The 49ers can’t catch a break. With left tackle Joe Staley and wide receiver Dante Pettis already questionable to return with knee injuries, right tackle Mike McGlinchey and wide receiver Marquise Goodwin both went down on the 49ers final drive of the first half. McGlinchey is nursing an ankle sprain. Goodwin’s injury is unknown. Erik Magnuson will likely be next in line at tackle if McGlinchey is unable to go. Injuries to both tackles and the 49ers’ top wide receiver are the last thing CJ Beathard needed in his first start taking over for Jimmy Garoppolo. San Francisco’s offense stagnated badly after Staley went down. Losing McGlinchey won’t make things easier on the offensive front. The 49ers are down to Kendrick Bourne, Trent Taylor and Pierre Garcçon at wide receiver. The 49ers and Chargers are tied at 17 at the half. We’ll provide updates when they’re available. UPDATE McGlinchey is questionable to return with a knee injury. #49ers RT Mike McGlinchey also has a knee injury. His return is questionable. — Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) September 30, 2018<doc-sep>After tearing his ACL against the Kansas City Chiefs on September 23, it sounds like quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has moved on to surgery, according to his teammate C.J. Beathard. Garoppolo didn't undergo surgery immediately after the injury due to doctors needing to wait until his swelling dissipated. During an appearance on KNBR radio's Murph and Mac Podcast Wednesday morning, Beathard said Garoppolo has now left the team for surgery after hanging around the past several days. "He’s been in our meeting rooms all last week," Beathard said. "He actually left for surgery yesterday, so I think he’ll be out for the next couple weeks. I think he has to stay wherever he’s getting his surgery for a couple weeks, so I won’t see him for a couple weeks. I’m sure we’ll be texting and stuff." There hasn't been any specific word on when the surgery was scheduled take place, assuming it hasn't already happened. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on the day after the injury that it didn't seem like there was any additional damage to the knee besides the torn ACL, although the surgery would determine that for sure (update: Shanahan has since announced the surgery took place Wednesday morning). “None specific that I’ve been told," Shanahan said, per 49ers.com. "But, I know any time, I don’t think you ever know for sure until you open it up. It seems kind of like with all ACLs there’s always some other stuff in there. The message I got today was that it was fairly good news, relatively speaking.” Garoppolo will be out for the remainder of the year and is expected to be back in time for the start of the 2019 season. There's a long rehab in front of him, and it's tough to tell exactly how solidly he'll bounce back. In the meantime, he'll be expected to watch from the sidelines and do what he can to learn from his experience. "You have to adjust to it and you’ve got to make the best out of it," Shanahan said, per 49ers.com. "Jimmy’s got the ability to be very successful in this league. He’s got the mentality to be very successful in this league. He’s not going to get a lot of reps this year now. He’s got a lot leading up to this, and now he doesn’t. So, he gets to sit back and watch. What’s he going to make out of that? You can always make things a positive. It’ll help him to sit and watch more, especially to sit there and watch C.J. go through this. When we get into the offseason, we’ll get an early start with him going through his rehab and everything. I think it’ll make him that much more hungry next year. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he’ll come back and be the exact same guy.” The 49ers now have to hope Beathard can avoid a similar fate. Beathard is one of only two quarterbacks with the team at the moment along with Nick Mullens, so the 49ers obviously want him to try to avoid unnecessary hits in the weeks ahead. They already had one scare when Beathard had the wind knocked out of him after he took off running on a third down play against the Los Angeles Chargers, a decision he says he doesn't second-guess but also knows he needs to be more careful in the future. "If I had that back, I’d do it again," Beathard said on Murph and Mac. "There’s nothing I would change about that, trying to get a first down on third and inches or whatever. But obviously, you’ve got to know when to get down and when not to, and that’s something I’m going to have to be conscious of."<doc-sep>CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device CARSON – Here is how the 49ers (1-3) graded in Sunday’s 29-27 defeat to the host Los Angeles Chargers (2-2) before a sold-out crowd of 25,397 at the StubHub Center: PASS OFFENSE: C- C.J. Beathard’s starting debut went as expected, in that he endured some brutal hits and mixed in some positive plays but not enough to rally the undermanned 49ers. Injuries are ruining this unit’s chances, and Sunday saw knee injuries sustained by offensive tackles Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey, plus wide receiver Dante Pettis. George Kittle’s 82-yard touchdown catch keyed comeback dreams and led to his career-high 125 receiving yards. Beathard finished with 298 yards, two touchdowns and two crushing interceptions, including one that bounced off Garrett Celek’s hands and one that ended their comeback. RUN OFFENSE: D The league’s second-ranked rushing attack was held to only 3.6 yards per carry with few lanes for Matt Breida (nine carries, 39 yards) and Alfred Morris (four carries, 14 yards). Beathard had the most inspiring runs, albeit dangerous ones that exposed him to injury when they can least afford to have him hurt with Jimmy Garoppolo already done for the year. PASS DEFENSE: D+ Philip Rivers atoned for his horrendous pick-six to Antone Exum on the first series by shredding the defense for three touchdown passes and 250 yards. Coverage breakdowns keyed those touchdown drives, as did poor tackling. Greg Mabin forced a fumble and looked like an upgrade upon replacing Ahkello Witherspoon. D.J. Reed started ahead of Adrian Colbert at free safety, and although we may be reading too much into that switch, Colbert was healthy enough to play special teams. Rivers was sacked once – a weekly reminder of the 49ers’ anemic pass rush. RUN DEFENSE: D Melvin Gordon had 104 yards on only 15 carreis and averaged 6.9 yards by repeatedly running through tacklers, a season-long issue for Robert Saleh’s defense. Fred Warner and Reuben Foster still are getting acclimated to each other and the 49ers should stick with that tandem. Defensive stops in the second half kept this unit from flunking out. SPECIAL TEAMS: C- This was their worst showing in a long time, aside from Robbie Gould staying perfect (2 for 2 on field goals, 3 for 3 on point-after kicks which shouldn’t be ignored after the Chargers missed two PATs). Bradley Pinion (30.6 net average) saved a touchdown with his kick-save tackle on a 56-yard punt return. Pettis was hurt on a punt return that lost 3 yards, and Reed was lucky to have replay nullify his fumbled kickoff return in the fourth quarter. Related Articles Have 49ers been priced out of a possible Julio Jones trade? ESPN report suggests steep cost Inside the 49ers: Kittle’s comeback, Shanahan’s doodling, Warner’s extension, Garoppolo’s radio wars Pioneering coach Katie Sowers finds new spot in NFL after leaving 49ers’ staff Fred Warner ‘obviously wants to be a Niner for life’ as contract talks loom How 49ers’ running back stable is impacted by Jeff Wilson’s knee surgery COACHING: C- Kyle Shanahan’s job keeps getting harder with every devastating injury to a starter. His offensive play calls can still deliver winners, like a red-zone score by Kendrick Bourne or an 82-yard TD by Kittle on a play they’ve long practiced but waited to call until this game. Three straight pass plays backfired in the final minute before halftime, leading to a huge punt return and game-tying field goal. As for Saleh’s defense (and the punt-return defense), yikes. All three losses have come on the road, so the 49ers must rule at Levi’s to survive this injury-plagued season.<doc-sep>The Jimmy Garoppolo knee injury will continue to be talked about until 2019’s training camp rolls around for what could have been. No doubt the injury hurts Garoppolo’s development into a starter role as the team around him continues to fully immerse itself in the system without him. While with the Atlanta Falcons, Kyle Shanahan’s offense took some getting used to. A whole season actually. The first year it was introduced, Matt Ryan threw 16 interceptions to 21 touchdowns. The second year, he was MVP. Which is all the more reason Garoppolo’s injury hurts this development. Many presumed his head start in 2017 meant the growing pains wouldn’t be as severe, but no one will deny Garoppolo needed a full year in this offense. On Matt Maiocco’s 49ers Insider Podcast former 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia was asked about how bad this injury hurt Garoppolo’s development and if he could have the same improvement in 2019 that Ryan had in year two: “I believe that he can, because he’s going to have most of the offseason hopefully next year, 2019 to really get out on the field, to mentally go through reps as well as applying it physically and continue to grow. Last Sunday we saw improvement in his efficiency, eliminating turnovers. He just had the one sack-fumble where it was fortunately recovered by the Niners. Going 20/30, 66 percent completion percentage. In that mid-200 yard range. He had dropped balls that needed to be caught, he needs help from other guys out there, and he had a couple of misses that he knows he could be better on, but I think from what he was seeing from a mental standpoint and his decision making, he was doing a quality job out there. “Continuing to grow, bettering himself, got over the hiccups of the first game and the three turnovers, which aren’t all on him, but it’s a team game and you realize your responsibility. Got through that, didn’t have any turnovers the second week. Didn’t have the interceptions in the third week. I think there was progress that was taking place where he was continuing to better himself. He’ll just have to now look at it from a mental standpoint; how can he better himself each week, how can he apply the gameplan to actually reps, mental reps for himself. And then once he’s ready physically to really get after it again.” Hopefully Garoppolo gets a lot of time to study that playbook and develop as much as he can from the sidelines, because the rest of his team is getting valuable reps. I’ve time stamped the podcast below. You can listen using the widget above or go here. 00:45 - Thoughts the moment Garoppolo injured himself 04:15 - The experience Garoppolo misses out on 06:38 - The injury setting the team back 09:20 - What Garoppolo needs to do to pick up where he left off 11:25 - Can Garoppolo make the same improvement in 2019 that Matt Ryan had without the game experience? 13:50 - The C.J. Beathard show 15: 47 - Similarities between him and Beathard 18:00 - Similarities between pressure he faced coming in for Steve Young with Beathard coming in for Garoppolo 23:31 - Doing pre- and post-game with Dante Whitner<doc-sep>
CARSON, Calif. -- Already without Jimmy Garoppolo for the rest of the season because of a knee injury, the supporting cast for the San Francisco 49ers' new starting quarterback C.J. Beathard suffered multiple injuries in Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers Left tackle Joe Staley and wide receiver Dante Pettis both suffered first-half left knee injuries that kept them out for the rest of Sunday's 29-27 loss to the Chargers.On Sunday night, the 49ers did not believe that either Staley or Pettis suffered a serious injury along the lines of a torn ACL but both were scheduled for further tests on Monday to get a clearer picture of the severity of their ailments.Staley suffered his injury with about nine minutes to go in the second quarter. On the third-down play, Beathard took a big hit that drove him into the back of Staley's leg. Staley stayed down and received medical attention before he was able to walk to the sideline.Just before halftime, Staley made his way to the locker room as veteran tackle Garry Gilliam replaced him on the starting offensive line.That injury came after Pettis sustained an injury while returning a punt just two minutes into the game. Pettis caught a punt at San Francisco's 17, and as he worked back, he was tackled by Chargers linebacker Jatavis Brown . Pettis came down awkwardly on the knee and needed assistance from the Niners' staff to get to the sideline.While Staley and Pettis were the only two injured Niners who did not return to the game, Shanahan offered a lengthy injury report when it was over. Right tackle Mike McGlinchey and center Weston Richburg also suffered knee injuries, though both returned to the game and finished it out.Defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and running back Matt Breida briefly left with shoulder injuries and came back to the game, and receiver Marquise Goodwin had a hamstring injury but also finished the contest.Beathard also had the wind knocked out of him on a hit in the fourth quarter and re-entered after being checked for concussion symptoms. "I thought the guys fought hard," Shanahan said. "Guys were going down... When you lose guys like that, I haven't been around too many (games like that), but I was glad the guys still battled and gave us a chance to win there at the end but just came up short."