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Ron Rivera Presser: As long as Kyle Allen is healthy, he’s the starter this week

Ron Rivera speaks to the media

By Scott Jennings

Ron Rivera said that Kyle Allen will be the starter this week against the New York Giants if he is healthy. Allen was taken out of yesterday’s game following a helmet-to-helmet hit, and a shoulder injury. He was checked for a concussion, but was cleared. Rivera said he’s still sore, and will probably be more sore today. Allen ran the offense well, and drove the team down for a scoring drive early to take the lead. Rivera liked his decision-making on the scoring play where Allen took off and ran for the touchdown.

Ron Rivera thought that Alex Smith handled his first game since breaking his leg two years ago pretty well. Smith is a more than capable quarterback, but the situations for his first game back were tough for anyone to deal with. Rivera liked Smith’s escapability and movement during the game.

Rivera was asked about Dwayne Haskins Jr.’s future with the team:

“I see him doing what he did on Friday. I know Wednesday and Thursday were difficult days for him. I get that. But, Friday he came in, was attentive in the meetings, did a nice job coming out to practice, did his mimicking in terms of standing back and watching, going through some of his actions, watching the plays. That’s what I expect, for him to continue to learn and grow. As we continue to get into this and we get further down the road, who knows what’s going to happen? But, that’s what the expectation is. It’s no different from the expectation of any other player, and that’s to be in the meetings, learning, studying, being at practice, learning and studying, participating. That’s what I expect of all of our players.”

Kyle Allen:

Alex Smith:

Dwayne Haskins Jr.:

Landon Collins:

Brandon Scherff:

Running game:

4 game losing streak:

“Disappointed. But, let’s look at who we lost to. Everybody that we lost to has a winning record. We’re playing good football teams. That’s the big thing, and that’s what we’re working to be is one of those kinds of teams. I think there’s huge disappointment because we had some opportunities. Defensively, there were some third downs that we didn’t stop them on. The players know that. Offensively, we had some plays where we didn’t quite make it and we didn’t convert. That’s the disappointment. We didn’t play up front as well as we would’ve liked to offensively. There are some things that we have to work on, we have to get shored up, and we have to get better at. Again, the disappointment is that we didn’t play better. That to me is a positive because the players know that.”

Defense:

Competition in the secondary:

“I’d like to see a little bit more of that. I don’t mind the competition because I think it makes everybody better. But, I do want to see consistency in our play. We’ve done some really good things, we’ve made some plays, but we don’t sustain success. We get them into a third-and-long and we have a chance to come downhill and make a break on the ball—and it was a terrific break—but unfortunately we got there early and we got a penalty and it was first down. If we get there early, we should make a play on the ball. If we make a play on the ball, they’re punting. Again, those are the kinds of things we have to be better at because we have to sustain the success. You stop them on first down, you get them into second-and-long, now all of a sudden it’s third-and-long, we don’t convert—that’s not sustained success. That’s not consistency. We’ve got to get better at that on both sides of the ball.”

Punt on 4th and 1:

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