SANTA CLARA – Patrick Willis emerged from Sunday's 30-21 loss to New England frustrated that he and his defensive teammates couldn't stop the Patriots' offense, which held the ball for 39 minutes, 52 seconds – the second-most lopsided margin of any NFL game this season.
The linebacker emerged from a film-room session Monday, however, reassured that the problem is correctable.
"After watching the film, I feel just as I did coming into training camp, just as I did at the start of the season, just as I do today – that I have complete faith and confidence in our team," said Willis, who had a game-high 18 tackles.
He said technical errors – attacking the wrong gap, for example – were to blame for the defensive struggles against the Patriots. In saying so, Willis sounded a lot like his coach, who hours earlier also said correctable mistakes were to blame for the team's two-game skid.
"If you can look at a film and all you see is just you getting your tail whipped, that's real discouraging," Mike Nolan said. "But in this case right here, in the last two weeks, we've made several errors on our own account and have hurt ourselves: changed game momentum, changed game field position, changed a lot of things in the course of those mistakes. Some have been technique, some have been mental."
Keeping the faith is a key objective in the coming weeks.
The 49ers have lost consecutive games against good but wounded opponents. The euphoria that surrounded the team following the 31-13 win over Detroit on Sept. 21 has been replaced by a dread that perhaps the 49ers haven't made as much improvement from previous seasons as they believed.
In fact, Nolan was back answering the same sort of questions Monday he was asked in 2007, including whether he was worried about his job.
"As far as performing for my job, I've never looked at it that way," he said. "I'm always – every day I'm doing that. If you're 5-0, you're coaching for your job, so that doesn't change. That's just the nature of the beast, so to speak."
Nolan also insisted that the 49ers have progressed from last season. Entering Monday night, the offense ranked 21st overall and was 11th in scoring after finishing last in both categories a season ago. On defense, however, the 49ers are allowing more points – 25.4 – and more rushing yards per game – 128.4 – than they gave up in 2007.
"We're at 2-3 in this (fourth) year," Nolan said. "I don't know where we'll end up. We need to do better right now. I would expect us to be at least a game or two better than we are right now from a record standpoint, so we'll see where that takes us. But there's a lot of football left, as we all well know, between now and the end of the season."
Willis also expected a better outcome after five games, specifically against the Patriots.
For him and his teammates, it was a chance to prove that the 49ers could beat one of the league's elite teams.
"I felt all week that it was going to be a chance for us to get a big win for our program, for our organization," said Willis, who sat in a daze in the locker room for several minutes after the game. "Even when the game started, I felt that. I knew it was going to be a good game. Nobody ever expects to roll over anybody, but we expect to win. It was heartbreaking."
Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/ninersblog.
