Santa Clara -The 49ers are going nowhere, so what their 0-9 season has become is a prolonged look at their roster from key veterans in the contract year, to rookies trying to become starters. With that in mind, here’s an assessment of how some of the players fared in the team’s 20-10 loss to Arizona on Sunday.
Rookie CB Ahkello Witherspoon: It didn’t start well for him; on the first play of the game he yieled a 52-yard reception to John Brown. He then surrendered the first touchdown of the day, a 6-yard pass to tight end Jeramaine Grisham. The veteran tight end preyed upon a Witherspoon weakness – his lack of NFL strength. The 260-pound Grisham bench-pressed Witherspoon into the end zone and then turned to catch the pass.
Witherspoon bounced back however. On another long pass, he screened Brown away from the throw in the second quarter. Witherspoon also smacked big back Adrian Peterson for no gain at the 49ers’ 15 later in the quarter.
In all, Witherspoon made four overall tackles. And the one thing he didn’t do? Committ a penalty, which now traded Rashard Robinson did with frustrating regularity. When the 49ers traded Robinson last week to the Jets for a fifth-round pick, he had 10 penalties.
Rookie Linebacker Reuben Foster: Relatively free from injury, Foster collected a game-leading 14 tackles, including one for a loss. Foster was also out of position at times, but his much bally-hooed promise finally came to the fore. Another accomplishment? He made it through the game without a major injury.
He did leave the game temporarily after aggravating his ankle sprain, but that’s an injury that will dog him the rest of the way, according to Coach Kyle Shanahan.
Safety Eric Reid: Returning to his natural position of strong safety, Reid intercepted his first pass of the season, made four tackles, had a hit on the quarterback and a pass defended. Reid also said his experience playing linebacker last week helped him get comfortable at safety.
“The cool part about it is that now I know what everyone is doing,” Reid said. “I know what the linebackers have and we communicate better.”
Also, after making a hard tackle, Reid bounced up and kissed his biceps in a nod to his friend Colin Kaepernick. It was the first “Kaepernicking” demonstration in many a moon.
Switching to the left side for the first time in his career, Brown surrendered an early pressure. However, he seemed to settle in and the Cardinals didn’t get much pressure on quarterback C.J. Beathard from the blind side.
Brown also collapsed the right side of the Cardinals’ line on a Carlos Hyde 11-yard run, which was the 49ers’ longest of the game.