Cowboys vs. 49ers: What’s the Game Plan for San Francisco

5. QUARTERBACK AND RECEIVERS

Once again, Blaine Gabbert gave us much to be disappointed with. He was wildly inaccurate and missed seeing several wide open receivers, or just didn’t really let plays develop. I’ll give the reader one guess where Gabbert went with this pass.

If you guessed Blake Bell, you’d be wrong. Gabbert waited for the crossing route to develop, came off his first read, hitched, looked at Bell, and decided to fit the ball into Torrey Smith.

Per Pro Football Focus’ Jeff Deeney, Gabbert faced little pressure and took no sacks. Yet he still cannot let plays develop and has a release time of around 2.3 seconds from snap to throw.

Without knowing the specific play call, it’s tough to say where Gabbert is supposed to go with the ball here, but we have to assume running back Shaun Draughn is at the end of the quarterback’s progression here because he did not appear to be ready for this pass. Gabbert’s eyes immediately shifted to the running back after seeing the passing routes had not developed.

Lastly, the 49ers are currently 4th in the NFL in dropped passes with 6 and 6.3% drop rate. The 49ers need to catch and secure the ball but this appears to be consistent theme with Chip Kelly-coached teams.

The 49ers have to clean up several of these issues if they’re going to any chance at beating the Cowboys. Otherwise, they’re staring 1-3 in the face.

All images courtesy of NFL.com.

Next: 5 X-Factors in Week 4 for San Francisco

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless otherwise indicated.