San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan felt C.J. Beathard had a pretty good week of practice as the second-year quarterback takes over for Jimmy Garoppolo. Beathard now has a year of experience under his belt and, as the starter, received most of the reps this week.
Did Shanahan notice that his young quarterback is more comfortable in Year 2?
"We've seen it since OTAs just going against our defense every day," Shanahan told reporters during a brief press conference on Friday. "I think he's got a real good feel for that, a real good feel for our offense. He stepped in this week and had a hell of a week of practice."
What made it a "hell of a week" of practice?
"Just going to the right people, staying in a good rhythm," Shanahan responded. "You know, going through his progressions, making the right reads. You can always see after a play, based on the play calling, the coverages that you're going against, where the ball should go and how many times they get it there. He's been very consistent with that."
The 49ers will be on the road this weekend, but it may not necessarily be a hostile environment. The Southern California media has joked that the Los Angeles Chargers are at a significant disadvantage this season because they are being forced to play 16 road games.
In reality, the Chargers, like all NFL teams, have only eight regular-season road games scheduled. Of course, the StubHub Center in Carson, which is where they play their home games, typically has an overwhelming number of fans of the visiting team. It has created an uncomfortable situation for the home-team Chargers and been a bit of an advantage for opponents.
The StubHub Center is also small by NFL standards. It is a soccer stadium and only seats about 27,000. By comparison, you can squeeze almost 69,000 into Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Because it is a smaller stadium, noise can still be an issue if the Chargers fans do manage to outnumber the 49ers fans. What does Shanahan expect on Sunday?
"Actually, I'm very curious about it," Shanahan said. "I don't think I've played in a situation like this. Hopefully, it won't be as loud as it was last week (at Arrowhead Stadium) in Kansas City. If it is, we'll have to deal with it."
