The 49ers got their starting tackles back on Monday night. And they were rudely re-welcomed to action by Seahawks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
Clowney ran through and around left tackle Joe Staley and right tackle Mike McGlinchey. On Tuesday, coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged that his tackles were rusty.
“I think anytime you haven’t played football in a while it’s always a challenge to get back out there no matter what you do in practice,” Shanahan told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s tough to get going. I think they had a big challenge ahead of them. I thought Clowney played very well. He’s done it before, but I thought it was definitely his best game of the year, so we’ve got to take that into account.
“They weren’t at their best. That happens when you have some time off like that. I thought they had their good plays, but definitely had some noticeable bad plays that ended up hurting us a little bit.”
Indeed it did, but chances are that no one would have slowed down Clowney on Monday night, rust or not.