Jimmy Garoppolo’s strong performance pushes 49ers’ QB discussion back for at least a week
Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers either saved their season — or delayed the inevitable just a little bit longer.
There’s no doubt Garoppolo leading the way during San Francisco’s come-from-behind win, with rookie Trey Lance getting zero offensive snaps, means Garoppolo will remain Kyle Shanahan’s quarterback next week when the Arizona Cardinals come to Levi’s Stadium despite all the talk, including from here, about the need to play Lance.
“I think it’s nice to maybe not have to listen to it as much for a week,” Shanahan told reporters Sunday when asked about the discussion surrounding his quarterback room.
The 49ers will have a chance to exact revenge on Arizona after their loss in the desert Oct. 10. In doing so, comes a chance at returning to .500 after Sunday’s encouraging victory over the Bears, 33-22, snapped their four-game losing streak and improved to 3-4 on the season. Cardinals star quarterback Kyler Murray isn’t expected to play next week after spraining his ankle in Thursday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Sunday in Chicago was Garoppolo’s most encouraging performance of the season. Not just from a production standpoint — San Francisco’s 467 yards of offense marked a season high while Garoppolo completed 17 of 28 for 322 yards with a pair of rushing touchdowns — but an emotional one.
Garoppolo has been the most criticized sports figure in Northern California throughout the season, particularly during the team’s four-game skid. He responded by leading a stirring victory that might have changed the team’s trajectory. It will be viewed as a turning point if the 49ers parlay Sunday’s performance into wins against Arizona and the Rams over the next two weeks.
“Jimmy’s not a social media guy. He’s not a guy who’s sitting there watching stuff,” Shanahan said. “I think he’s been around the league long enough to know that stuff doesn’t help you.
“But that goes with the territory. Always for the quarterback, the coordinators, the head coach, that’s part of this business. That’s what we sign up for. If you can’t deal with it, usually you don’t last. He handled it very well this week.”
Said Garoppolo, who has handled the criticism about as well as expected throughout: “I think our team just needed a win. Losing four in a row like that, you gotta come do something about it and I think our guys did. We came ready today. It was a good mindset on the sideline, guys were talking. (We) could feel each other.”
Garoppolo said he had roughly 100 friends and family members in attendance. He grew up some 45 minutes from Soldier Field in Arlington Heights, Ill. It was the same venue and opponent in which he made his first start with San Francisco late in 2017.
The 49ers sputtered throughout the first half. Garoppolo’s pass catchers had three timely drops. The offense had four field goal drives (Joey Slye missed his first attempt) while San Francisco hit halftime down, 13-9. At that point, Garoppolo wasn’t the problem or the solution. He was moving the ball but the offense wasn’t coming away with touchdowns. There were no punts, either.
The 49ers were struggling on third down, as they have all season, while the Bears were continuing to move the chains on San Francisco’s defense. The team needed a spark.
Then the touchdown drought changed after the break. The 49ers got into the end zone on three straight possessions and wrestled control of the game away from the Bears, despite rookie quarterback Justin Fields scoring one of the best touchdowns of the season on a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter. The road team outscored Chicago, 24-9, in the second half.
Garoppolo had help from receiver Deebo Samuel, who continues to bud into a star and San Francisco’s top pass catcher with tight end George Kittle sidelined.
Samuel caught a rare 50-yard heave from Garoppolo that set up a field goal just before halftime, and he took a tunnel screen 83 yards on a third-and-20 in the third quarter that set up the 49ers’ first touchdown. He finished with 171 yards on six catches, setting a team record for most receiving yards in seven games (819), a record previously held by Jerry Rice in 1986 (781).
There was also another 100-yard performance from rookie tailback Elijah Mithchell, whose third touchdown of the season exemplified the team’s mood.
Mitchell, on a run from the 5-yard line, was stood up at the line of scrimmage, but kept his feet moving while the entire offensive line pushed him into the end zone.
“That’s a pretty cool play,” center Alex Mack said. “That was one we’re going to have a lot of fun watching (Monday). ... That was a big swing of momentum. That was a big moment for the offense, I think.”
Last week’s loss to the Colts was a humbling experience for the 49ers and less excusable than the three that preceded it against teams quarterbacked by Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Murray. Mitchell’s scoring run exemplified the frustration the team had been dealing with.
“I think you could see a lot on one play what our team’s feeling right now,” Shanahan said. “We knew we had to hunker down, we knew we had to battle this week, we knew that would be a fight.”
The most important thing for the 49ers was to avoid a fifth-straight loss. A fifth straight, to a team starting a rookie quarterback who entered the week with the NFL’s last-ranked offense, would have been terrible for morale, the way Shanahan’s viewed and the team’s chances at staying in the playoff mix.
It likely would have spelled the end for Garoppolo’s time as the starter with Lance waiting in the wings. Now, Shanahan has a chance to get his team to regain its stride and get back on schedule. His thinking for the season, all along, has been attempting to replicate the success the team had with Garoppolo in 2019. It can do that if Garoppolo plays well like he did on Sunday.
If not, then there remains a strong possibility we’ll see Lance this season. Because this year will have little value to Shanahan or the 49ers if they don’t win games and/or develop Lance. Losing with Garoppolo while Lance holds a tablet on the sidelines is the worst result possible.
The discussion about replacing Garoppolo will wait at least another week. Maybe two if the 49ers take care of the Cardinals who could be starting their backup quarterback. If not, the quarterback drama will roll on and the urgency to play Lance will grow.
But should Garoppolo continue to play like he did in Chicago and finally show signs of improving as Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have hoped for? Then the season won’t be a lost cause after all.
“When we’re playing like that,” Garoppolo said, “that’s when we get dangerous.”
This story was reported remotely as the Bee was not on hand for the game.
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Jimmy Garoppolo’s strong performance pushes 49ers’ QB discussion back for at least a week."
