The 49ers had a hard to protecting quarterback Trey Lance on Sunday in Chicago. It turns out the Bears didn’t even need to bring additional pass rushers to pressure San Francisco’s young signal caller.
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner noted Lance was pressured 12 times in 34 dropbacks despite the Bears never sending an extra rusher. Teams in the last 15 seasons are now 1-6 in situations where their QB drops back 30-plus times and doesn’t face a blitz.
Even worse, Lance struggled mightily when facing that rush. Wagoner tweeted Lance was 1-for-7 for -2 yards under pressure. He also took a pair of sacks while putting together three scrambles for positive yards.
While sifting through the good and bad of Lance’s start and deciphering what’s noteworthy moving forward, those numbers under pressure simply have to improve.
Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t thrive in those scenarios either (most QBs don’t), but Lance has to reach a point where he’s better than 1-for-7 for negative yards. Weather might’ve played a role, but there’s a large part of this that’s borne from inexperience. The expectation for San Francisco is by playing more games, he’ll get better in tough situations like that.
It’s perhaps more notable though that the 49ers offensive line didn’t even force the Bears to bring a blitz. Lance was pressured on 35.3 percent of his dropbacks with only four players rushing all game. That’s an astronomical number that isn’t feasible for offensive success with any quarterback, much less one starting his third NFL game.
This will be something to monitor going forward with both Lance and along the offensive line. They have to do a better job in pass protection, but the QB also has to get better when the OL does struggle.
If these numbers from Sunday become a theme, it could be a long year for the 49ers.
