KNBR Conversation: Tim Ryan, 49ers radio analyst

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An edited transcript of the conversation between new 49ers radio analyst Tim Ryan and KNBR's Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey:

McCaffrey: I'm wondering what your take on the state of the 49ers is right now. ... What step do you think this team has to make to get over the top?

Ryan: I think it's maturity, and I think it's situational football. They're unbelievably well-coached. ... Really good players on both sides of the ball at the line of scrimmage. ... I think it's about situations, I really do. If you go back to the Giants game a couple years ago in the NFC Championship - I would have never fielded any of those punts. Look, Coach (Brad) Seely is one of the best in the business, no doubt about it. But if you go back and watch the Giants, they had two guys back for every punt return, just in case there was a muff. So I never would have returned that ball.

I think you go to the Super Bowl game (February 2013), and certainly with a timeout hanging on the board in the biggest situation of their lives, that could have been handled a little bit differently.

Then you go to this game, and I've covered Seattle a lot, I've covered them 12 times over the last few years on television. My whole thing was this : The defense is going to play well enough to win. At the end of the day, Colin Kaepernick has got to understand the situation, and he can't turn it over, and really that's exactly what happened.

If you look at those big plays - the Cliff Avril strip-sack ... on that play, Colin Kaepernick, the clock has got to go off in his head. That is a designed play - I've seen Pete Carroll run it a million times. They offer up contain to one side, then they run that big arc rusher who's got the speed from the back side to strip the ball out. ... The interception that he threw out to the corner to Kam Chancellor, it's a good route, it's the right route, it's a cover-three beater and they play a lot of cover-three, which is three deep as you guys know. In that situation, it was too slow. ... That really gave Chancellor an opportunity to buzz out to the flat. ... That's easily corrected just by understanding the situation and speeding up your footwork.

Then the interception into the end zone - look, I think a couple things. Number one, it's first down, you've got two timeouts left, there's plenty of time. If you look out to the left, I think Patton was out there uncovered, maybe Vernon (Davis) was out there uncovered, could have had an easy 10 yards, could have walked out of bounds, could have called a timeout. There was plenty of time for that.

Now, if you decide you want to take that shot at Richard Sherman, and clearly that's what Kap decided he wanted to do - and I get it, first down maybe they're not expecting it, I get taking a shot. But if you take that shot, there's only one place you can put that ball, and that's on the back pylon. ...

Colin Kaepernick needed to throw the ball where only Crabtree (15) could catch it. Colin Kaepernick needed to throw the ball where only Crabtree (15) could catch it. Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr., Associated Press Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr., Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close KNBR Conversation: Tim Ryan, 49ers radio analyst 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

So for me it's all about growth in terms of maturity and decision-making by the quarterback and the coaches having a "what if" list that's deep and ready to go. ... There's plenty of talent and very, very good coaches - they're going to continue to win games, but can they win a couple of key, critical situations? At the end of the day, it's about decision-making, and there's no doubt that will come.

Murphy: Do you buy that it's a good decision to challenge Sherman because it's the only one-on-one matchup on the field?

Ryan: Yeah, I get that. ... But go back and turn on the tape and look at Quinton Patton out there. They may have had heavy defenders over there in terms of a number, but there was a 10-yard cushion. There were guys open all over the place; they could have gotten an easy 10 yards. I get taking the shot - I understand it. In my opinion, you're taking a shot against the best corner in the league, number one. Number two, if you're going to take that shot, you sure as hell better make sure you put it on the back pylon. I get the read, it was really about the execution.