San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard had a passer rating of just 46.9 against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. The 33-10 defeat dropped the winless 49ers to 0-8, which is the worst start to a season in franchise history. The game was just Beathard's second NFL start and his first on the road. Although, he did play for the better part of three quarters during a Week 6 road loss to the Washington Redskins.
Beathard replaced then-starting quarterback Brian Hoyer against Washington and was declared the starter going forward. Entering Sunday's game, Beathard's passer rating for the season was near identical to Hoyer's (74.2 for Beathard compared to 74.1 for Hoyer). Beathard's performance in Philadelphia dropped his passer rating to 65.2 for the season.
After the game, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked if he considered replacing his rookie quarterback with Hoyer, who is in his ninth NFL season.
"No. C.J. was battling," Shanahan said. "He was in some real tough situations. By no means did he do perfect and there were some plays he missed but that was a tough game to put him in, some tough situations to put him in, and he never shied away from anything. He played extremely tough. We've just got to work on getting better, him and everyone around him included."
What was one of the tough situations that Shanahan was referring to? For one, injuries plagued the offensive line, which was already without starting right tackle Trent Brown. Brown suffered a concussion last week against the Dallas Cowboys and was unavailable against the Eagles.
Brown's replacement, Garry Gilliam, left the game with a knee injury. The 49ers' other starting tackle, veteran Joe Staley, suffered a gash under his right eye, which required stitches. He will receive additional tests to check for a possible broken orbital.
"That's one of the better pass rushing teams in the league," Shanahan explained. "We went down missing a couple of guys and then lost them pretty early. It's a huge challenge when you've got guards playing tackle. But then, at times we did block them. In the first half, I thought we had a couple of chances to get a third down. We had two drops on third down.
"We did protect and when we didn't protect, they made sacks and made some plays. That's the challenge of going against a defense like that and we found that out today."
Shanahan went on to say that he was still pleased with how his rookie quarterback handled himself in his first NFL road start.
"I didn't think [Beathard] had many opportunities to play very good today," Shanahan said. "That's kind of what I'm saying. He was put in some tough situations. I try to evaluate how he handles it, the type of guy he is. Does he seem like there's any quit in him? And I was very pleased with his demeanor. He got banged up a lot today but he kept going back out there, stayed aggressive, played to the best of his ability."
