49ers crush Seahawks, lose Trey Lance: Good, bad, and ugly from dominant Week 2 win

The San Francisco 49ers improved to 1-1 with a 27-7 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2 but lost Trey Lance for the season.

San Francisco features All-Pro-caliber players at all three levels of its defense. The defensive line is perhaps the most talented and deepest unit in all of football. Fred Warner leads a linebacking corps that arguably is the best in the league. When Jimmie Ward comes back, the 49ers will have five legit studs in the secondary.

Here's how utterly dominant this defense has been through two weeks: Take away the 71 yards on the two busted-coverage passing touchdowns in Chicago, and the 49ers are allowing an insane 3.81 yards per play (385 yards on 101 plays).

Granted, this has all come at the expense of the Chicago Bears and Seahawks -- teams nobody expects to dominate offensively in 2022. That being said, there is no doubt that this defense has a championship feel once again.

The Bad: Major setback for the development of Trey Lance

This one is rough. Trey Lance, for all his talent, smarts, natural leadership, and maturity, is still one of the biggest mysteries in the entire league. The 49ers were banking on him to develop throughout this season so that, by the time the playoffs arrived, he'd have just enough seasoning and experience under his belt to handle that gauntlet.

Instead, the 22-year-old quarterback is once again back on the shelf after suffering a season-ending ankle injury on a running play that looked doomed from the start.

WARNING: Video not for the feint of heart

The worst part about the injury to Lance is that he needs as many reps as possible to develop into an NFL-caliber quarterback. By the time he starts again next season, he'll have started just six games since 2019. That's a heck of a lot of nothing for the better part of four years.

At this point, nobody really knows whether Lance can live up to his potential. We've all seen the sparkling examples of it, but in the NFL consistency is king. It's just awful for him, and the 49ers, that we'll all have to wait another year to see if he can do it.

The Ugly: Trey Lance injury brings out the worst in fans and media

Predictably, anger and sadness has permeated the team's fan base in the wake of Lance's season-ending injury. If you've spent any amount of time on Twitter since the moment he was hurt, you know people are jumping to all sorts of conclusions.

People are legitimately calling for Kyle Shanahan to be fired.

Yeah, it's bad

Some in the media are all too happy to fan the flames of rage by taking vicious potshots at Kyle Shanahan and Garoppolo, who has struggled in the past when it mattered most in the postseason. Others are practically giddy that Lance won't be under center.

This is not the kind of behavior that helps anyone.

It's understandable that fans are going to be upset. Hell, I'M upset. Totally gutted for Lance. And I'm utterly disappointed that I have to wait at least one more year to see what he's capable of accomplishing at this level.

But this is football we're talking about here, folks. Lance could have suffered a season-ending injury on a sack. He could have torn his ACL on a non-contact play. A thousand things could have happened to ultimately lead to this same result.

Does Shanahan deserve criticism for the way he utilized Lance? That's a fair question.

Readers of this site know I wanted to see Lance open up the game by controlling the ball through the air. So, I was disappointed that he only threw the ball three times in the two drives before his injury.

However, I personally think it's counterproductive to go blame-hunting. And while it's awesome that the 49ers have a fan base that is so passionate about their team, it was not pretty to see all the fighting online. Especially when we're really talking about a young kid whose career was just set back in a major way.

Let's get back to what really matters. These are people. They are all doing everything in their power to win games. It's a brutal sport, and players suffer season-ending injuries every single week in this league.

Block out the media folks who want to make a buck off your anger. What I want to see is this: Let's all look ahead to Week 3, get behind Jimmy G, and root for our team without throwing stones.