Last week was about what you’d expect, but at least entertaining. This week, the San Francisco 49ers 33-14 loss to the Denver Broncos made other entertainment options like sleeping sounding so much more attractive as you watched.
There were a few bright moments. C.J. Beathard continued building his legacy with a nice pass to rookie tight end George Kittle. Then there wasn’t much.
But that was the 2nd and 3rd teams. The 1st teams were very questionable. Four turnovers by the offense, one by special teams, and a defense missing DeForest Buckner. It led to a 20-0 lead at the half and a second half with more penalties than there are values in Pi (and yes, I’m aware Pi is infinite).
Not only was this a bad 49ers game, this was just an awful football game to watch. Forget about preseason, this was just atrocious.
The Good:
The C.J. Beathard legacy continued tonight. After cringe-worthy showing by the first-team offense. The Beathard Show began after the second half kickoff with a nicely thrown pass to Aldrick Robinson. Shortly thereafter, he threw a dart to George Kittle who shed defenders and had a nice display of athleticism as he kept his feet inbounds en route to the endzone.
Suddenly, Matt Barkley’s job doesn’t look too secure. ‘
George Kittle is the man. See above for reasons why.
Victor Bolden Jr. When all was lost and everyone thought the game was over, this guy takes a kickoff to the house. The game was still over, but that was fun to watch. Bolden is fast, he’s shifty, and he may have just secured himself roster spot. I’d like to see more of him in Week 3, but that return was pretty nice. Besides Beathard’s nice TD pass to Kittle, Bolden was the only reason to stay tuned in late in the 4th quarter.
Kyle Juszczyk had a nice play where he simply anchored himself and let a defender fly by him, opening up a nice lane for a decent gain. That’s all we heard of Juszczyk, but it certainly makes me giddy with the possibilities.
The Bad:
Le sigh...
The 49ers starting offense was treated to a Bronco defense with several starters out, and they couldn’t capitalize. Just when you thought the 49ers offense was clicking or looking good, something happened to kill any optimism:
Carlos Hyde couldn’t get anything going. There were a few nice holes opened up for him, but Hyde made some questionable decisions and went different directions, leading to stops behind the line of scrimmage.
Brian Hoyer. While releasing a pass to what looked like Aldrick Robinson’s direction, the ball slipped out of Hoyer’s hand. Since he’s not Tom Brady, this was ruled a fumble and a turnover. The 49ers offense is quite a weird offense. Just when you think they might be pretty good—something like this happens to show there’s still work to be done.
A nice drive towards the end of the quarter had the running backs actually getting yards. Well, until Tim Hightower coughed up the 4th turnover in an ugly, ugly fumble.
Defensively, Rashard Robinson again whiffed on what looked like an easy 3rd down stop. It was the same poor tackling we saw in week one. If he’s going to talk all the trash that he is talking, he may want to have something to back all that up. For starters, learn to wrap. He followed the whiff with some awful coverage on Broncos wide receiver Benny Fowler in the endzone after the Broncos made their first redzone trip.
And the Ugly:
Five turnovers. Moving on...
The coaching staff should feel free to pass a rule book around next week at practice due to the mental mistakes. During the a punt on the Broncos’ opening drive, Jaquiski Tartt was redirected by a Broncos player to be the first to touch the ball. This led to the Broncos recovering with little work required for the resulting touchdown. For a veteran like Tartt, that’s unacceptable. Penalties were to follow; an illegal shift on the first offensive possession didn’t help the opening drive, they would get slapped with a an illegal formation on their second drive, Rashard Robinson had a boneheaded pass interference call, all plays that you simply can’t have.
And don’t get me started on that flag cluster in the 3rd quarter. I don’t know how many fouls happened on one punt, and I’m pretty sure the officiating crew doesn’t know either. All I know is I got a laundry list of fouls that all offset and made the punt happen again.
If that last paragraph made no sense, don’t worry, I merely recreated my own ignorance of the moment.
Up Next:
The 49ers will travel to face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, August 27th. It will be our last chance to see the starting team in action as they usually bench the starters for Week 4. Hopefully we can draw some conclusions on what this 49ers team is going to give us. Or, at the very least, get a better team than we saw tonight.