Former Seahawks DE Cassius Marsh channeled his inner Frank Clark against the Oakland Raiders

The San Francisco 49ers pasted the Oakland Raiders 34-3 on Thursday Night Football, as Oakland was unable to hold onto its slim 3-0 lead that they managed in the opening quarter. Quarterback Nick Mullens took all the headlines by going from total unknown to throwing three touchdown passes against Oakland’s rumored defense, giving the 49ers only their second win of the season.

We don’t really care about this game beyond draft positioning for San Francisco, but even though he’s playing for a division rival, I do want to give a shoutout to former Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cassius Marsh. He’s a fun personality (as Field Gulls readers found out last year) and while he was never a major contributor to the Seahawks defense, it was a little bit of a downer to see him traded to the New England Patriots, then eventually signed by the 49ers.

Marsh had gone his entire career (dating back to the 2014 season) without a multi-sack game, and indeed just seven sacks total entering the Raiders matchup. However, for one night, Marsh put up Frank Clark numbers, and led the Niners with a career-high 2.5 sacks (the same total Clark had against Oakland three weeks ago), as Derek Carr and AJ McCarron were sacked a combined eight times by one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Marsh now has 3.5 sacks on the year, which is also a career-high.

Here are some highlights of his night:

The Raiders OL started out with rookie left tackle Kolton Miller, left guard standout Kelechi Osemele, regular starting center Rodney Hudson, regular starting right guard Gabe Jackson, and rookie right tackle Brandon Parker. By the end of the game, the o-line was shifted around and Osemele had to do some snaps at left tackle due to Miller’s knee injury. Parker was replaced by Ian Silberman, who was basically destroyed by Marsh on that one sack.

Troy Aikman started the broadcast saying “this is a 49ers defense that has struggled to get pressure on the quarterback.” Obviously Marsh heard this line and decided to prove him wrong, against an offensive line coached by someone Aikman later called, “one of the better offensive line coaches in all of football.” I don’t know who he is, but presumably he’s unhappy with how the Raiders performed on Thursday.