Hits keep stacking up for Beathard

SANTA CLARA - It’s what’s good about C.J. Beathard, and what makes the 49ers worry about him.

He’s fearless. He’s tough. He takes hit after hit and keeps getting up, because he’s willing to suffer to win. The 49ers backup quarterback almost willed them to a victory last Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Almost. But, the 49ers lost 29-27.

Beathard almost got crushed, too. He took eight hits in the pocket, plus lots of hits while scrambling downfield. He may not last the rest of the season if he continues to take so much punishment.

“He did get hit a lot in the game,” head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted Monday. “There are times when he can avoid it. There are times (he) can’t. You try to talk to him, get him to understand.”

The hardest hit he took came early in the fourth quarter. The 49ers were trailing 26-24. It was third-and-5. Beathard dropped back, avoided three pass rushers in the pocket, broke a tackle, sprinted upfield and got tripped from behind. As he fell forward, Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward dove shoulder-first into Beathard’s chest and knocked the wind out of him. Beathard landed on his back a foot short of the first down.

Beathard didn’t get up. The trainers rushed over to check on him. Backup quarterback Nick Mullens started warming up on the sideline. It looked like Beathard had to leave the game, but he recovered.

“C.J. is not trying to get hit,” Shanahan said. “He’s trying to play the way he always has played, and he’s trying as hard as he can to win.”

Beathard played well enough to win against the Chargers. It was his first start of the season since replacing Jimmy Garoppolo, who’s on IR with a torn left ACL. And Beathard completed 62 percent of his pass attempts, threw for 298 yards, and tossed two touchdown passes and two interceptions.

The second touchdown pass was an 82-yard completion to tight end George Kittle. It was the 49ers’ longest touchdown of the season. And it required a fearless quarterback, and an accurate quarterback.

The play was called “H-3 2Y-Nod X-Go,” according to Shanahan. “Bill Walsh probably would have called it Hound 2,” Shanahan said. “But, I don’t think he did that play. I don’t know.”

The Chargers were playing zone coverage. Kittle ran a stick-nod route, meaning he ran 10 yards upfield, cut right toward the sideline, then quickly cut back upfield. The Chargers lost him. He was wide open when he caught the ball.

But he caught it because Beathard hung in the pocket, fooled the free safety by pretending not to throw to Kittle, and delivered the pass while taking a hit from nose tackle Brandon Mebane.

“It’s up to C.J. to look off the (free safety) and get him to defend the (wide receiver) on the left side,” Shanahan said. “And, the offensive line gave Beathard enough time to move his eyes from the right to the left and come back to the right, so he moved the coverage well, which got Kittle open.”

Beathard didn’t panic while looking downfield. His courage made the play.

But, his courage also got him in trouble with 2:38 left in the fourth quarter. The 49ers were trailing by two points. It was second-and-six, and the Chargers blitzed more defenders than the 49ers could block. Beathard didn’t react to the pressure he was facing. He heroically held the ball, but got hit from behind. Heroism isn’t always prudent. The ball popped into the air, Chargers defensive lineman Isaac Rochell intercepted it and the 49ers lost.

“That’s C.J’s (fault),” Shanahan said. “Anytime you get a blitz when you have five guys in protection, you throw hot. There’s a running back uncovered to the left.”

Beathard should have thrown to the running back in the flat. Beathard should have protected himself and the ball. This was only his sixth start and he’s still learning.

“C.J. is very important to us,” Shanahan said. “We want him to stay healthy. We’re going to do everything we can to coach him to do that.”

Shanahan can protect Beathard by running the ball more often. Take it out of Beathard’s hands. Coming into last Sunday’s game, the 49ers had the league’s second-best rushing attack. It averaged 5.2 yards per carry. But against the Chargers, running backs Matt Breida and Alfred Morris carried the ball just 13 times combined, while Beathard threw a whopping 37 passes, an enormous amount for a backup making his first start of the season.

“It was extremely hard to run the ball the way the Chargers were playing,” Shanahan said. “(They had) an eight-man front every single play. And they were running pressures to stop the run, not the pass. I felt good with what we did. Just didn’t get it done.”

In other words, the Chargers wanted Beathard to pass. Wanted him to hold the ball too long. Expected him to hold the ball too long. And he did.

“C.J. is going to work at it,” Shanahan said. “There are times he has to give up on the play, and he knows that. I know that. I hope he can get better at it. I hope we can help him.”