In the battle between Trey Lance and Justin Fields, the Bears’ quarterback came out on top. There was plenty of blame in this one, but Trey Lance pointed the finger squarely at himself after the game.
“I made too many mistakes. Defense kept us in the game. I had a big miss to Tyler Kroft in the end zone. I tried to throw a perfect ball, should have just put it right on him, man, he was wide open. Turned the ball over, took a sack that knocked us out of field goal range that I shouldn’t have. Missed Deebo [Samuel] on a third down, missed another third down to Jauan [Jennings]. Just too many mistakes. Lot of stuff to clean up for sure, for me, but man excited. Still got my head up, excited to get ready to go next week.”
One of the things we’re going to learn about Trey this year is how he deals with adversity, and this was a good start. He could have mentioned the team’s 12 penalties for 99 yards. He could have mentioned an offensive line that allowed pressure on 12 of his 34 dropbacks (without facing a single blitz). Instead, he put it all on himself.
Too often in the past, Jimmy Garoppolo would couch all of his failures as team failures. “We didn’t get anything going in the pass game,” or, “We didn’t convert third downs.” For a 22-year-old kid to point the finger at himself says a lot about him as a person and as a leader.
“This is why they handed him the keys to the organization,” Trent Williams said when asked about Lance’s self-criticism, “He’s a mature dude; he’s a great teammate. That doesn’t surprise us. That’s why he’s here.”
Of course, Lance’s words don’t change his performance on Sunday. He must improve if the 49ers are going to make the playoffs, particularly under pressure. Trey was just 1 for 7 for -2 yards when pressured. He also took a pair of sacks and had three scrambles for positive yards.
We’ll find out next week whether the team will be able to turn the page and put this ugly loss behind them. Lane sounded like he was ready to do that after the game. Hopefully, for the 49ers, he will do just that next week.
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