C.J. Beathard was the 49ers' crash-test dummy and Jimmy Garoppolo might as well have been sealed up in quadruple-layer bubble wrap on Sunday, which made everybody else on the team feel sort of apologetic.
Or very apologetic.
“I'm proud of how he's handled himself,” guard Brandon Fusco said of Beathard, who took 16 hits from the Arizona Cardinals defense and was sacked five times. “As an O-line, we haven't done our job well enough.”
It was not pretty to watch as the rookie from Iowa took hit after hit, weaved around as nimbly as possible, crash after crash after crash.