Kurtenbach: Should 49ers worry?
Garoppolo’s poor performance in preseason debut can’t just be brushed aside
Preseason games mean nothing. Nothing for the team, that is. The scores don’t matter and there’s no trophy for having the best record when the four-game slate is over.
But make no mistake about it: for individual players in this, the ultimate team sport, preseason performances still matter.
And Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers’ first-string offense turned in an epic dud on Monday.
In the days to come, people will be keen to tell you that Garoppolo’s 1-of-6, one-interception, zero-yard, three-series game against Denver is unimportant, ignorable. It’s preseason — it doesn’t matter — they’ll say. But they’re wrong.
No, Monday’s exhibition game against the Broncos didn’t have anywhere near the weight of a regular-season game, but for Garoppolo to look that poor should have 49ers’ fans worried. The games that do matter are nearing and Garoppolo’s preseason and training camp performance — as small as the sample size might be — backs up the data from his small-sample size 49ers career.
Garoppolo looked rattled in his first game action since he tore his ACL in Kansas City last September. That’s to be somewhat
expected, but not to the level Garoppolo displayed Monday.
If the preseason is about showing off your grasp on the fundamentals of your position, Garoppolo will have to re-take the course.
Yes, the Broncos’ excellent pass rush overpowered the Niners’ offensive line, getting to the quarterback twice, Garoppolo made bad throws when he wasn’t under pressure and terrible throws when he was. His first four passes were touched by Bron
cos and his only completion of the day was a halfback screen pass that went for zero yards.
To pin it all on the protection would be foolhardy. They did Garoppolo no favors — that’s for sure — but he took those less-than-advantageous scenarios and exacerbated them with bad decisions and throws.
After the game, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan tried to brush the poor performance off as a blip — the same way he said that no one should read into Garoppolo throwing interceptions on five straight plays during practice last week.
If Garoppolo was a quarterback with a proven track record, that would be so much easier to do. But he isn’t — he’s started eight games for the Niners and while the win-loss record is strong, the peripherals raise questions.
This guy is an enigma.
All we know for sure is that this guy has a nasty habit of throwing the ball to the other team (or in the case of last week, his own team). His interceptable pass rate with the Niners is equal to his touchdown rate, and there’s been no evidence to date that he’s improving in that all-important area.
(Nick Mullens, by the way, has a better touchdown rate and lower interception rate in eight 49ers starts.)
Practices won’t alleviate these concerns, either. Garoppolo reportedly looked solid in practices against the Broncos this past weekend — as he has, on occasion, in training camp — but when the no-contact jersey came off, Denver could actually hit him, and he had to play real football, he looked like a Class 2A freshman playing the state powerhouse.
Garoppolo has one more preseason game — in, of all places, Kansas City — to show that he’s made the necessary leap going into what everyone hopes will be his first full season at the helm of the Niners’ offense.
Because if the kind of form Garoppolo has shown this preseason and in his first eight 49ers starts carries into the 2019 regular season, San Francisco won’t even sniff a playoff berth.