Blown leads, injuries take toll
CARSON, Los Angeles County — On Sunday, in the cramped visitors’ locker room at the StubHub Center, 49ers right tackle Mike McGlinchey pulled his jeans over a black brace that was placed on his left knee at halftime.
Next to McGlinchey, right guard Mike Person pulled a sock over a sprained foot with which he has played for three straight games. And next to Person, center Weston Richburg winced slightly while putting on his cowboy boots.
Minutes earlier, head coach Kyle Shanahan had said Richburg had just played through a knee injury he sustained on the 49ers’ first play. “And we needed him, too,” Shanahan said. “Be-
cause there weren’t many guys left.”
Offered Richburg: “It was a rough go.”
Yes, the 49ers left Southern California battered and beaten after a 29-27 loss to the Chargers, a game that left their record at 1-3 and their injury list comically long.
Despite the attrition, the 49ers, playing their first game since quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was placed on injured reserve, nearly won a wild game in which they squandered a 14-point lead and rallied from a nine-point hole.
Trailing 29-27 with 2:38 left, the 49ers faced a 2nd-and-6 at their 31-yard line. C.J. Beathard was drilled in mid-throw by blitzing safety Derwin James and his fluttering pass was intercepted by defensive end Isaac Rochell.
“I think we need to see that he is blitzing,” Shanahan said, “and get rid of the ball.”
The turnover meant the 49ers’ fight wouldn’t be rewarded.
“We kept emphasizing that in the offensive huddle: ‘This doesn’t have to be pretty,’ ” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “Guys just have to find a way, we’re all hurting. Let’s hurt together. There’s something in that, embracing it, and just find a way to get it done.”
The 49ers opened the game with starting cornerback Richard Sherman (calf ) and starting safety Jaquiski Tartt (shoulder) in street clothes. And they finished the first half with both offensive tackles, McGlinchey and Joe Staley, sidelined with knee injuries.
Unlike McGlinchey, Staley did not return, and the 49ers briefly placed guard/center Erik Magnuson at right tackle when McGlinchey and Staley were being examined in the locker room. Staley and McGlinchey were among a group of eight players Shanahan mentioned when ticking off his postgame injury list.
“I’m not God, so I don’t know why injuries happen,” Shanahan said. “They have been legit injuries. We have tough guys who try as hard as they can when they’re hurt. But it’s tough when you’re injured and you just can’t go.”
Amid much talk that the 49ers wouldn’t go anywhere this season without Garoppolo, they leapt to a 14-0 lead and had a pro-49ers crowd in a frenzy.
On the game’s third play, safety Antone Exum returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown and flung the ball into the stands. Later in the first quarter, the celebrating continued: Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne punctuated a 2-yard touchdown catch with a Michael Jackson-inspired leg kick and the 49ers had their biggest firsthalf lead of the season.
“There was a lot of energy in the first half — we were playing great defense,” inside linebacker Reuben Foster said. “But at the end, it was kind of slow motion.”
Actually, the 49ers fell into a lull well before the fourth quarter.
Trailing 17-6, the Chargers reeled off 20 straight points in an eight-minute span bridging the second and third quarters and appeared to have delivered a knockout blow.
However, Beathard responded with his biggest moment on a day on which he completed 23 of 37 passes for 298 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Beathard fired an over-themiddle pass to tight end George Kittle, who outran the secondary on an 82-yard reception to trim the gap to 26-24. Asked if he thought his play, which was the longest touchdown catch by a tight end in franchise history, would be part of a comeback, Kittle cracked: “After I caught my breath, yes. I was ready.”
The 49ers did complete the comeback: Robbie Gould’s 33-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter gave them a 27-26 lead.
However, the Chargers answered with a field goal, and the 49ers finished with a fizzle: A three-and-out possession preceded Beathard’s game-sealing interception, which fell right into Rochell’s arms.
“Injuries are a part of football,” McGlinchey said, “and bad bounces are part of football. That’s the way it is. It stinks that both happened to us.”