49ers cookin’, but is it soup?
Today’s Tomsula-ism involves popcorn.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the 49ers’ new head coach likes to drop food references into his comments. Like “shooting the bologna.”
What he saw in the second half of the 49ers’ first preseason game was too many individual kernels of corn popping.
“We looked like popcorn, we were popping all over the place. Instead of one continuous pop, it was pop, pop, pop, pop,” Tomsula said on a conference call Sunday. “We’ve got to be in unison. We’ve got to get those guys to jell together.”
But overall, Tomsula was happy with the effort Saturday night in Houston, a 23-10 loss.
“We went into this thing, we had a list of objectives and we met them, other than the end result,” he said. “In terms of the sideline, the operation, the communication, the huddles, the personnel, the reps for people we wanted to see in a game situation, getting guys paired up and working together. All those things we were able to get. Got a good bead on some guys.”
One of those was Jarryd Hayne, the former Australian rugby player trying to make it in American football. The sports headline on almost all Australian websites Sunday
was blaring praise about Hayne’s impressive debut.
Tomsula is worried about so much attention focused on one player.
“I just want to temper things,” he said. “I don’t want to put undue expectations on him. I just want him to stay focused on getting better.”
Tomsula wants Hayne, like the other players, to build between the first and second preseason games, and then between the second and third.
“After Week 3, you’ve got an idea and you’re running out of time,” Tomsula said. “He did a nice job. I’m not shocked he can field punts and run and get into the open field. I’ve seen him do all those things. The things he has to keep working on is running in tighter quarters.”
Other Tomsula observations:
The offensive line remains a work in progress. Tomsula said he thought guard Brandon Thomas did some good things and Tomsula might try more of Thomas at right guard in combination with Marcus Martin at center.
“We’re going to keep playing with them there,” Tomsula said.
The problems in the secondary — the 49ers gave up 254 yards passing — were a combination of miscommunication and individual performance.
“With the vanilla coverages we’re running, we’re really just finding out the skill sets we have,” he said. “We’ve got some talented guys back there.”
Tomsula thought the team did a good job of getting plays called and in and out of the huddles, an emphasis in this training camp.
“Early, I thought it was really good, from the box to the field in all three phases,” he said. “I felt great about the sideline in terms of the coaches going on between series. I felt like the players knew the communication. In the second half, we fell off. We just have to keep working at it.”
Tomsula on the team’s first-round draft pick, defensive lineman Arik Armstead: “I thought he did some really good things and some not-sogood things.”
“He’s got some power, some length, he knows how to use his leverage,” Tomsula said.
Tomsula was disappointed the defense was not able to get off the field on third down, and also that the offense couldn’t sustain drives. He said the pass rush was not “all the way in sync.” The 49ers did not have a sack.
Tomsula was pleased with the performance of nose tackle Mike Purcell. “He’s one of those guys you’re rooting for,” Tomsula said. He also saw more consistency from defensive lineman Lawrence Okoye. “He’s also in Year 3, but his is from zero,” Tomsula said. “He’s a junior in high school right now.”
Most important, the 49ers came out of the game without serious injury. Inside linebacker Desmond Bishop had a calf injury and was in the training room Sunday. Tomsula said linebacker Nick Bellore was getting closer and that Michael Wilhoite would be having an MRI exam.
Tomsula took the pulse of the players on the way home on the plane, walking the aisle and “shootin’ it with them.” The bologna, that is. Not the popcorn.