Daily Madden: 49ers Need To Acknowledge And Get Past Preseason Woes
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — The 49ers will host the San Diego Chargers this Sunday at Levi's Stadium and Coach Madden told KCBS what he thinks is important for San Francisco to accomplish in this exhibition game after the last two poor showings of the preseason.
"I think it's important to get started. It's pretty well documented that the fact that they haven't been able to score in two preseason games and you keep saying, 'well it's preseason and it really doesn't matter, vanilla game plan'—all that stuff. At some point, you have to stop believing that," he said.
"'It's a vanilla game plan, we're not showing them anything'—that's a bunch of baloney. I never did believe that. You still lose a game, you still have to play, you still have to get ready, you still have plays, you still run the plays and at some point, you have to start to look like you are on the same page even if it's just for one quarter; even if it's just one group of guys. But they don't look like they've gotten started yet."
Madden also spoke about the 49ers replacing the sod after just one preseason game at the newly-opened $1.3 billion facility—and just three days ahead of their second preseason game Sunday against the Chargers. The team issued a statement Wednesday saying the field will be playable for Sunday's game against the Chargers.
Related: Newly-Installed Levi's Stadium Turf Expected To Be Ready For Sunday 49ers Game
"This is real distraction. We used to go through it every year. When the A's would play there (the Oakland Coliseum) and both baseball and football would overlap, we'd play, like the Raiders do right now, with a baseball infield and that was hard too—and the Raiders are the last team that have to do that now. But there was a time after the A's were finished that we would put sod on top the infield pitcher's mound and all that. And every year, it was the same thing. Is it going to work?" he said.
"I think that'll it will look good on Sunday morning when the players walk out there and the coaches walk around looking down, kicking the ground. It'll be good but it's how it holds up in the second half. That's the problem. Can big, old strong heavy guys pushing each other, playing on it for over three hours—will it hold up to that?"
While Madden doesn't think it will happen, he said that if it gets too serious, they could call the game as safety issue.
"You wouldn't want to endanger two teams on a bad field in a preseason game," he said.
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