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The 49ers offense had its good and bad moments Sunday in Trey Lance’s second-career start. They overcame some early hiccups to put up 20 second-half points while cruising to a 23-7 victory. There were highs and lows for Lance, but there was a discernible difference in the 49ers’ offense while he was on the field.
It appeared during the game that San Francisco was attacking down the field more with Lance calling the signals, and the numbers from ESPN’s Next Gen Stats back that up.
Per Next Gen Stats, the 49ers posted their highest air yards per attempt and yards gained on throws beyond 10 yards in the last three years. Here’s his passing chart:
Trey Lance brought a vertical element to the 49ers offense in his second career start.
Lance averaged the most air yards/attempt (11.5) and threw for the most yards on 10+ air yards passes (205) by any 49ers QB in a game over the last three seasons.#HOUvsSF | #FTTB pic.twitter.com/EBe38tvrUU
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) January 3, 2022
There’s upsides and downsides to this.
A positive is that Lance is looking to use his arm strength to push the ball down the field. He looked off shorter throws to take the deeper receiver and allowed the 49ers to generate chunk plays in the passing game without having to rely on yards after the catch. It wasn’t perfect Sunday, but it was clear how high the ceiling for this passing attack can be once Lance takes the reins.
The downside is that Lance missed a couple easy completions while trying to push throws deeper into the second and third levels. That’ll be one of the key steps in his development. When the throws aren’t open downfield, he has to reset and find a check down.
It’s promising that in only his second start Lance is confident enough to let throws fly 10-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage. There’s plenty of growth to come, but the 49ers passing offense is noticeably different with him under center.
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