C.J. Beathard should probably put a bottle of ibuprofen on his bedside table Sunday night.
He's gonna need it in the morning.
The 49ers' rookie quarterback was pushed, thrown and slammed to the ground for most of Sunday afternoon as the Eagles' defensive line helped the Birds bully their way to a 33-10 win at the Linc (see breakdown).
The Eagles finished with four sacks and 12 quarterback hits. They even had more shots on Beathard that didn't end up in the scoresheet.
"Oh man, that was nice," defensive end Brandon Graham said. "We were getting after it today. It was fun. It felt like we were kids out there playing in the rain."
Linebacker Mychal Kendricks had a sack and two quarterback hits, but the defensive line had the other three sacks and 10 quarterback hits.
Three different linemen had a sack. Six different linemen had a QB hit (see Roob's observations).
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"One thing about our D-line, it's like Golden State," Vinny Curry said. "You know what I'm saying? Anybody can get hot at any given time. We just keep chugging no matter who it is. We just play our game."
Beathard did finish the game with six rushing attempts for 40 yards. Although, it might be more accurate to say he ran for his life six times and avoided a game-ending blow for 40 yards.
Give the rookie QB credit, though, he kept bouncing back up.
"Yeah, I mean, I feel all right," Beathard said. "I'm sure tomorrow I'll be sore."
The Eagles' defensive line is supposed to be the strength of the defense and it certainly looked like it Sunday in the rain. Even without middle linebacker Jordan Hicks, the Eagles didn't seem to miss a beat.
They can thank the guys up front for that.
"That makes my job a lot easier," said Joe Walker, who started in place of Hicks. "This defensive line is special."
What makes the D-line more impressive is that it's coming from everywhere. On the season, Graham leads the unit with 4 sacks, Fletcher Cox is second with 3.5, Derek Barnett has 2.5, Chris Long has 2, Vinny Curry has 2, Tim Jernigan has 1.5 and Beau Allen has 1.
Barnett said it's been fun during practice because of how competitive the D-line group is. Every player is trying to outdo the others and the second unit wants to prove there's not a drop-off when they're in the game.
"When everybody is getting sacks, everybody is happy," Cox said. "We always talk about your moment. When your moment comes, you have to capitalize on it and get the guy on the ground. I think as a group today, we did a really good job."
Sure, the 49ers were dealing with a banged up offensive line, down to their third option at right tackle, and then they lost veteran left tackle Joe Staley during the afternoon. But it was still up to the Eagles to beat their backups, and they absolutely did.
The Eagles were close to having two more sacks. Graham lost one because of a questionable roughing the passer call; he just hopes he doesn't get fined. And Long lost one because before he threw Beathard to the ground, the 49ers apparently called a timeout before the play.
Long said he never lost a sack to a timeout before.
"But it's all good," he said. "Listen, at the end of the day sacks are just a stat. I'd love to have it but it's not the end of the world. We just won [33-10], so it's a lot of fun for me."
Aside from just hitting the quarterback, the Eagles also stuffed the run. They gave up just 94 rushing yards and 40 of them came from the QB. Carlos Hyde had just 25 yards on 12 carries.
The Eagles' offense wasn't great Sunday and Carson Wentz didn't have his best performance, but the Eagles' front four was able to bail them out as they continuously dropped Beathard to the ground (see story).
"We're doing something special," Curry said. "We just have to keep building."