Every quarterback not named Brandon Allen got a go for the 49ers on Saturday night. Results were mixed, but there was cause for encouragement for all three.
Kyle Shanahan discussed the performances afterwards, and seemed to be generally pleased.
He began with Brock Purdy, who Shanahan said would play along with the rest of the starters in the final preseason game on Friday. As for his short stint on Saturday, he didn’t put much blame on Purdy for the one sack taken.
“I thought he did real good, all the plays that he had he made and I don’t think he had a bad one,” Shanahan said. That sack, we busted a protection, and we’ll see if he could’ve done anything about it and got rid of it. You always try your hardest to get rid of it because once you get sacked there, it’s tough to score. But it didn’t look like there was much you could do live.”
While the plan was initially to let Sam Darnold play just the first half, Shanahan said he wanted to give him more of a run because his first drive ended in a three-and-out. He wanted to get him a full half’s worth of plays, like Trey Lance got in the first game.
He said that all three quarterbacks played well.
“Yeah, I thought all three of them did a good job,” Shanahan said. “I thought the two picks we had, one was a tip, that Ronnie [Bell] had. And the other one I thought that D-Lineman made a good play on that screen, which still thought we were going to reverse it, but I think it was inconclusive some of the shots. But I thought all three of them did a good job and a good steppingstone for next week.”
As for Lance, specifically, Shanahan said he saw him get going towards the end.
That said, there was sloppiness from him and the rest of the group he played with that he found frustrating.
“It seemed like [he was more comfortable],” Shanahan said. “I think always when you don’t go three-and-out it helps. And so, I think we got a little bit of better rhythm for him. It still took a little bit while to get going.
“Not just him, but the whole group. I thought we were a little sloppy throughout the whole game. Way too many penalties. Seemed like when we did get some stuff going, especially there in the second quarter, it seemed like we always had a penalty or missed assignment. So, I thought it was smoother than last week, but by no means where we pumped about it. I was pumped how we finished, pumped about the win, some good things. But still have a lot to do to cleanup.”
Shanahan will talk to media again on Sunday, when there should be some injury updates as well as a fuller, post-film assessment on the quarterbacks.
