QB excites his 2-10 team, flashing both poise and ability
CHICAGO — With a defender about to drill him Sunday, 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo flung a sidearm, off-his-back-foot, 16-yard completion into triple coverage to wide receiver Louis Murphy, who stunned most of the Soldier Field crowd by emerging from a scrum with the ball.
Garoppolo, who was flattened on the play, didn’t see it.
And one of the Bears couldn’t believe it.
“Even the dude that tackled me was like, ‘There’s no way you freakin’ caught that,’ ” Murphy said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I did, bro.’ ”
Welcome, long-suffering 49ers fans, to the Garoppolo era, the early
stages of which promise to be filled with highlights and hope, if Sunday is any indication.
In his third career start, and his first with his new team, Garoppolo punctuated a performance marked by poise and precision by directing a 14-play, 86-yard drive capped by Robbie Gould’s 24-yard field goal with 4 seconds left to give the 49ers a 15-14 win over the Bears.
The victory over the Bears (3-9) was largely meaningless this year for the 49ers (2-10). But Garoppolo’s presence suggests San Francisco’s road to respectability and beyond may not be as arduous as it appeared before he was acquired from the Patriots for a second-round pick on Oct. 30.
“It’s a special feeling with him,” guard Brandon Fusco said. “He’s a special player. That’s the reason we did what we did to get him. You can definitely feel it. We’re all excited. There’s more to come from this.”
Playing about 30 miles from his hometown of Arlington Heights, Ill., Garoppolo completed 26 of 37 passes for 293 yards with an interception that was wrested away from Murphy’s grasp in the first quarter.
Garoppolo was at his best when something special was required: On the final drive, he completed 5 of 6 passes for 54 yards and converted three third downs. His final conversion was a 33-yarder to Trent Taylor on 3rd-and-9 on the final play before the twominute warning.
Not bad for a quarterback who is still nowhere close to getting his degree in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s system.
“I just learned the twominute (offense) the other week,” Garoppolo said. “It’s a crazy situation, but things worked out.”
Indeed, with Garoppolo, the 49ers had their most thirddown conversions (10 of 18) since 2007, won on the road for the third time in 22 games and finally came through in the clutch: The 49ers set an NFL record by losing five straight games by three or fewer points this season.
What’s the Garoppolo effect? After the game, wide receiver Marquise Goodwin looked across the locker room to where Garoppolo was buttoning up a white polo shirt.
“Just look at him. Look at him,” Goodwin said, his voice rising. “You know what I’m saying? He’s got it together. He came in a short time and has just helped us flip this around. Some people are just winners, and he’s a winner . ... He’s just a confident guy. When you play with confidence like that, you feel unstoppable.”
Garoppolo’s quick release helped limit pressure — he was sacked twice and took five hits — and he made the most out of the best pass-catchers on his underwhelming supporting cast: He completed 14 of 14 passes for 191 yards when targeting Goodwin and Taylor.
Goodwin had a career-high eight catches and the thirdhighest yardage total (99) of his five-year career. Taylor, a rookie, had career highs in catches (six) and yards (92).
Goodwin was asked about a deep, over-the-middle completion that Garoppolo threw before he had made his break.
“You saw that?” Goodwin said. “... That was all him. I had the easy job today. I just had to catch the ball, and he put it in the perfect position for me to make the plays.”
Garoppolo had the most passing yards by a 49ers quarterback in his first start in franchise history, but he wasn’t flawless: The 49ers made five trips to the red zone and didn’t score a touchdown.
In addition, his most astounding play — that thirdquarter throw into heavy traffic to Murphy — wasn’t quite how Shanahan drew it up.
But it somehow worked, which only added to the belief that Garoppolo just might be special.
“You never like to throw into triple coverage,” Shanahan said, “but sometimes you have to overcome coaching and just make plays.”