The San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance’s second preseason game was very similar to his first, in reverse.
Lance quickly started last week’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs, getting an 80-yard touchdown pass to receiver Trent Sherfield on his second pass attempt before completing just one of his last seven attempts. But on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium, Lance took longer to find a pace.
After his first three series, Lance’s pin rating was 0.0 as he passed 1 of 5 for 9 yards with an interception thrown too hard and a little too high for the car Mohamed Sanu. He also grabbed a sack, as those records ended with a point, an interception, and another point.
From there, Lance rolled it, caused by another deep connection to Sherfield, this time for 41 yards. Lance completed seven of her next eight 93-yard attempts and two touchdowns in her last three sets before qualifying her tonight in a 15-10 victory.
Lance, whose first unit came behind the initial offensive line (without left-back Trent Williams and center-back Alex Mack), settled into his fourth inning, with 57 seconds left. San Francisco. with 12 seconds left for the first half and launched an attack on extension Travis Benjamin to get a 16-yard score in his sixth and final drive.
Lance finished 8 of 14 for 102 yards and two touchdowns with an interception for a score of 89.9. He was fired twice for his 30 shots before giving way to third-string quarterback Nate Sudfeld.
Before the game, Niners general manager John Lynch told television that the quarterback’s initial plan was for Jimmy Garoppolo to play a series, for Lance to play two series, and then re-insert Garoppolo into the game.
But Garoppolo’s first series was long enough for coach Kyle Shanahan to choose to end the night after his third pass down the Chargers came out a little high and out of the hands of receiver Brandon Aiyuk for an interception in the Chargers corner, Asante Samuel Jr.
Garoppolo finished 3 of 6 for 15 yards with the interception for a score of 16.7.
For the second week in a row, the 49ers kept most of their key players in their efforts to be ready for the start of the regular season. In addition to Williams and Mack, tight end George Kittle, defender Fred Warner, cornerback Jason Verrett, runner Raheem Mostert, finished with Nick Bosa and Dee Ford and safety Jimmie Ward did not play.