PHILADELPHIA, PA. — Mike McGlinchey’s Philly accent seemed to grow more prominent the closer he got to his hometown this week. And he had cheesesteak on the brain.
“My recommendation: I’m oodering froom Dalessandro’s in the Roxborough section,” said the 49ers right tackle, who plans on picking up close to 100 cheesesteaks from the restaurant for teammates and staff members. “If you guys have a free minute, drive oover there and get one from the coorner stoore oover there. It’s the best steak in the city.”
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, McGlinchey knows all about other eateries that claim to have the best Philly cheesesteaks. He’s heard Angelo’s in South Philly is good. But he went to school a mile and a half from Dalessandro’s and is loyal to the place. That’s how Philadelphians are.
And McGlinchey is Mr. Philadelphia. He’s got Schuylkill River water running through his veins, the “Rocky” theme song playing in his head and is extremely proud of where he grew up.
He’s excited to see his massive contingent of friends and family this weekend. He estimated that close to 200 of them will be at Sunday’s game.
He’s excited to play at Lincoln Financial Field — “The Linc” in Philly parlance — where he played once before when Notre Dame visited Temple his junior year.
“But I know that’s not the same thing,” he said.
He’s excited about how well the 49ers’ offensive line played in Week 1 against the Lions. The 49ers’ runners averaged more than 10 yards a carry in the first half as the team opened up a 31-10 lead, and the longest run of the day came on McGlinchey’s right side.
And he’s excited about a bit of a revenge game against the Eagles.
The last time the 49ers were in Philadelphia, they had to limp back home. It was 2017, Kyle Shanahan’s first season as head coach and a year before McGlinchey arrived. Then-left tackle Joe Staley took an inadvertent fist to the face from defensive tackle Fletcher Cox that left Staley with a fractured eye socket.
Receiver Pierre Garçon broke a bone in his vertebrae on a questionable hit at the sideline that knocked him out for the season. Solomon Thomas had to leave the game. So did D.J. Jones, Jimmie Ward and tackle Garry Gilliam. The 49ers were one injury from having to insert tight end Garrett Celek at tackle. Philadelphia is proud of the Eagles’ history of “body bag” games, and this was one of them.
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Last year, the 49ers were coming back from a pair of early-season road wins when Cox and company struck again in Week 4. Left tackle Trent Williams had easily his worst game since joining the 49ers, giving up a sack to Josh Sweat, two quarterback pressures overall and committing a false start to begin a critical drive at game’s end.
McGlinchey struggled in pass protection on the same drive. Edge rushers Sweat and Derek Barnett each had a sack in the game while veteran Brandon Graham — whom McGlinchey has watched since he was in high school — had three pressures.
“We made some mistakes last year on the edges that we can’t afford to make, and those guys will make you pay for it,” McGlinchey said this week.
The main storyline during the 49ers’ practices in West Virginia this week is that the injury nightmare they endured last season appears to have carried over into this one. The team will be without its top tailback, Raheem Mostert, and top cornerback, Jason Verrett, for the rest of the season. And its second-best linebacker, Dre Greenlaw, might miss roughly a third of the season.
Mostert has played 719 offensive snaps in his career. The next three tailbacks on the roster — Elijah Mitchell, JaMycal Hasty and Trey Sermon — have played 148 snaps altogether.
“He’s our home run hitter,” McGlinchey said of Mostert. “There isn’t a soul that doesn’t root for Raheem because he’s such a good person.”
But the 49ers also believe that if they can block as well as they did against the Lions, any one of their runners can have a huge game or a big season. Some of the holes the offensive line and pass catchers created — including on Mitchell’s 38-yard touchdown — seemed wide enough to accommodate a horse and buggy.
“All I saw was bodies falling and I’m like, ‘Man, this is a big hole!'” Mitchell said. “So I just had to hit it.”
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And that makes for an interesting matchup on Sunday.
Philadelphia’s front line has impressively remained intact over the years, and Cox and the others mentioned above will be in the lineup against the 49ers. It will be an excellent measuring stick for McGlinchey, who transformed his body in the offseason to address pass-protection issues from 2020, as well as for an offensive line that looked awfully good in Week 1, albeit against Detroit’s mostly anonymous defensive front.
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Was it a mirage? We’ll find out at The Linc.
“Their front four is one of the most solid groups in football, they have been for a long time,” McGlinchey said. “They have been since I was a high school kid in Philadelphia when they first jumped on the scene there. So I’ve watched these guys for a long time. I know who they are. They play hard, are technique sound and are very, very gifted players.”
As for the McGlincheys and Philly loyalty, well, they had to break ties with one local tradition — rooting for the Iggles — in 2008 when McGlinchey was 13. That’s when his cousin, Matt Ryan, was drafted by the Falcons.
“So I don’t have any heart connection with the Birds anymore,” he said. “But it’s good to be going back home.”
(Photo: Amy Lemus / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
