Jimmy G answered tough questions against Arizona
If Jimmy Garoppolo is only a “game-manager” quarterback, then the 49ers don’t need a game-changer under center.
If Garoppolo is the “weak link” in the Niners’ chain, then that chain is hella strong.
And if Garoppolo is still a “work in progress,” well, then the end product is going to be something incredible.
Because the Garoppolo the 49ers have right now — the supposed game-managing, weak-link,
work-in-progress one — turned in a spectacular performance Thursday night to keep San Francisco undefeated this season.
Going into Thursday’s game, the 49ers’ biggest question was if they — an undefeated team with a great coach and a great defense — had the right man at quarterback to really compete come January. Football might be considered the “ultimate team game,” but the NFL is a quarterback-defined league in which even halfway competent (and perhaps worse) signal-callers are stars.
But if the Garoppolo we saw on Thursday night is the kind of quarterback we can expect going forward, then this 49ers team is absolutely a Super Bowl contender.
Simply put: you couldn’t ask a quarterback to play better than Garoppolo did in the Niners’ 2825 win over the Cardinals.
That’s because you couldn’t expect a quarterback to look more poised in the pocket and crafty out of it. You couldn’t expect one to throw more dimes
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than a broken payphone. And you couldn’t possibly expect one to be more clutch.
Thursday was the twoyear anniversary of the 49ers trading a secondround pick to New England in exchange for Garoppolo — a critical moment in genesis story of this 8-0 Niners team.
Thursday was also the day Garoppolo made his star turn.
After all, the entire nation saw that he was the reason the 49ers won on Thursday.
Not the 49ers’ elite defense, which looked sluggish on a short week.
Not the run game, which has anchored the Niners’ offense the first seven games of the season but barely cracked 100 yards on Thursday.
And not Kyle Shanahan’s offensive genius, either. It was present, no doubt, but it couldn’t do much for the Niners once the ball was snapped, the pass rush broke though, and a play simply needed to be made — original plan be damned.
No, this one was on Jimmy G. And that’s the first time we’ve said that (in a good way) in a game that’s really meant anything for the 49ers.
Garoppolo might be straight out of Central Casting: a handsome, bigarmed quarterback, playing for a marquee franchise. But he needed a breakout moment.
He had not been bad this season — far from it — but he needed to be called upon to deliver a win.
Thursday’s game — Garoppolo’s best as a pro — was that moment.
We got to see what he
was made of against the Cardinals.
His 28-for-37, 317-yard, four-touchdown stat line was outstanding, but it doesn’t fully speak to his impact on the game.
People forget numbers — they don’t forget impact.
Him going 13 for 15 for 160 yards and all four of his touchdowns on third and fourth down, combined, might speak to it, though.
Garoppolo’s late-down throws to the recently acquired Emmanuel Sanders highlighted how much of a zone he was in on Thursday and how good he — and in turn, the Niners — can be going forward.
A crisply run route from Sanders and a laserbeam throw from Garoppolo converted a fourthand-goal from the 1-yard line just before halftime, giving the Niners a pivotal 21-7 lead that the break.
But after the devilishly talented Kyler Murray, a star in the making himself, pulled the Cardinals within a touchdown, 21-14, in the third quarter, the Niners needed to respond
to stop Arizona’s momentum.
So Garoppolo and Sanders hooked up again.
On third-and-4, just inside Cardinals territory, they connected for 22 yards.
But not only did Garoppolo’s pass have perfect placement — it was thrown before Sanders even made his break.
“He’s savvy — he’s so smart,” Garoppolo said of Sanders. “He does things as a quarterback … you love to see.”
“What a throw by Jimmy,” Sanders said. “It was just so easy — literally I turned my head and it was in my lap.”
It was a trust throw between guys who had played only one game together. Not only that, but it was the kind of throw that few quarterbacks in the NFL can make and fewer dare to make. Yet Garoppolo made it look like it was no big deal.
The Niners would score on their next third down with another perfect throw — this one to a wide-open Dante Pettis.
And when things got hairy in the fourth quarter,
with Arizona cutting the Niners’ lead to three points, Sanders and Garoppolo hooked up again on third down. Their 16-yard pass and catch from deep in their own territory on thirdand-11 with 4:37 left kept alive the Niners’ game-icing drive. It wasn’t a true trust throw, but it required plenty of trust between quarterback and receiver to make happen — and another elite ball from Garoppolo, who had Arizona pass rushers on top of him as he threw.
Yes sir, Garoppolo was nails — the best player on the field Thursday.
And a performance like that is no one-off fluke, either. You can’t fake 14-2 — Garoppolo’s record as the 49ers’ starter — but now it’s a bit easier to explain.
Of course, the Niners won’t need Garoppolo to play the way he did Thursday in every game.
But now that he has reps under his belt and some competent receivers, like Sanders, around him, it’s clear he can so some seriously impressive things.
He can even put a team on his shoulders and win them a game that matters.
The tougher part of the Niners’ schedule is coming up — starting with a huge home game against the archrival Seahawks on Monday Night Football on Nov. 11.
Can the Niners vanquish their top competition in the NFC West in front of another national TV audience? Can the upstart team cement its newfound place amongst the NFL’s elite in the weeks to come?
That remains to be seen, but after Thursday night, there’s no reason to question if the Niners have the right quarterback at the helm.