49ers vs. Packers: Analyzing C.J. Beathard's performance in Week 6

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GREEN BAY, WI – OCTOBER 15: C.J. Beathard #3 of the San Francisco 49ers drops back to pass during the first quarter against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on October 15, 2018 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Green Bay Packers in heartbreaking fashion in Week 6 on Monday Night Football, falling 33-30. But quarterback C.J. Beathard’s performance was more than solid. Niner Noise breaks it down.

There are no such things as moral victories in the NFL, and the San Francisco 49ers‘ gut-wrenching Week 6 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football is yet another example of a game the Niners could have won.

But ultimately didn’t.

Fill-in quarterback C.J. Beathard now adds another loss to his career starting record, which stands at 1-7 over the last two seasons. Yet it’s hard to pin this loss on his shoulders. If anything, he did exactly what a backup should do: put his team in a position to win the game.

Beathard’s performance Monday night wasn’t perfect. It was pretty darned good, though. And despite some criticisms, particularly on his decision making on the 49ers’ final offensive possession (we’ll get to that in a minute), Beathard performed about as well as anyone could have asked for a backup to perform under the bright lights in prime time.

To set the context, Beathard has now played well enough for the Niners to win in two of the three games he’s started since franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a season-ending ACL injury.

Just check out the numbers:

C.J. Beathard 2018 Games Table
						Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Rush	Rush	Rush
Date	Week		Opp	Result	GS	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate	Sk	Y/A	Rush	Yds	TD
2018-09-30	4	@	LAC	L 27-29	*	23	37	62.16	298	2	2	82.9	1	8.05	7	19	0
2018-10-07	5		ARI	L 18-28	*	34	54	62.96	349	2	2	78.4	4	6.46	2	7	1
2018-10-15	6	@	GNB	L 30-33	*	16	23	69.57	245	2	1	115.3	2	10.65	3	21	0
Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco	Upco
49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er	49er

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/16/2018.

Beathard was good enough in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers, and those two interceptions tossed weren’t exactly his fault.

And his efforts in Green Bay certainly were enough to justify a win, although the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers certainly knows how to engineer fourth-quarter comebacks. Very little Beathard could have done to thwart that.

So let’s look at both the positives and negatives from Beathard’s third start, getting the bad out of the way first.

49ers vs. Packers: Analyzing quarterback C.J. Beathard’s performance in Week 6

By Peter Panacy | Oct 16, 2018

The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Green Bay Packers in heartbreaking fashion in Week 6 on Monday Night Football, falling 33-30. But quarterback C.J. Beathard’s performance was more than solid. Niner Noise breaks it down.