It’s been over 24 hours since the 49ers dropped their opener in Chicago, but it’s time for my Good, & the Bad from week 1.
Let’s begin with the good.
- I was encouraged from what I saw from Trey Lance, he looked really good, had some nice throws, and just looked more confident than he did a year ago.
- Deebo Samuel is a beast, despite the fumble, he had the teams’ lone touchdown, a nice run for 6, 2 more & he’s guaranteed to have $150,000 added to his 2023 cap number.
- Brandon Aiyuk looked good on his only 2 targets/catches, he got open, and Trey found him.
- Jauan Jennings was also good, he had some critical third down catches, really clutch out there.
- Ray-Ray McCloud III also looked good at WR, with I believe 1 catch, but he has speed, and was good as a returner.
- The O-Line played well in the first half, before getting hammered later on.
- The D-Line was very good, with Nick Bosa, & Samson Ebukam getting sacks early on, and Javon Kinlaw, & the rest really dominated the defensive run game early on.
- Charvarius Ward & Emmanuel Moseley both looked good, especiallt Ward, showing he can be a shutdown corner.
- Talanoa Hufanga looks like a stud, ending up with the lone INT, & 11 total tackles, he was everywhere, he is a star in the making, a hard hitter, and great tackler.
Now, the bad.
- Jeff Wilson Jr. was ineffective all game, the run game was good up until Elijah Mitchell hurt his knee, which is a MCL sprain, which will land him on IR missing at least 4 games.
- While the O-Line played well early on, the Interior really struggled, I don’t know if it was the field conditions, the weather, or inexperience, but they need to improve fast.
- Dre Greenlaw was way too aggressive and reckless out there, he had a bad face mask penalty that ended up giving the Bears another set of downs after a key 3rd down stop, which led to a Bears TD.
- The team really kicked themselves in the foot, bad penalties, I believe over 10, broken coverages, players abandoning their jobs on defense, and the RPO really got the defensive line & linebackers fooled badly.
- The 49ers tight ends were ineffective, this shows how valuable George Kittle is to the 49ers offense, and why it’s asinine to think of trading him, but the 49ers need to draft another pass catching tight end, or sign one.
- The team just couldn’t take advantage of the great field position in the first half, only coming away with 10 points when it should have been a 3 score game at half.
Overall, the team had some good moments, and bad moments, but they have to not let this get to their heads, it’s 1 game, 1 loss, the season still has 17 weeks to go, 16 games, this is a Super Bowl caliber team, they just need to 1. Stay healthy, 2. Execute, and 3. Not kick themselves in the foot.
As always, thank you for reading, you can follow me on twitter @49erscap for more salary cap information & tidbits.
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