49ers’ plan to fix dropped passes: ‘Get your mind right’ and get back to basics
There’s a long list of reasons the 49ers lost their first game of the season last week to the Seattle Seahawks.
They missed a game-winning field goal in overtime. The offense had three turnovers leading to all three of Seattle’s touchdowns. Star tight end George Kittle didn’t play and top receiver Emmanuel Sanders left early in the second quarter. The running game was the least effective it’s been all year.
But perhaps the most damning issue for San Francisco was the inability to catch passes.
Coach Kyle Shanahan said during a radio hit on KNBR Friday the 49ers left 108 yards on the field due to drops, according to the team’s analytics department.
One was a pass to Kendrick Bourne that clanked off his hands and went right to Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs, which led to a Seattle touchdown. Another drop, also from Bourne, cost his team a first-and-goal situation midway through the fourth quarter and spurred a field goal attempt, perhaps taking four points off the board.
Deebo Samuel, who had the best game of his rookie season with eight catches for 112 yards, was guilty on the first play of the fourth quarter that might have gone for a touchdown.
Shanahan coaches the receivers closely and scouts the position heavily before free agency and draft. He had a clear message about mental toughness this week ahead of Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“It’s just to get your mind right,” he said. “I try to tell them to go through that again. Don’t sit there and just picture everything is going to go perfect this week. Picture yourself having another drop again, know how bad that feels and then think of how you’re going to react to that because if you go out there being, ‘Man I’ve got to be perfect this week and I have another drop,’ you’re going to go into a shell the rest of the game and we’re going to need you. You’ve got to be able to go out there and play your game.”
49ers receivers have been a weakness
The receiver position has been San Francisco’s Achilles heel throughout the year. Dante Pettis has gone through well-documented struggles since training camp and put himself under the microscope again with a zero-catch performance Monday that included a drop on the final possession.
Pettis’ inconsistencies were a reason the team went after Sanders before last month’s trade deadline. Sanders is questionable to play Sunday after missing practice due to his knee rib injury. But he said he improved throughout the week and is aiming to play despite missing practice.
For Pettis, however, San Francisco will need him to be more consistent as the schedule stiffens with the playoffs likely looming in January. The 49ers have three straight games against first-place teams following Sunday’s game. And Pettis could be crucial in high-stakes situations as teams focus on slowing Sanders and Kittle.
Pettis explained what it’s like to process drops during the week of preparation for the next game.
“You go back, you watch the film, you see what you did wrong, whether it’s taking your eyes off of it, or just being lazy, trying to get up field too quick or something like that. And you just get back to work the next week,” he said. “You just get on the JUGS (machine), try to catch as many passes as you can. If it’s a focus issue, during the week you just work on looking the ball all the way instead of looking up field early.”
Receivers are rarely perfect
Receivers will point out that they are rarely perfect. Some of the best in the NFL are among the top offenders when it comes to dropped passes.
This season, reigning Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman has seven drops, the second most in the league. Odell Beckham Jr. has six. Alshon Jeffery and Mike Evans have five. DeAndre Hopkins and Michael Thomas have four. Julio Jones had the third most last season with eight.
In 2018, Hopkins and Tyler Lockett were the only receivers with more than 50 targets who didn’t record a drop.
“People do have drops,” Shanahan said. “We have good receivers who don’t drop it a ton. In terms of drops, they had a bad game last week and you’ve got to go out there and not think about that. Every game is a new week. ... You can’t worry about that stuff. Our guys have good hands, you can’t let one drop lead to another. You’ve got to go out there and be mentally very strong with it.”
Sanders is far and away the most established receiver on the 49ers roster and has carved out a long career for himself thanks to his strong hands. He hasn’t dropped a pass this season.
And despite being new the team, he didn’t hesitate to offer advice about how to handle the drops to his fellow wideouts.
“Back to the basics,” he said. “Looking the ball in. Just the little stuff. Sometimes we get so caught up in catching the ball that we forget. You try to create muscle memory with catching the football. So you just got to get back to the basics of how to catch. Looking the ball (in) until the tuck. Looking at the ball the entire time until it hits your hands.”
Sanders also made it clear he isn’t expecting a repeat performance.
“When it rains it pours,” he said. “(But) I’ve never seen it happen consecutive weeks. Guys usually lock in way more. So hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”
