The 49ers recovered, however, with Gabbert leading the offense to a touchdown. The team, however – at least, the starters – played much better than the final score indicates.
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Gabbert hit tight end Vance McDonald on a crossing route in the first quarter after Houston Texans linebacker Brandon McKinney fell to the ground. Since then, he has played for the: Browns, Lions, Bills, Texans, Browns (again), Eagles, and now 49ers.
But Kaepernick was held out of practices Thursday and Friday.
Gabbert threw two incompletions to start the game.
After the 49ers’ first-team offense was on the field for three possessions, quarterback Thad Lewis took over with the second team. Kaepernick lost the starting job midway through last season. Also, Osweiler chose to throw a short three yard pass on a third down play needed to get nine yards. Driskel, the fastest quarterback at the combine, showed his running ability to 61 yards on five rushing attempts.
Chris Davis: With Jimmie Ward moved to cornerback, Davis has lined up through camp at nickel back, and he justified coaches’ faith in him after one game. Can they come back in the completely pointless game against the Santa Clara 49ers?
Davis stopped Braxton Miller for 4 yards after the completion on a third-and-9 play to force a punt.
The Bad: New starting quarterback Brock Osweiler was not effective. First-round pick Will Fuller had just one catch for 4 yards. He watched practice Sunday.
Armstead missed four practices last week due to a left shoulder injury. Smelter battled a hamstring issue in the offseason.
As it has from the start of this camp. or, really, from the spring, when it was clear that both 49ers management and Kaepernick preferred for him to play in Denver, except no deal could be hammered out. The 49ers have yet to replace him on the 90-man roster.
Texans: DL Christian Covington made a good showing as he got a look with the starters with Watt sidelined.
The Texans struck first on a defensive touchdown.
The 49ers had 302 yards in the first half, and 107 in the second half.
-Dawson made field goals of 25 and 50 yards. Acker missed a tackle at the 5-yard line on another Texans’ touchdown reception with 9:22 remaining.
49ers: RT Anthony Davis, who sat out previous year in temporary retirement, played with the second string behind Trent Brown in his first game in more than 19 months and was beaten by Eric Lee for a sack late in the first half. Ahmad Brooks had a sack, an encouraging sign from the 11th-year veteran.
Texans: Miller, a third-round pick, had four catches for 34 yards, including an acrobatic 24-yard gain in the third quarter from Savage.
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Savage threw scoring passes to Stephen Anderson and Akeem Hunt as Houston scored 17 unanswered points to overcome a 13-7 halftime deficit. Those teams will play Saturday night.
