game. Everybody in this area has been waiting for this game for a long time. I think that's the best thing that could have happened after a loss like that, is to have this type of game where all of your attention has to be focused on the 49ers going forward."
Q: You've faced the 49ers multiple times in your career. What do you know of them and what do you see?
Tuck: "Well-coached, obviously. [49ers Head Coach Jim] Harbaugh has those guys … Especially at the end of the season. They seem to find their way and start playing their style of football around this time of year. It's going to be a physical bunch that is going to come in here and try to out-man you, out-physical you. Big, very experienced O-line. Very athletic and capable quarterback. Their defense is playing great. They'll be coming in here with a lot of emotion too. They are coming off a loss to another rival, a tough game they had against Seattle. We will have a very well-coached, oiled up group coming in here to our place. That's what we want. We want to have them here. This is a very important game for both teams. I am looking forward to it."
Q: Aside from all the missed tackles. Is it fair to say that your defense just isn't quick enough for a team like St. Louis?
Tuck: "No, it's not fair to say that. We were in position to make plays and we didn't. Even with a quick team like that, there are ways around it. There are ways to keep them in the box, take away their strengths, but it didn't happen. I don't think it was because we weren't fast enough or quick enough. I just don't feel as though we matched their intensity. You can make excuses for it all you want to. You can say we played at 10 o'clock West Coast time or whatever. You can say all type of things. At the end of the day, we just didn't match their intensity. Not to say that we can't. Obviously, we would love to play that game over and see what the outcome would be if we got the opportunity to do it again. But it doesn't work that way. We just didn't match their intensity."
Q: You're facing a guy in Colin Kaepernick, who is probably the most mobile threat that you have played all season. How do you deal with a guy like him?
Tuck: "You keep him in the pocket, and that's, I guess, the easy answer to a very complicated question because if it was that easy, then everyone would do it. You just have to be up front. You definitely have to be mindful of your rush lanes, mindful of down and distance, what coverages we have behind him, if we have spies or zones, where guys are looking at him. You definitely don't want him to get out of the pocket when you have guys in man-to-man coverage because by the time they turn around, he's right there beside them. He's that mobile and that quick. It has to be a team effort in dealing with him. Matching our rush with our coverages and trying to disguise some things where he can't go to his first read and he has to sit there and hold a little bit longer."
Q: You've been around a long time. How does a team bounce back from this type of loss?
Tuck: "You go back and work. I think we've all, as athletes, trained our mind and our body to deal with the goods and the bads. It's not really that big of a difference between winning a great game and losing a horrible game as far as mentally. You can't dwell on either one of them too long. When you win a great one, you have to say, 'OK, we did that and let's move onto the next one.' When you lose one like we lost on Sunday, you have to say, 'OK, we did that, but we have to move onto the next one.' I don't think, mentally, we'll have any problem putting this behind us and getting focused for the task at hand."
Q: Do you think any guys dwelled on the win too long?
Tuck: "I would like to say no, but obviously what we put on film suggests otherwise. I don't know if that's the direct component to why we played that bad. But, obviously, I think we might have. To be factual about it, I don't really know."
Q: What do you know of the rivalry with the 49ers and how excited are you to play in it?
Tuck: "The only thing I know of it is what people have told me. Charles Woodson came to me today and the first thing he said to me was, 'Let's get this one.' That was enough for me. I've played in some rivalry games as far as same city, same backyard type rivalries playing the Jets and things like that. You know that it's going to be a game that you're going to come out of it very sore. You' re going to come out of it very banged up, but it brings the best out of you. I think that's what this team needs. Someone that is going to bring the best out of us because, obviously Sunday wasn't our best."
