The 49ers offensive line faced numerous challenges in Los Angeles, especially in regards to needing to plug replacements in to take the place of those who sustained injuries during the game. Mike McGlinchey, Weston Richburg and Joe Staley all left the game at some point and Garry Gilliam and Erik Magnuson had to step in. Staley was the only one who did not return to the game.
Kyle Shanahan details the injuries:
Losing both of our tackles there for a while was scary. We had to finish the first half without them.[Joe] Staley wasn’t able to return. I was happy [T Mike] McGlinchey toughed it out there. His obviously wasn’t as bad as Staley’s [injury], but I know it was hard for him to go that second half. Real proud of our center. He got hurt on the first play of the game and had to come out. He battled through that entire game and we needed him to because there weren’t many guys left.
After the game McGlinchey spoke about the injury bug:
Injuries are a part of football and bad bounces are a part of football, it’s the way it is. It stinks that it happened to us today in the last couple minutes there, but we’re going to get back to it next week and obviously, hopefully play a little bit better.
What is remarkable about this locker room, as it was last year, is the attitude after a tough loss. Of course there is disappointment, and the desire to play better, but with all of the adversity that this team has faced, there is a notable resiliency and closeness that was not seen in previous regimes.
McGlinchey detailed the locker room and how John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have shaped it:
It’s tough, it’s definitely a challenge, but that’s part of the game. We have the right guys on our team and throughout our positions to make it work and we did for the most part today. Unfortunately, we came up a little short today but we are going to keep fighting thru it and that’s all we can do. It’s all you can do in football and we got the right leaders at the helm with John and Kyle to put the guys in this locker room to be able to make those plays and stop in when they are needed. We just have to execute a little better no matter who is in the game down the stretch.
One of the toughest guys on the roster is C.J. Beathard who McGlinchey is more than pleased to block for. He was hit eight times and sacked once for 10 yards. McGlinchey explains his respect for Beathard:
I said to him today at the end of the game, he’s made of the right stuff man. He’s just a tough, tough dude and you love playing with a guy like that and a guy that’s just going to continue to fight for you, and for this team. All the pride in the world to be blocking for C.J. and he’s going to continue to just keep getting better and keep standing up to everybody that wants to knock him out.
Thankfully McGlinchey’s injury was not enough to keep him out of the game and he was not seen wearing any braces or extra wraps on his knee afterwards. The only post game gear that was memorable? Just his “Party Animal” t-shirt.