MIKE MACDONALD: All right, man, I mean, great football game. We have to give Minnesota a lot of credit. The reason their record is what it is and what their record is in one-point games is because they are a good football team. We persevered and had the chance to win the game. We didn’t do it. There are things we can do better in all three phases, but we did a lot of great things. We gave ourselves the chance to win. Since we’re having a short week right now, we have to go back to work in about an hour. We’re coming back and rocking. We have a good plan. But our fate is currently out of our hands, which is hard. But we still have a lot of football to play. A break here or there, we’ll be right back at it and rolling. So we dust ourselves off, lift our heads, stretch our chests and carry on. Let’s move on.

What was the limit for Myers towards the end of the game?

MIKE MACDONALD: Let’s just say that was the highest level we felt we could do it.

Suppose the fact was fourth and 15 eliminated the –

MIKE MACDONALD: Yes. You have three options: kick, punt and try to play for a field goal with less than a minute left, or try to score the equalizer and win the game. When you talk about situations like that, we want to win the game. We don’t try to play defensively. That’s what we call it. So we wanted to call for an aggressive game. We felt like it was the best decision at the time.

What happened on their last touchdown?

MIKE MACDONALD: They played a great game. I think we did Cover 2 on that side and threw a seven cut. Just couldn’t get there.

The face mask on Byron Murphy II, really big game. Looked like a legitimate call.

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, I have to check it out. That’s what we’re talking about. The guy struggles to get to the quarterback. You have to watch where your hands are. A lot happens at this moment too. We could have tried a third-and-18 with two downs to seal the game, and suddenly, two plays later, we’re now down three. We’re so close, but obviously we’re not there yet. But this is an example of the fight of the boys and how they play.

Some unforced errors you made against a good team.

MIKE MACDONALD: Against a team like this, the unforced errors have to be cleaned up. It starts with me. So we’ll look at it like we do every week. Check it out, make adjustments, and move on. But we have to clean up the procedural mess.

How is Kenneth Walker III?

MIKE MACDONALD: Has an ankle (injury). I’ll take a picture right away. I’m not sure how big this is.

What did you see on Geno Smith’s last pass? Miscommunication?

MIKE MACDONALD: No, no. I have to watch the tape. I have to watch the tape. I’ll get in touch with you tomorrow.

What do you think of this game (and Geno Smith)? Some really good things, a few goal drives.

MIKE MACDONALD: Geno is our top competitor on our soccer team. We’re not sitting here with our lives at the end of December unless Geno has done the things he did. He’s a fighter, man. I thought he played a good game.

Their running backs averaged four yards per carry, 14 carries and a pass distribution of 78 percent. Is it starting to worry that you’re not able to achieve more balance in these games?

MIKE MACDONALD: We need to start faster on defense and get ourselves in a better position. Part of that was Minnesota’s personnel groups how they fit us. I think in some of those either/or situations where we were able to prevail, that was also efficient.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, another solid game; 1,000 yard season. What do you think of what he’s done in the last few months?

MIKE MACDONALD: Jaxon (Smith-Njigba) plays great football for us and fights against us. We love him. I’m happy for him.

What was your message to him in there?

MIKE MACDONALD: Exactly what I told you. You know, it should hurt. We worked incredibly hard. We’ve been through a lot of adversity as a team. We stay together and get back to work. So we fight for the right to stay alive in a short week. What are you going to do?

Mike, did you get the intent and physicality you needed in the fast start on defense?

MIKE MACDONALD: Yeah, these teams have the opening scripts and they have stuff. I thought our guys were confident and played hard. We didn’t have many misunderstandings. They just went down and scored. Our guys bounced back and I thought defensively they fought hard the whole game. Played a physical game. The ball was alive. We didn’t take it away. To beat a team like that, you have to turn the ball over. We didn’t succeed.

Mike, you didn’t have Riq out there on the first defensive series. What was the reason?

MIKE MACDONALD: Just a team rules thing. We did the right thing and decided to do what was best for the football team. We carry on.

How do you think he reacted afterwards?

MIKE MACDONALD: I felt like he played a good game. Here, too, we will see what possibilities were available. He had a couple pass breakups, so it was good.

Was the fake punt something they saw or something you called from the sideline?

MIKE MACDONALD: I don’t really want to go into why we call it fake or when. I’ll just mention Jay (Harbaugh) and our operation. The guys did a great job implementing it. Gave us a chance to extend the trip. We try to win or look for any advantage we can find. We’ll try to take advantage of it.