Following a fairly embarrassing loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the 49ers are back at it. They’ll square off with the 7-5 Cincinnati Bengals on the road this week, in a matchup featuring a young, highly athletic offense against secondary which looks more and more questionable by the minute.
Injuries: Warner returns, but a lengthy list
Below is the 49ers’ practice report for Wednesday.
Did not practice:
- Trent Williams, Alex Mack (vet days)
- Maurice Hurst (calf)
- Dre Greenlaw (groin)
- Deebo Samuel (groin) – Shanahan said he’s “hoping he’ll practice tomorrow”
- Elijah Mitchell (concussion/knee irritation)
- Emmanuel Moseley (ankle)
- Trenton Cannon (concussion)
- Dee Ford (back) – Shanahan also hoping he’ll return to practice tomorrow
Limited:
- Wilson Jr. (knee)
Full:
- Marcell Harris (concussion)
- Fred Warner (hamstring)
The takeaways here are that Fred Warner will be back this week after missing the first game of his career. He said Wednesday that was a “terrible” experience and that while he tried to lobby to play, he came to the realization that if he re-injured himself, he’d likely be out for another four weeks, and that hamstrings have a healing timeline that can’t be rushed.
Deebo Samuel and Dee Ford’s statuses are still up in the air, with both hoping to practice on Thursday. Ford opened his practice window on November 24, so he’ll have up until next Thursday to be activated off injured reserve. If he isn’t, he will revert to injured reserve and his season will be over.
As for Elijah Mitchell’s knee — a new injury — Shanahan said he underwent an MRI and no structural damage was detected, but they did see irritation.
Quarterback corner: Shanahan on two-QB options, and Garoppolo on aggressiveness
Shanahan on Lance
You would be forgiven for expecting that Trey Lance would see more playing time than he has at this point in the season, especially given the way it started.
On the second offensive drive of the season — with that Alex Mack fumble being the first — Lance came in twice and was set up for his first career touchdown, a pass to Trent Sherfield.
But since his Week 5 start against the Cardinals and his knee sprain, we’ve seen Lance take just a handful of snaps against the Jaguars in garbage time. The Lance packages have been eliminated, with Shanahan citing the fact that swapping quarterbacks affects his play-calling rhythm.
Shanahan said Wednesday that he doesn’t believe players found his use of Lance in that first game odd, or felt that it undermined Garoppolo. He doesn’t think players notice using Lance.
“No, I don’t think players really notice or think it’s weird at all,” Shanahan said. “So I don’t think that’s a big deal at all. Because people do that, people put in wildcats, people put in a second quarterback. I mean, when you have guys who have different skillsets, I’d say you see it on about 20 out of 32 teams, people use guys in those situations. I think guys are pretty used to it.”
Garoppolo on aggressiveness
After his second multi-interception game of the season, Garoppolo said he was “definitely bothered” by his performance.
He said he was especially aggrieved by his decision on the second interception, when he overthrew a double covered George Kittle and was intercepted by a center-fielding Quandre Diggs, who has now picked off Garoppolo three times, more than any other player.
“I got greedy with it,” Garoppolo said. “Kind of put something in my head that I thought it was going to play out a certain way and certain things didn’t happen on the play. So it played out differently, but I just got greedy with it. And instead of taking the check down and keep the ball moving, I got greedy.”
That’s an interesting point, given that Garoppolo often takes flack for being a checkdown quarterback.
There were a few examples of that also being the case, where Garoppolo took the checkdown when a more explosive option appeared open.
That begs the question, how do you evaluate a play that’s successful, but could have been more successful? Garoppolo said it’s often a situation-based calculation. But if the checkdown is there, and it keeps working, he said, he’ll often keep taking it.
“I think it goes into the situation the game, [that] plays a big role of it; how the momentum is. Do you have control of the game? There’s a lot of factors that come into it; pass rush is also tied into that,” Garoppolo said.
But there’s a time and place where towards the end of the game we had to start making some chunk plays and take some bigger chances, but when you can take those check downs and those check downs are getting you 8, 10, 12 yards, it’s hard to pass those up. So you want to stay on track and do whatever you can to do that, but you got to be aggressive at the same time.”
Other notes: Special teams failures, Warner stumps for D.J. Jones
Richard Hightower accepts blame: 49ers special teams coordinator Richard Hightower — while acknowledging injuries to key special teams players weren’t helpful — took the blame for the two horrendous performances by his special teams unit.
He said, “it’s totally on me,” and took ownership for the mistakes over the last two weeks, which have featured a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown, 73-yard fake punt touchdown, fumbled kickoff return, and missed tackles and bad punt return decisions, along with a key missed field goals and extra point. Said Hightower: “We can’t have those plays happen and expect to win.”
Warner says D.J. Jones needs to be paid: It’s gone under the radar, but D.J. Jones has had a tremendous season. It’s not a huge surprise, given that he’s always been a solid player for the 49ers who has been mostly held back by injuries. But his performance against the Seahawks was nothing short of outstanding.
Having watched his first NFL game ever from the sidelines, Fred Warner said he gained an even higher appreciation for Jones’ game.
“Some of the stuff he does on game day is just insane and it’s hard to kind of see when you’re in the game and you’re playing off of him, but watching from the sideline this past weekend? That dude is making some money I’ll say that. He’s balling out of his mind right now and we need it. We need a big time for this defense, for this team, he’s playing insane.”