Beathard puts leadership on display in win

It was a new-look C. J. Beathard that won Saturday as the 49ers’ starting quarterback.

First, we saw his freshly cut hair. He’d grown it out the past year as a tribute to his youngest brother, Clayton, who was murdered a year ago outside a Nashville bar.

Then we saw him throw three touchdowns in a game for the first time in his career.

And then we saw the jacket he was wearing after the game. It bore a picture of his brother accompanied by the word “King.” The jacket was a gift from a New York pastor who knew Clayton.

“It drove me to tears when I saw it,” Beathard said. “It’s got a lot of meaning for me. First and foremost, the King is our lord and savior Jesus Christ. It has a lot of irony with me, just because my brother’s middle name was King; so Clayton King Beathard was his full name. And my other brother, Tucker, dedicated his album to Clay and it was called ‘King.’

Beathard, in his first start since 2018, completed 13 of 22 passes for 182 yards. With the TDS, his passer rating (125.4) was almost twice that of his celebrated Arizona counterpart, Kyler Murray.

But the post game talk wasn’t about the numbers. “Just his leadership out there, the way guys gravitated to him, you could feel it all week in practice,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “You could tell how hard they played for him too. I was very impressed by C. J. and very happy for him, too.”

Player after player praised Beathard for his poise and his work behind the scenes these past couple years as a backup.

“The guy inspires us so much and we’re so happy to go perform for him,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “A lot of guys could have bowed out tonight and we didn’t have to do what we did for him.”

“He was incredible,” said George Kittle, Beathard’s tight end the last nine years, starting with four at the University of Iowa. “I’d said he was going to play inspired and would play relentless.. Overall he handled himself incredible and it was really fun to play some Saturday football again with my brother again.”

FAMILIAR LOOK >> Shanahan knows just how to beat the Arizona Cardinals. At least it looked that simple Saturday when the 49ers scored their first touchdown on a play that was shockingly similar to one that beat the Cardinals last year.

Same guy scored, too.

Jeff Wilson Jr., starting in place of Raheem Mostert, set up to the left of Beathard in the shotgun, ran just outside left tackle Trent Brown, then broke back inside as Beathard hit him in stride 10 yards downfield. Wilson took it the rest of the way for a touchdown.

Last year, it was Jimmy Garoppolo hitting Wilson five yards downfield and him taking it the rest of the way for a 25-yard touchdown to give the 49ers a 30-26 with 31 seconds to play.

Wilson did a little more than that Saturday, too. He rushed for 183 yards on 22 carries, an average of 8.3 yards per carry. Even without his longest run (34 yards), he was getting 7.6 yards per carry.

Said Wilson: “Our O-line and receivers, they did tremendous today. I could just feel it. Those guys blocked their tails off for me and I could feel it.”