Photo credit: 49ers
The offensive line for the San Francisco 49ers had a Sunday nightmare. The most egregious offenders were Trent Williams, Daniel Brunskill and Mike McGlinchey. The tackles, specifically, had visibly poor nights.
Williams had two penalties (a hold and a false start), the latter of which cost the 49ers another five yards of field position in a less-than two-minute drill with zero timeouts. He also allowed two sacks, though the second was also on Nick Mullens for failing to step up into a clean pocket.
But McGlinchey had the more egregious errors. He was pancaked by Fletcher Cox, allowed back-to-back unimpeded hits on C.J. Beathard to conclude the game, and was embarrassed on the first Mullens interception. That’s without mentioning a number of other mistakes, all evident on film.
Exhibit A:
The first Nick Mullens INT. Watch Mike McGlinchey #49ers pic.twitter.com/Ggeupj7kdP
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 5, 2020
Exhibits B and C:
This is probably the most damning part of the night for McGlinchey. Avery bullies him and then Graham swipes around him on back-to-back plays, forcing Beathard to preserve the drive and then the Hail Mary to end it for #49ers https://t.co/weA9gbxcx7 pic.twitter.com/JrnxL7sjSE
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 5, 2020
Exhibit reverse pancake:
Last one for now on McGlinchey, though there are other examples from last night and plenty, also, from Trent Williams and Daniel Brunskill, both of whom I’ll get to (but both not the franchise’s ninth overall pick from three years ago). He got pancaked by Fletcher Cox pic.twitter.com/ngjODRDBc9
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 5, 2020
As you would expect, Kyle Shanahan came to his defense. Perhaps he oversold it:
“I think Mike has as good of a camp as he’s had here in his third year, so I mean I was real excited about Mike going into the season,” Shanahan said. “I don’t think that he is playing as bad as advertised. I think when he has had some bad plays, it has looked bad and those stick out all the time with an O-linemen. And he’s had too many of those in a game. You take away those, I do think he’s done a lot of things better.”
Shanahan could be referring to McGlinchey’s run blocking, or as is equally likely, simply not disparaging a man whose confidence is likely already down. But McGlinchey, who looks lighter, has proven he struggles to anchor.
“I think there’s a lot of parts of Mike’s game that he’s a lot better at this year than he has been in the past, but you get towards the end of the game there and some of the two-minute situations and he had some bad looking plays which stick out,” Shanahan said. “That’s part of being an O-lineman, but by no means do I think he’s had a step back.”
The improvements needed were not placed in the category of overhauls, but rather, cleaning things up.
“He’s just has to clean up some stuff,” Shanahan said. “He’s got to be a little more efficient throughout the game because he has gotten better, but that doesn’t matter when you have a few bad ones. And it’s the same with a quarterback too. You can play a hell of a game and you throw a few picks and that’s what sticks out and that’s what Mike’s got to clean up right now.”