Iowa Hawkeyes in the NFL: Week 5 Roundup

After perhaps his best NFL performance yet, Sunday was a mixed bag for C.J. Beathard in San Francisco’s 28-18 loss to previously winless Arizona.

Beathard recorded career-highs with with 54 pass attempts and 349 yards, but also committed three costly turnovers for a struggling San Francisco team. He completed 34 passes for two TDs and was intercepted twice. He was also stripped for a fumble returned for the a pivotal fourth-quarter score.

“You look at a lot of those (stats), it’s hard to find how you lost a game,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Then it’s very easy when you look at the turnover column. I haven’t been part of any game, I don’t think many people have, where five turnovers to zero leads to a win. We have to improve that drastically to have a chance.”

Shanahan was complimentary of his backup quarterback forced into the starting role when asked Monday if his pocket presence had improved. Beathard ran for his fourth career touchdown against Arizona, though he was also sacked four times.

“I know yesterday wasn’t a great day in that area,” Shanahan said. “I think it was a lot easier for everyone to see versus Los Angeles. I thought yesterday we got caught on the pocket a number of times. That didn’t all have to do with C.J. There’s times that it did. There’s times that they had some blitzes where he had to get rid of it. There’s times where we didn’t get open very well. By no means was C.J. perfect, but it was not all his responsibility.”

Despite the team’s struggles, Beathard has helped George Kittle continue to blossom into one of the league’s top young players at his position. Kittle caught five of seven targets for 83 yards, and trails only Zach Ertz and Trace Kelce among tight ends with 79.8 receiving yards per game.

Greg Mabin also continues to see more action in the San Francisco secondary, registering two tackles in 24 snaps against the Cardinals.

Cleveland linebacker Christian Kirksey recorded a season-high 12 tackles in a 12-9 overtime win against Baltimore — the franchise’s first Sunday victory since December 2015.

Mike Daniels was blunt in his assessment of Green Bay’s defense following its 31-23 loss to Detroit.

Rookie teammate Josh Jackson had two tackles and a pass defensed. His three passes defensed on the season tie him with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix for the team lead.

Desmond King had only one tackle in the Chargers’ win against the Raiders, but has seemingly solidified himself as San Diego’s new return man. King totaled 51 yards on two kick returns and 35 yards on four punt returns, including long returns of 35 and 18 yards, respectively.

Anthony Hitchens tallied 10 tackles in the Chiefs’ victory against Jacksonville, pushing his season total to 45 — the seventh-most in the league.

Josey Jewell had two tackles, including one for a loss, in Denver’s 34-16 loss to the Jets.

Brandon Scherff ran into an odd snafu in the NFL’s final game of the week in New Orleans on Monday.

The Bears were on a bye, but it sounds like James Daniels has made a strong push to start at left guard. Daniels played 27 snaps in last week’s victory against Tampa Bay while alternating series with Eric Kush. The fact that a position battle has broken out wouldn’t seem to favor the incumbent.

A foot injury forced Riley Reiff to leave Minnesota’s win against Philadephia, and coach Mike Zimmer didn’t have an update after the game.

Micah Hyde missed Buffalo’s game against Tennessee after suffering a groin injury last week.

Detroit shored up its depth last week by signing Andrew Donnal after an injury to guard T.J. Lang. Detroit had waived Donnal last month after picking him up off waivers.