49ers quarterback Trey Lance didn’t have a stellar return to action in Sunday’s preseason opener vs. the Raiders, but head coach Kyle Shanahan after watching the film pointed to some mistakes from Lance’s teammates that led to some of the QB’s mistakes.
In his first game since injuring his ankle last September, Lance completed 10-of-15 throws for 112 yards and one touchdown. He had two near interceptions dropped and also took four sacks.
On the surface it didn’t look awesome, but Shanahan on Monday in a conference call walked through some of the miscues in more detail and took a lot of the onus off the QB.
“I thought he played a lot better as it ended,” Shanahan said. “He came out, the first play was tough. The corner just keyed his three-step drop and sat on it. He did the right thing, he reset to go to the tight end over the ball, but one of our eligibles busted on the play and put two guys in the same spot. So he had to protect the ball and take a sack there. Another sack on the third-and-8 wasn’t his fault. We kinda had a jailbreak on it. But the two ones after that I thought he could’ve gotten rid of it a little before the sack.
“And a couple things he just hesitated on a hair early in the game, but as it went he made a huge third down on a third-and-8, I think it was to (WR Chris) Conley. Made a very decisive one in two-minute that got us down there to (TE) Troy (Fumagalli), and ended up doing some good things. I wish we would’ve converted that short yardage and kept him out there a little bit longer, but that’s some of the frustrating things about preseason.”
For Lance it’s all about improvement play-to-play and week-to-week. That he settled in as the game wore on is a good sign for him. Things aren’t likely to get substantially easier in the next two preseason games though.
In those contests the goal for Lance will need to be reacting quicker to open windows, and continuing to extend plays when the pocket does start to collapse around him.
If he shows improvement in the final two preseason games it would go a long way toward building his own confidence, and the coaching staff’s confidence in him.
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