Aug. 20 Practice Notes

[Vance McDonald] caught two touchdown passes during 11-on-11 or team drills. He and Kaepernick also connected on a nice timing route in the middle of the field that afterward had Kaepernick getting congratulations on the offensive sideline.

With Aussie media members watching practice, Jarryd Haynealso had a dazzling snag, a leaping catch across the middle of the field on a pass from Dylan Thompson.

Jimmie Ward nearly had a length-of-field interception return but could not quite gather in the pass from Blaine Gabbert that bounced off the hand of running back Mike Davis.

There might be hope yet for the league's 30th-ranked passing attack each of the past two seasons. Thursday's practice brought several well-placed passes and impressive catches in the non-padded session.

Smith made a touchdown grab of a Blaine Gabbert pass in seven-on-seven drills, with tight coverage by Shareece Wright, who wasn't with the first-string unit for a third straight day.

Nick Moody aggressively broke up a Gabbert pass intended for tight end Derek Carrier, who returned to practice after missing Wednesday's session because of an illness.

Vernon Davis: One of those days no one could cover him. Made seven catches during team drills, and scored a touchdown against safety Jimmie Ward during one-on-one drills in the red zone.

Vance McDonald: Seemed open almost every play, and caught the first six passes thrown his way before dropping the seventh.

Colin Kaepernick: Completed 17-of-23 passes during 11 on 11s, and 7-of-8 passes during 7 on 7s. Of his seven incomplete passes, three were dropped. So he really threw only four bad passes all afternoon.

[Vance] McDonald caught a touchdown pass on the first 11-on-11 play in a red zone period. He had receptions on three of the first four pass attempts of the day.

The offense won the day, especially during a fourth-down period in which Kaepernick converted each of his four attempts with passes to Torrey Smith, Carlos Hyde, Anquan Boldin and Hyde, again.

The 49ers' defensive staff will love to see how quick inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman looked while running down Carlos Hyde on a run play from the 6-yard line.