49ers mailbag: Will Trey Lance score first touchdown, run for 100 yards?

SANTA CLARA – An offseason’s worth of anticipation finally yields to actual game-week excitement, and a plethora of mailbag questions from 49ers’ fans via my Instagram and Twitter rosters:

Who scores the first touchdown of the season for the 49ers? (@joey_pbc)

Trey Lance, one way or another. Either he runs it in off a zone-read keeper, or he throws for the first score. He did the latter a year ago, with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Trent Sherfield in the 49ers’ 41-33 win at Detroit; it was Lance’s only pass in a four-snap cameo.

Will Lance run for 100 yards against the Bears? (@angeeelxz)

Jimmy Garoppolo ran for 182 yards in 46 games – combined. Only five times have a 49ers’ quarterback breached the 100-yard mark in a single game (Colin Kaepernick four times, including twice in the playoffs; Steve Young once). But Lance’s rushing potential makes this a legitimate question. I just doubt they need to rely so much on him or unveil so much of that rushing-game aspect to beat the Bears.

Have they announced who’s starting at defensive end opposite of Bosa? Ebukam? Jackson? (@teezo_east99)

That official announcement should come at 10:02 a.m., assuming the 49ers win the coin toss, kick off to the Bears, then unleash Bosa and … I’ll expect Samson Ebukam, though Drake Jackson might get on the field first if he’s on that kickoff coverage. Regardless, the 49ers have a rotation that will come strong after Justin Fields.

Is our secondary going to be able to stop big plays this year? (@bwaters88)

Penalties – and safety Jimmie Ward’s hamstring — could dictate that. Although the 49ers allowed the sixth-fewest passing yards last season (206.5 per game), they allowed a league-high 367 yards on pass-interference penalties. They drew 23 such calls, and nine went for at least 20 yards. In new cornerback Charvarius Ward’s four years with the Chiefs, he had just eight DPI penalties – but 15 defensive holding calls, which are 5-yard infractions.

How many interceptions will the defense get against Da Bears? (@casiano9679)

Training camp and the preseason showed the 49ers much more proficient foragers. Justin Fields is coming off a rookie season with 10 interceptions (and seven touchdowns). His final pass in a Dec. 31 loss to the 49ers: a 60-yard bomb, intercepted by Josh Norman.

Do we see Jimmy take the field in a homecoming appearance? He is from Illinois. (@_andrewo.o)

Yes, yes, we know he’s from Illinois, about 20 miles away in Arlington Heights. That homecoming aspect played out in victorious fashion in his 49ers starting debut in December 2017, and again in his return visit last Halloween. The homecoming king only comes out Sunday for warmups – and as a potential injury replacement. There is no set of “Jimmy G” secret plays, although he and Lance still were wearing play-call wristbands in practice on Monday.