Kyle Shanahan felt Trey Lance did enough to lead the San Francisco 49ers to victory in Week 5 but indicated Jimmy Garoppolo will again be the starting quarterback when healthy.
Lance, the third overall pick in this year's draft, made his first NFL start on Sunday in the Niners' 17-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, with Garoppolo on the shelf due to a calf contusion.
The rookie was unable to mark his first full game with a victory, completing 15 of his 29 passes for 192 yards and one interception, which came on his first drive.
But the dual-threat upside that helped convince the Niners to trade three first-round picks to move up in the draft for Lance was on show as he ran for 89 yards on 16 carries.
Lance would have found the endzone on a key fourth down on Arizona's one-yard line in the second quarter if not for a great stop by Isaiah Simmons.
The Niners went one for five on fourth down with those struggles and poor offensive execution from Lance's surrounding cast dooming a San Francisco team that outgained the unbeaten Cardinals 338 yards to 304.
Garoppolo appears on track to return after the Niners' Week 6 bye, San Francisco set to face the Indianapolis Colts at home in Week 7, with Shanahan suggesting he will get the nod under center if he is healthy.
"No, nothing's changed," head coach Shanahan said of the situation at quarterback. "It's just one game. It's one game. It's a tough loss right there, and I'll talk to our whole team tomorrow and think of how we can get our whole team better coming back off the bye."
On Lance, he added: "I thought he did some really good things. It definitely wasn't perfect, which no one ever has been.
"The first pick I thought just sailed on him. He was going to the right spot but it just got away from him on the first drive.
"I thought overall, I think we could've done better around him. I thought he did good enough to win."
"The defense kept us in it, for sure," Lance said. "I mean, the [Cardinals'] offense is very explosive. They make a lot of big plays, and our defense definitely gave us a shot. So, we've got to capitalise, got to do better, make more plays.
"I'm obviously disappointed. I really wanted to win that game. But we'll keep our heads up, learn from it, learn as much as I can, get as better as I can from it.
"I'm super proud of these guys. Defensively, offensively, we competed. How hard these guys played, they battled through a lot, some tough penalties, things like that, but we're going to learn a lot from it, and we're going to be better for it."