C.J. Beathard is one tough SOB

If nothing else, San Francisco 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard is earning the respect of his teammates by being one of the toughest players on the team. You could either say that he’s extremely lucky to have avoided a major injury at this point, or that he is very unlucky to still be taking blow after blow in every game.

The Arizona Cardinals defense got to Beathard five times for a sack and put a hit him an additional 11 times. While he was slow to get up a few times, it was remarkable that he got up at all after taking the beating he did. Even Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians recognized the toughness of the rookie QB. When asked if he was pleased about the pressure his defense was able to get on him:

I thought we should have had more. That was a beat up offensive line and God bless Beathard, he’s tough. He’s tough as nails and stood in there and threw the ball, because we hit him a bunch.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan also spoke on the toughness of his QB:

He’s shown it to me every time he’s played. He showed it in college a lot. It was one of the things that I liked about him the most. He showed a ton of it last week and it didn’t get any easier this week.

That’s what’s so impressive to me about him. I think those hits affect almost everybody. I haven’t seen them affect him.

Beathard spoke after the game about how he gets through the games:

In the middle of a game your adrenaline is kind of going. So, it’s not until tonight, tomorrow, I really feel those hits. Physically, sometimes some are worse than others. Sometimes they hurt. Sometimes they don’t.

That’s one thing. I’m not afraid of getting hit. So, that won’t affect me. It never has. I’m tough and I’ve been able to take things. Obviously if I’m injured then I won’t force myself in there but as of now I haven’t been injured.

Brandon Fusco on Beathard’s toughness:

I’m proud of him, how he has handled himself. As an O-line we haven’t done our job well enough. That starts with me, that starts with anyone. We have to be better. We have to watch the film and get better from this. We have a good team in front of us in the Giants. We have a big challenge ahead of us.

More proof of the team’s respect of Beathard and his toughness was the scuffle that resulted in Carlos Hyde and two Cardinals players, Frostee Rucker and Haason Reddick, being ejected from the game. Beathard took a borderline late hit to the head area from Antoine Bethea and the team had had enough.

Beathard mentioned that he was very appreciative to find out that Hyde and the rest of his teammates had his back. It turns out that that hit wasn’t as painful as when his thumb hit someone’s helmet. That and when his neck got twisted around during a false start, were the ones that hurt the most. Regardless, you can bet that the rookie will be spending some time in an ice bath tomorrow.