As Reuben Foster dressed following his team’s bruising 40-10 debacle Sunday to the Cowboys, his groans were audible. Foster’s banged up ribs made it difficult for him to stretch socks over his feet. At one point, he looked at the media gaggle around him and said, “I’m getting old, man.”
Actually, Foster is at the beginning at what he and the 49ers hope will be a star-studded career. However, Foster’s debut versus Dallas ended with only five total tackles and a fourth-quarter on the bench. Foster, playing in his first game since spraining his ankle in the season opener, injured his ribs in the third quarterback after tackling Cowboys’ runner Ezekiel Elliott.
He tried to return, but exited again later in the quarter with the same injury. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Foster was cleared to come back again, but the coach decided he had seen enough.
“I know he wanted to go back in the game,” Shanahan said. “I held him out just at the end. It was too important. I wanted to make sure we have him next week. The fact that he was good to go there, I’m assuming he’ll be good to go next week. But, you know. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when he wakes up.”
With NaVorro Bowman off to the other side of The Bay, Foster called plays for the 49ers defense Sunday afternoon.
“It was just like Alabama,” Foster said of calling plays for the defense. “Calling the plays and getting everybody lined up, but you are not going to have a 100-percent game so you have to just do a good job and if you mess up you have to go on to the next play that you messed up on. It was comfortable.”
