Rough start: Early drop of deep pass proves to be omen
Thirty minutes after Sunday’s season opener, 49ers wide receiver Marquise Goodwin sat in a chair facing his locker with his hands on the side of his bowed head.
At one point, quarterback Brian Hoyer, who has an adjoining locker, checked on his disconsolate friend: “You OK?” asked Hoyer, who put his hands on Goodwin’s shoulders as he softly offered an inaudible reply.
It was a nice moment between teammates that was inspired by one of the many bad moments the 49ers had just endured.
Yes, the Kyle Shanahan era opened with compelling evidence that two-win teams aren’t rebuilt overnight: The 49ers, a year removed from losing to Carolina by 19 points on the road in a Week 2 outing, were steamrolled 23-3 by the Panthers at not-sold-out Levi’s Stadium to begin the 2017 season.
A bright side? Well, the one-and-done tenures of former 49ers head coaches Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly began with false-hope, season-opening wins.
There are modest expectations for Shanahan and general manager John Lynch after inheriting a mess, but the debut made it clear Shanahan’s offensive acumen hasn’t immediately translated.
The 49ers had 13 first downs, their second-fewest yards (217) in their past 25 games, were shut out in the first half for the first time since Dec. 20, 2015, and went 3-for-15 on third- and fourthdown conversions.
The 49ers had three falsestart penalties and had infractions for illegal formation and delay of game. A play that symbolized the out-of-sync attack: Late in the fourth quarter, on 2nd-and-goal from Carolina’s 3, Hoyer turned the wrong way on a would-be handoff to Carlos Hyde and was dropped for a 5-yard loss.
Offered center Daniel Kilgore: “I think the offense as a whole needs to execute.”
The tone for the two-turnover, four-sack, 10-penalty disaster was set on what began as a promising first drive that started with two first downs.
On 3rd-and-2 from Carolina’s 46-yard line, Hoyer floated a perfectly placed deep pass that slipped through Goodwin’s hands inside the 10-yard line as he was covered by cornerback James Bradberry.
Instead of opening with a score, the 49ers punted — and they didn’t get on the scoreboard until Robbie Gould’s field goal with eight seconds left in the third quarter closed the gap to 23-3.
“There are no excuses on that,” Goodwin said. “It’s wide and clear. Everyone saw what happened. It went right through my hands … You hear the crowd like, ‘Ahhh.’ The energy leaves for a little bit. And that’s not what you want in a football game, especially with a new team.”
It wasn’t just Goodwin who didn’t help out Hoyer. The QB was hammered also because of a leaky offensive line that surrendered eight quarterback hits in addition to four sacks.
The first of Hoyer’s two turnovers came in the first quarter when he lost a fumble after he was drilled in the back by defensive end Wes Horton, who slipped past left guard Zane Beadles.
“Brian got hit too many times,” Kilgore said. “I think anybody standing back there would be uncomfortable. He just got touched too many times.”
Still, Hoyer (24-for-35, 193 yards, interception) also missed open receivers, and he failed to see All-Pro inside linebacker Luke Kuechly on the second play of the third quarter to snap his streak of passes without an interception at 224. Kuechly stepped in front of tight end George Kittle and his pick set up a 28-yard touchdown drive that extinguished hope.
After the Panthers took a 20-0 lead on Cam Newton’s 9-yard pass to running back Jonathan Stewart, fans gradually began to file out of Levi’s, which wasn’t close to full at kickoff.
They can be forgiven if they didn’t want to see a scene like this again: The 49ers set a franchise record with their eighth straight home loss, breaking a mark that was established in 1963.
“I don’t think we gave them much to cheer for in the second half, so definitely can’t blame them for that,” Shanahan said. “Definitely want them to stick with us … They haven’t had a lot to cheer about recently, but I can promise them that we’re doing everything we can and working as hard as we can to change that. We’re going to do it as soon as we possibly can.”
For his part, Goodwin, whose head was bowed at his locker for several minutes, had brightened by the end of his meeting with reporters.
Maybe the speedster wasn’t quite OK, but he insisted he would be eventually.
“I know we’ll have many more opportunities because I’m fast as hell.,” Goodwin said, “and I’m going to keep running fast as hell.”