Garoppolo’s last gaffe: Interception seals 49ers’ fate in NFC Championship loss to Rams
The last pass Jimmy Garoppolo threw in Sunday’s NFC Championship game perfectly epitomized what will likely be his final season with the San Francisco 49ers.
Time was running out. The pressure was inescapable. The world watched and waited for Garoppolo to make the mistake that would cause his downfall and clear the way for the Trey Lance era.
That’s precisely what happened in a 20-17 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Garoppolo was being dragged to the turf by Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald on third-and-12 from his own 22-yard line with just over a minute remaining. Instead of taking a sack for a loss of 12 yards, Garoppolo flung an ill-advised, backhanded pass to JaMychal Hasty, who tipped the ball into the air for Travin Howard to make the interception.
Garoppolo sat by himself on the 49ers bench, shaking his head while the Rams ran out the clock and celebrated their return to the Super Bowl. That was it. The end of the game, the end of the season and probably the end of an era.
Garoppolo is 31-15 as a starter over five seasons with the 49ers with one Super Bowl appearance and two trips to the NFC Championship game, but Lance, the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, is expected to take over as San Francisco’s starting quarterback next season.
“I love Jimmy,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I’m not going to sit here and make a farewell statement or anything right now. That’s the last stuff on my mind, but Jimmy has battled his ass off. He battled today. He did some unbelievable things today and I love coaching Jimmy.”
Garoppolo completed 16 of 30 passes for 232 yards with two touchdowns and one painful interception, a play that might come to define his legacy. Garoppolo was good enough to bring the 49ers this far, but not good enough to take them further.
Bitter end
Garoppolo sailed his first throw of the game with George Kittle open deep down the middle on third-and-7. San Francisco was forced to punt again on its next possession after Garoppolo missed Brandon Aiyuk on another third-down play.
The 49ers found themselves trailing 7-0 after Matthew Stafford threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp to cap an 18-play, 97-yard drive for the Rams, but Garoppolo came on to deliver a resounding response. He hit Deebo Samuel for a 2-yard gain, went deep down the left side to Aiyuk for 31 yards and then connected with Samuel again for a 44-yard touchdown, taking San Francisco 75 yards on four plays to tie the game.
Robbie Gould kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to put the 49ers up 10-7. Their first drive of the second half stalled at midfield, but it wasn’t long before they got the ball back.
It looked like Garoppolo was taking command at a pivotal moment. He threw to Aiyuk for 13 yards on third-and-4. He completed a 14-yard pass to Samuel. He found Jauan Jennings for 11 yards on third-and-10. Then he fired a 16-yard touchdown pass to Kittle, giving the 49ers a 17-7 lead with 5:54 to play in the third quarter.
The Rams answered with another touchdown drive, forced the 49ers to punt on their next two possessions and got two field goals from Matt Gay. The first tied the game and the second gave the Rams a 20-17 lead with 1:46 to play in the fourth quarter.
The stage was set for Garoppolo to lead a game-winning drive. The headline could have been “Winning and Grinning with Jimmy G.,” but it was not to be. His first pass fell incomplete. His second went to Jennings for a loss of 3 yards. His third was intercepted, giving the ball back to the Rams to run out the clock.
Garoppolo spoke to his emotions when it was over, knowing he might have played his final game for the 49ers.
“They hit pretty hard in the locker room,” Garoppolo said. “I think these next couple days it will really start to settle in a little bit. Emotions are high after a game, win or a loss, and it’s just one of those things. You’ve got to be glad it happened. Just smile from it and think about the good things. We’ll see what happens these next couple days or weeks or whatever, but I love this team. Just the fight and the battle in this team throughout the entire year has been really impressive and I love those guys.”
Quarterback comparisons
The quarterback comparisons through the first two rounds of the playoffs were not flattering for Garoppolo, who ranked a distant fourth among the last men standing in the conference championships.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 782 yards in the first two games of the playoffs. Joe Burrow passed for 592 yards for the Cincinnati Bengals and Stafford threw for 568 yards for the Rams. Garoppolo passed for a paltry total of 303 yards in the first two games, trailing Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr in postseason passing yards, even though the Raiders were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.
Mahomes, Burrow and Stafford combined for 14 touchdown passes and two interceptions in their first two playoff games. Garoppolo had no touchdowns and two interceptions, but the 49ers won anyway, beating the Dallas Cowboys 23-17 in the wild-card round and the Green Bay Packers 13-10 in the divisional round.
Ben Roethlisberger, Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott, Mac Jones, Ryan Tannehill and Carr were all ousted in the opening round of the playoffs. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen bowed out in the second round.
Garoppolo was still standing despite playing through pain for the past several weeks. He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb in late December. Then he suffered what Shanahan called a slight sprain of his right shoulder in the second quarter of San Francisco’s victory over the Cowboys in the wild-card game.
Despite his limitations, Garoppolo was just good enough to win against the Cowboys and Packers. He was a little better against the Rams, but not good enough to get the 49ers back to the Super Bowl.
“Just some bad execution,” Garoppolo said. “Just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to. There’s a million things. I won’t get into all of them, but that’s a tough way to end it, especially the way we battled the whole game. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. It always is against these guys. It’s a tough one.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2022 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Garoppolo’s last gaffe: Interception seals 49ers’ fate in NFC Championship loss to Rams."
