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Golden Nuggets: Trey Lance said there’s ‘definitely a few plays’ he wanted back

Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Monday, October 4, 2021

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Seattle Seahawks v San Francisco 49ers Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

I hope Jimmy Garoppolo is OK, for his sake. We’ll likely find out what his injury is and how long he’ll be out sometime today. Kyle Shanahan speaks at 3:30 p.m. PT on Monday.

49ers forced to hit fast-forward on Trey Lance timeline in loss to Seahawks

The 49ers had a different out-of-the-tunnel surprise to start the game. Kicker Robbie Gould injured his groin during pregame warmups, forcing the team to tap punter Mitch Wishnowsky as its placekicker — something he’d never done previously — and sending assistant general manager Adam Peters to search for a fill-in for the next game against the Cardinals.

With fullback Kyle Juszczyk holding, Wishnowsky, the NFC’s reigning special teams player of the month, was good on his first extra point. In the second quarter, however, he missed a 41-yard field goal, pushing the attempt just left of the upright. He also missed a second-half extra point attempt wide left.

Grades for 49ers’ offense, defense in bad loss to Seahawks

But even without all the bad luck hovering over this team, the 49ers should have done enough in the first half to come out of Week 4 with a victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

Jimmy Garoppolo played the first half before exiting with a calf injury. Lance entered at the beginning of the third quarter. It was not always pretty, but Lance did flash the big-play ability that prompted the 49ers to select him with the No. 3 overall pick. He connected with Deebo Samuel on scoring plays that covered 76 and 8 yards.

Garoppolo capped the first drive of the game with a 21-yard touchdown to Ross Dwelley. But, after that, the 49ers’ passing game struggled behind Garoppolo. Lance threw for 157 yards, while Garoppolo threw for 165 yards. The overall numbers look a lot better than how it felt. Samuel had an outstanding game with eight catches for 156 yards.

Grade: C-minus

Winners and Losers from Seahawks 28 49ers 21

Offensive line

They settled down eventually but this was not a particularly impressive showing for the o-line against that 49ers defensive front. Wilson was under siege for a lot of the opening half and two of the three 3rd down sacks were the result of instant pressure. Even the touchdown from Russ to Freddie Swain was a bust in protection that allowed the blitz to get through so easily. If I could point out a particular individual “loser” I’d say Duane Brown didn’t have one of his finer days at the office.

49ers QB Trey Lance assesses his first extended NFL regular season action as ‘good and bad’

“I think there were plays good and bad throughout the half — missed some big ones, missed some easy ones, missed some check downs,” Lance said. “Just definitely a few plays that I want back, but I’m going to go back and watch it tonight and I think I’ll learn a lot from that.”

“Some good, some bad... He got thrown in not expecting to get in,” Shanahan said. “I thought he ran the ball well, hit some passes, obviously missed some passes, was in a tough situation there when we were down two scores, did a good job moving the chains a couple times with his legs, but it looked like a typical first game.”

49ers 21, Seahawks 28: Grades

COACHES: D.

DeMeco Ryans did a solid job with the backup cornerbacks the 49ers provided him. He managed to limit the Seahawks offense to a miniscule 4.3 yards per play, which is impressive.

But Ryans is a mere footnote. Shanahan is the main story here. He faced a Seahawks team that had zero first downs and negative 11 net yards 25 minutes into the game and still lost. Which means Shanahan has lost 9 of his past 10 home games. And now, his win-loss record as a head coach is 31-37. Next week, after he loses to the Arizona Cardinals, it will be 31-38.

It’s becoming abundantly clear that Shanahan is not a good head coach — he makes erratic decisions that cost his team victories.