Brian Hoyer’s 1st half: Ineptitude sandwiched between two good drives

The San Francisco 49ers started Sunday’s game on defense against the Indianapolis Colts and held them to a field goal. Brian Hoyer took the field and did well on the opening drive. He went 7/8, 72 yards (over 50 of which went to Pierre Garcon) a 104 quarterback rating, and indications he may have found some swagger.

Except for that one pass. A drop to George Kittle in the redzone that should have been caught. At that moment, it was almost as if Brian Hoyer remembered he was Brian Hoyer, and from there-on completed just two more passes before the 49ers went into their 2-minute offense to close out the first half. The final drive was nice, but it doesn’t erase the stinkers he gets to carry into the locker room at halftime.

The 1st half is almost a great picture of the 49ers: when they do things right—they can really do some things, it’s simply them getting it together for consistency. A lot of it will depend on Hoyer, there were a lot of throws where players were wide open and the ball was thrown to another zip code (a zip to Marquise Goodwin comes to mind, but that depends on if he would actually catch it). There also were throws where Hoyer should have been picked off, but this is the Colts defense we’re talking about here so saying ‘should’ may be a bit premature.

While the team wound up getting touchdowns and managed to stay in this game, having long stretches of play like this can be actually maddening. If Hoyer can get it together, he could make a case for himself sticking around in San Francisco long-term (it won’t happen, but he’d make a case). Right now when offense like this takes the field, it only makes fans glance at the days until free agency and Kirk Cousins can arrive.