When he didn’t have the play-action working he did absolutely nothing.
Pornstar Jimmy was 3 for 11 for 26 yards in the 4th QTR. He misfired pass after pass in the 4th when it mattered and he badly overthrew a WIDE OPEN Emmanuel Sanders for what very well could’ve been the game winning TD. He is not good.
I don’t think we’re disagreeing on the big picture – I agree Garoppolo isn’t very good, a 15 – 20 ranked league QB at best, and overrated especially in context of how much he’s paid – over $100M. But he’s not the reason the Niners loss last night.
For about the first 48 minutes of the game Garoppolo managed the position as well as you’re going to get from him, completing 18 – 21 with a passer rating higher than Mahomes at that point.
Garappolo is one of those journeyman level QBs that does well when everything else around him is going well – in other words a vastly overpaid caretaker of the QB position. In turn his level of play was doomed to tail once his fellow actors got caught up in their own mess: A) secondary leaving Hill open for 40 yards on a 3rd & 15, B) followed by a PI in endzone, C) Richard Sherman getting cooked by Sammie Watkins, and D) TE Kittle on a great pass from Garoppolo getting called for a late OPI on a could-go-eiter-way call, E) several instances of strange clock management by Shanahan that included a F) reluctance to keep Mostert’s momentum going and G) shelving the play-action. Garappolo and all but about 6 NFL QBs aren’t going to be able to overcome all of that negative chaos.
What also didn’t help during that stretch was the Chief’s late TD review not going the Niner’s way, plus two hits against Garappolo’s head that could’ve but maybe shouldn’t’ve been called.
All in all, given what he is, Garoppolo did his job well until flatlining on cue of everything else around him collapsing.
