Shanahan: C.J. Beathard is the starter, blame belongs on everybody

The San Francisco 49ers were embarrassed in Week 7, losing 39-10 to the Los Angeles Rams in a turnover-fueled beatdown. The team turned the ball over four times, and with no takeaways of their own coupled with seven sacks by the Rams defense, this game was never close.

C.J. Beathard struggled much of the day, finishing 15 of 27 for 170 yards. He threw a touchdown to George Kittle, but had two interceptions, lost a fumble, and almost lost a second one. He struggled to get on track most of the day, and the first half turnovers in particular were devastating. The Rams turned them into 17 points, although if you add in the punt block, you could say all of their first 22 points came as a result of “turnovers.”

Naturally, there is a call by a lot of people for the team to make a change at the quarterback position. Nick Mullens is the backup, and has been working with Kyle Shanahan for the past two years. The team signed Tom Savage earlier this week, but released him to make room for promoting Tyvis Powell off the practice squad.

On Sunday, Shanahan said he will not be making a change at the quarterback position. He said Beathard deserved blame for his performance in the game, but Shanahan also thinks blame can be spread to plenty of people for that performance. Shanahan acknowledged the turnover issues and the generally bad play, but would not lay it all on Beathard.

When asked what is stopping the 49ers from considering a move to Mullens, Shanahan said, “because CJ’s the best quarterback we have in our building.”

Beathard has been up and down through four starts. They had chances to beat the Los Angeles Chargers and Green Bay Packers, but turnovers crushed them against the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams. The 49ers travel to face Arizona next Sunday, and we’ll get to see if Beathard and the offense can bounce back, or if the turnover bug continues to bite them.