What did we learn from preseason week 2?

 

By Scooter_McG

Week 2 of preseason is now a wrap, and the 49ers prevailed in their encounter against the Chargers (for however little that is worth). While the result doesn't really matter, it was another opportunity for players to showcase themselves in an effort to make either the 49ers roster, or another team's roster if they don't stick with the 49ers. 

So who stood out, good and bad?

By and large I thought the 49ers defense was very impressive. This week the DL appeared to put the Chargers QBs under constant pressure and enjoyed a lot of time in the backfield. Hard to even pinpoint any one player's efforts as it was impressive across the board. As Zach Kerr and Kentavius Street said after the game, this is a very deep DL unit with plenty of guys deserving of being on a 53 man roster this season. 

The LBs and secondary I thought were also quite good for the most part. What really stood out was the team speed and aggressiveness - the players consistently were quick to the ball and shut plays down in numbers. DeMeco Ryans has previously indicated he wants to keep things simple for the players so they can play fast and in this game it certainly appears that way, which bodes well for the season proper. Much like the DL, there wasn't really any players that I thought individually stood out, either in a good or bad way, with a number of players making good plays and very few glaring mistakes. 

The defensive performance week 2 I thought was better than in week 1. 

On offense, unfortunately it was a little more up and down. The OL cut down on the number of times individuals were instantly beaten off the line of scrimmage which helped to provide some improved protection for the most part, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. More importantly, the running game looked a lot better this week, as the OL was able to provide some room for the RBs up the middle and didn't allow defenders to blow up many plays in the backfield like what happened week 1. I thought both Hasty and Gallman, the only two healthy RBs in this game, performed quite well. 

The receivers on the other hand were more of a mixed bag. As with week 1, far too many dropped balls. Ball placement by the QBs didn't help (more on this shortly), but still too many drops to be acceptable. And it wasn't just the fringe players - both Aiyuk and Samuel had their share of drops today which won't be acceptable during the regular season. On a positive note, Sherfield continues to look like something of a find for the team showing reliable hands, explosiveness and some nice moves to pick up yards after the catch in tight quarters. 

In terms of the QBs... if this was an opportunity for Jimmy G to put to bed any thoughts of Lance taking over the starting job, that opportunity was missed. The stats probably look a little worse than the performance, but it was a rusty outing with some off target throws. Jimmy G has a history of looking rusty in the first week of the regular season and games like this one in preseason don't inspire confidence he will turn that around in 2021. 

The good news for Jimmy G is that Trey Lance didn't help himself much either in any race to try and win the starting QB job. Lance's final stat line was good enough, but he started poorly with a number of off target throws that put a lot of pressure on his receivers to make great catches (which by and large they failed to do). It led to one INT, and he could have easily been picked a couple of other times, one on a poorly placed ball which he left too far inside and another on a bad decision to throw into a window too tight even for his powerful arm. And about that arm... he is definitely showing a tendency to err on the side of power when he throws. Yes, his receivers need to get used to catching fast balls, but not every throw needs to be a fast ball. 

On a positive note, after a slow start he did make some nice plays in leading two TD drives, one where he showed a lot of growth from his two minute drill issues in week 1 and another where he displayed great feel for looking off defenders to open a passing window over the middle for a TD to Benjamin. I also thought that, for the most part, he showed better awareness in the pocket to move and avoid pressure compared to week 1. Overall, it was another game where the talent Lance possesses was obvious, but so was the development needed.