Jimmy and Bill, the sequel
Garoppolo: Plan against Rams kept him out of risky situations
Kyle Shanahan never put Jimmy Garoppolo in a dangerous situation Sunday night. Only Garoppolo did that. The 49ers quarterback lowered his shoulder — his throwing shoulder — at the end of a fourthquarter scramble, and his decision resulted in a hellacious collision with Rams cornerback Troy Hill.
Otherwise, Garoppolo spent the evening safely cocooned in his head coach’s game plan, which limited his exposure to interceptions and hits from All Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald in a 2416 win.
Throwing primarily short passes, a few of which were glorified handoffs, Garoppolo completed 23 of 33 passes for 268 yards with three touchdowns, posting the sixthhighest passer rating ( 124.3) of his 28start career with the 49ers.
A look inside those stellar numbers reveals Shanahan’s safe approach with a QB with a bum ankle who was coming off a disastrous performance and was being protected by a leaky offensive line.
Garoppolo’s 23 completions were thrown an average of 1.8 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and the 49ers had 229 yards after catches. Eight of Garoppolo’s completions were caught at least 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and they resulted in 103 passing yards and a touchdown.
Garoppolo’s short, quick throws were the primary reason the Rams, who arrived tied for the NFL lead in sacks, had no sacks against a team that had allowed the fourth most in the league. Donald, who leads the NFL in sacks, had two tackles.
Garoppolo’s performance was appropriately bookended
by pitch passes to inmotion wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who caught each toss 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and pummeled defenders on scampers that padded Garoppolo’s stat sheet.
On the game’s second play, Samuel ran left and emerged from a pile of humanity 5 yards downfield en route to a 35yard gain.
On the gamesealing play, on 3rd and 7 on the first play after the twominute warning, Samuel ran over cornerback Darious Williams just shy of the firstdown marker and then dragged two defenders for an 11yard gain.
It was a pass by Garoppolo, but Shanahan described it “as impressive of a run as I’ve ever seen.”
In fact, Shanahan described Garoppolo’s first four passes as “runs.”
Garoppolo completed 4 of 4 passes on a gameopening, 76yard touchdown drive. They were thrown a combined 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage and resulted in 89 yards after the catch. It was capped by a 6yard scoring pitch pass to Samuel, who grabbed it 5 yards behind the line.
“Those were the run plays that we liked,” Shanahan said. “… That always helps the quarterback, too, when you’re able to move down the field and have some run plays that count as pass plays. Gets you in a little bit of a rhythm, and I think it helped.”
Shanahan’s winning plan made sense given their pass protection concerns, Garoppolo’s not fully healed high ankle sprain and the run after catch ability of Samuel, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle.
In addition, the short passes and plays that got wide receivers on the edges also challenged linebackers, the weakest part of the Rams’ defense that has elite players on the line ( Donald) and in the secondary ( cornerback Jalen Ramsey).
Shanahan pointed to the Rams’ scheme when asked about his game plan and Garoppolo. Was part of it designed to make Garoppolo comfortable considering he probably wasn’t brimming with confidence? Garoppolo had been replaced at halftime of a 4317 loss to the Dolphins in his previous start.
“We game plan whatever we think gives us the best chance to win,” Shanahan said. “It’s awesome if you can always make your quarterback feel comfortable, your Oline, or anybody. But you can’t do that just anytime you want. It has to do with what the defense is doing.”
There’s a good chance Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will challenge the 49ers and Garoppolo to do something different when the 49ers visit Sunday.
Consider what’s happened when Garoppolo has looked well beyond the line of scrimmage. He’s completed 4 of 15 passes for 104 yards with two interceptions and posted 16.4 rating on passes 15plus yards downfield, according to the Associated Press. Garoppolo’s rating on such throws is the lowest among 32 qualified passers.
Shanahan indicated Monday he’s ready to adjust.
The Rams “do a scheme that’s pretty specific that led us to do a lot of that stuff,” Shanahan said. “When it is that way, I think it does take pressure off a quarterback. By no means are we going into the game saying, ‘ Hey, we have to do that.’ ”