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Obviously, a 19-17 game that comes down to an end-of-game field-goal attempt is going to feature a good bit of tension. But the tension started early in Cleveland, where one of the early highlights in Week 6 was actually a Browns-49ers pregame fight that took place during warmups.
There was pushing, there was shoving, and there were refs trying to keep the peace, but mostly there was big left tackle Trent Williams stepping in once things got a bit physical. In the locker room, once safely out of shouting distance of the 6-foot-5, 318-pound Williams, safety Juan Thornhill issued a warning to Williams (who wound up injuring his ankle during the game).
“I’m going to stand my ground, I fear no man, I say that every time,” Thornhill said in the postgame locker room. “Don’t care how big he is, who he is — it doesn’t matter to me. I’m a fighter forever.”
“Of course. We don’t take any disrespect. Not on our home turf, not anywhere and we responded,” cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. said.
“Maybe a little bit,” Garrett said when asked if it was disrespectful. “Two teams as strong-willed as us, bound to have some skirmishes here and there.”
Running back Jerome Ford, whose surprise performance (17 carries, 84 yards) helped fuel Cleveland late in the game, put it a little more colorfully. “You don’t walk into somebody else’s house and just push them around,” he said. ‘It was like coming in and stepping on somebody’s couch, and a lot of dudes didn’t tolerate it.”
Myles Garrett Eager to Play 49ers
Garrett was a little more deferential to Williams, a 35-year-old tackle who is still one of the best in the business. The Browns’ star pass rusher who had not faced Williams before. Williams has been in the NFL since Garrett was 14, and Garrett has watched Williams’ 10-time Pro Bowl career with great interest.
“I didn’t let y’all know beforehand, but I was excited as hell,” said Garrett, who had three tackles and one quarterback hit on the day. “Because it’s someone I respected and admired, like even before I started playing NFL. And watch him growing up, getting to go against D. Ware (Demarcus Ware), some of the premier pass rushers in the history of the league, and he’s been doing exceptionally well for a long time.
“And I don’t just admire pass rushers. I admire really good tackles because to do what they do every play at a high level is extremely difficult and he’s been very consistent throughout his whole career. So, I was glad to finally get the chance to go at him.”
Trent Williams Addresses Browns-49ers Pregame Fight
As for Williams himself, he was not on the scene when the Browns-49ers pregame fight began, and thus did not know how it started. He said he was there more in mop-up duty.
“I don’t know,” Williams said, via 49ers Web Zone. “They were already doing that when we came out, so I don’t know what was going on. Yeah, I just came over there, trying to break it up, offer some little support, but honestly, all that died down once the game kicked off.
“Just a little gamesmanship. Hats off to them. They did what they need to do to win.”
In the end, Williams was not all that bothered by any of it. The 49ers lost, but it was a game they were in position to win thanks to a field goal attempt that rookie kicker Jake Moody missed. But for a team that has blown out most foes, getting a taste of this kind of game figures to be useful.
“We bombed out,” Williams said. “We didn’t get it at the end. Honestly, we probably didn’t deserve to win that game. But it’s a good learning experience. We played a really good defense. It was a dog fight, and obviously we didn’t come out on the side that we wanted to. But I think this team can draw a lot from this game today.”
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