Garoppolo pulled at halftime, unable to rescue defense
A fourth-string cornerback, in his 49ers debut, kept staking the Miami Dolphins to yards and points.
The franchise quarterback, on a tender ankle, kept getting hit and became an interception machine.
By the time Brian Allen and Jimmy Garoppolo got pulled, too much damage was done to avert one of the 49ers’ most embarrassing losses under coach Kyle Shanahan, a 4317 faceplant to the underdog Miami Dolphins.
The 49ers (2-3) are winless in three home games, with the Los Angeles Rams (4-1) coming to Levi’s Stadium next Sunday night.
This loss should rattle the 49ers to their core like none other since Shanahan arrived in 2017. No visitor to Levi’s Stadium had scored as much as the Dolphins (2-3).
“There’s no magical thing you can say when you play like that,” Shanahan said. “I just try to hold us all accountable and know it starts with me. ... If we don’t get better, it’s going to be a long season.”
The defending NFC champion can’t win at home, it can’t play defense without a viable pass rush, and not even a fullstrength offense could help Garoppolo avoid a careerworst 15.7 passer rating in his premature return from a highankle sprain.
With a 30-7 halftime deficit in place, Garoppolo got yanked in favor of C.J. Beathard.
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (350 yards, three touchdowns) didn’t need his Harvard education to exploit the 49ers’ defensive weakness. Called up Saturday from the practice squad, Allen had a disastrous debut for an injuryladen cornerback crew. This wasn’t surprising.
More stunning was how lifeless, confused and swagger-less the 49ers looked in their response. They had wobbled amid so much adversity the past month. The Dolphins merely tipped over their wounded opponent.
A Sept. 20 ankle injury kept Garoppolo out the past 2 1/2 games. And a 23-point halftime deficit got him out of this game, coach Kyle Shanahan making the move to “protect” Garoppolo.
“Just the way the whole game was going, watching how we were playing as a whole, how he was playing, you could tell he was affected by his ankle,” Shanahan said.
“I know he doesn’t normally throw the ball that way, and he was struggling a little bit because of it. The way the game was going, I wasn’t going to keep putting him in those positions, knowing we’d have to throw it a lot to come back.”
Because Nick Mullens’ turnover trifecta keyed last Sunday night’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the 49ers counted on Garoppolo to rescue them from their demise, as if this was December 2017 all over again.
A week’s worth of practice did not ease his transition. His high-ankle sprain surely contributed to his poor passing (7-of17 for 77 yards with two interceptions, three sacks and a 15.7 rating).
“I felt it. I wouldn’t say it affected everything,” Garoppolo said. “It’s one of those things you have to deal with. Tough one today. I wanted to be out there with the guys and wanted to get the win today. A lot of things didn’t go well for us.”
Said George Kittle: “We can’t just expect Jimmy to throw great passes every play. We can’t expect them to be perfect. We have to play well together and we’re not doing that.”
What the 49ers do next Sunday is anyone’s guess, more so than last week’s charade of “Garoppolo, Mullens, or Beathard”. Beathard finished 9-of18 for 94 yards with a touchdown pass to Kendrick Bourne.
“I really haven’t thought that far ahead. We’ll take it day by day with the ankle and see how it goes,” Garoppolo said.
Before Garoppolo’s horrible first half was done, he floated two passes toward midfield that produced the first interceptions off him this season. The first was a 20yard heave toward Jerick Mckinnon, and the next was a 25-yarder toward Deebo Samuel.