It's fair to say that Kyle Shanahan has dissected the San Francisco 49ers Week 1 loss to the Carolina Panthers from every possible angle. Shanahan told reporters on Monday that he reviewed the game at home by himself on Sunday night. He then watched the film three more times on Monday when he got back into the office – once by himself, once with the offensive staff and once with the defensive staff.
Here are the head coach's top takeaways from the 23-3 defeat.
1. High-ankle sprain for Foster
Reuben Foster may be sidelined a month with a high-ankle sprain. All things considered, the 49ers dodged a major bullet. When the cart came out for the rookie linebacker on Sunday, it was easy to fear that the injury was far worse.
Shanahan explained that there's no official timetable for Foster's return.
"(I didn't get) an exact date because we don't know exactly with Reuben," the coach said. "We are going to put him in a boot here for a little bit. Those tend to be a month, a little more, but I can't put exactly a date on it. That's my experience with high ankle sprains."
The 49ers didn't sustain any further significant injuries during Sunday's game.
2. Overall Week 1 impressions
Sunday wasn't the start that anyone on the 49ers envisioned to begin the 2017 season. San Francisco allowed four sacks, was penalized 10 times, went 2-of-11 on third down, 1-of-4 on fourth down and mustered just 217 yards of offense.
"There are a lot of clips there you could see where we had opportunities that we missed on, especially early," Shanahan said. "When you have those opportunities and you take them and you just come up a little bit short, when you're going against a good team like that, especially the defense that they have, the way they can control the ball, it's tough to overcome.
"But, I think our guys watching the tape today, by no means do they just look at it and feel that they didn't have a chance. I think we're all disappointed because there was a number of times that we could have had a chance to be in that game and we just came up short."
3. A gambling man
Shanahan rolled the dice on fourth down near midfield on two occasions. He said he regretted the first, going for it on 4th-and-3 when Hoyer got sacked.
"I thought we were moving the ball pretty well and came up short there on third down, and I just, I believed we were going to get it. I had a lot confidence that we would and it just didn't work out. But, definitely looking back on that, I wish I did punt because I think it would have made it a lot harder for them to go 90 yards."
4. Changes coming to the o-line?
After eight quarterback hits against the Panthers, the 49ers could look to make changes along the offensive line. Laken Tomlinson is the top candidate to enter the starting lineup. The 49ers traded for Tomlinson prior to the preseason finale to shore up the interior o-line.
Now it's about getting him comfortable in Shanahan's scheme.
"Yeah, I think the second week in the system, he should be more ready," Shanahan said. "He's a smart guy. We've worked with him hard in the meeting rooms and stuff. But, any time you ask a guy to do something that he's never done in college or in the NFL, it's a little tough with few reps. He'll have more reps this week now being two weeks in a row of him getting those reps. Usually the more reps a guy gets, the better chance he has."
