Garoppolo explains why this victory in Chicago is a ‘big one’
CHICAGO >> Jimmy Garoppolo opened his black, carry-on suitcase and pulled out a few mementos. One by one, he shared them with his family outside the 49ers’ victorious locker room Sunday.
Out came the game ball that Kyle Shanahan rewarded Garoppolo after the 33-22 win.
Out came the ball Garoppolo knelt with as the seconds expired on the 49ers’ four-game losing streak.
And out came a sparkling white, No. 10 jersey.
“Dude, I didn’t get touched today,” Garoppolo told me in an exclusive interview after his 20-minute family reunion with his parents, three brothers and sister-in-law.
Actually, he did get dirty on two touchdown runs at Soldier Field, essentially like his own backyard as a native of nearby Arlington Heights.
“Well, yeah, but I’ll take that,” Garoppolo said of the hits he absorbed while body slamming the goal line. “In the pocket, that was the best. I know I said it already, but the O-line really played great.”
He did not get sacked. He passed for 322 yards. He had no interceptions, no lost fumbles, and no margin for error.
“He had a hell of a game,” coach Shanahan said, “and guys made some plays for him, too.”
Indeed, this was the 49ers’ most complete game of the season, with wide receiver Deebo Samuel, running back Elijah Mitchell and the robust offensive line leading the way until the defense finally closed strong.
But no one was under more pressure to excel than Garoppolo in what’s been an incredibly straining year.
It sure came with much heavier stakes than his 49ers’ starting debut here in December 2017.
Which was more rewarding and enjoyable, that 15-14 victory or this comeback from a 16-9 halftime deficit?
“Probably this one,” Garoppolo answered. “The first one, my head was still spinning, just learning everything and getting used to everybody. Yeah, this is a big one.”
This was a homecoming game, and the Soldier Field crowd of 60,877 included his tight-knit family, his Eastern Illinois University roommates and a NFL sideline employee who happened to Garoppolo’s sophomore basketball coach at Rolling Meadows High School.
“I love everything he’s done about handling all of it,” said Anthony Como, the former coach who crashed Garoppolo’s press conference and sheepishly had his own session with a few reporters afterward.
“From the time he was drafted by the Patriots (in 2014), sitting behind Brady, through trade rumors, to having pressure, to going through really rough injuries, then obviously with them trading up for Trey Lance, he’s been a real class act,” Como added. “Honestly, he’s always been that way. He and his family are just sort of grounded. I’ve told him that time and time again, to focus on what he can control and keep being the great guy he’s been.”
No one expected a couple of great touchdown runs from him, however.
On the first one, Deebo Samuel came in motion late, then barely stopped next to Garoppolo in the backfield when the ball was snapped. It was thirdand-2, and Garoppolo knew how urgently the 49ers needed a score (which a few snaps earlier they thought they got on Samuel’s 83-yard screen that was ruled out at the 1-yard line.)
“I knew where the play was designed to go,” said Garoppolo, who followed Kyle Juszczyk’s lead block through the left side of the line. “I tried to give it to Deebo. I said ‘Go, go, go.’ We both kind of froze for a second. Plays like that today, not perfect but whatever it takes.”
Added Shanahan: “We timed the motion wrong with the noise down there. It was going to Deebo, he stopped and Jimmy made a decision to just take it. He probably should have handed it to Deebo. But it turned out to be a great decision.”
Garoppolo’s second touchdown run came on a 5-yard, zone-read effort, the type that might entice Shanahan to summon Lance for a cameo, but the rookie was only going to play this game if Garoppolo got hurt. Lance was three weeks removed from a knee sprain and kept a red coat and beanie through the game.
Once Garoppolo scored to put the 49ers ahead 30-22 with 6:34 remaining, he chucked the ball into the stands, something that will draw a fine from the NFL and one he certainly can afford.
“My college roommates were sitting in the stands in that end zone and hopefully one of them caught it,” Garoppolo quipped.
It turns out he had enough footballs to share after the game. And as his brothers held the mementos during their talk in the stadium’s bowels, general manager John Lynch spotted them, interrupted with a “Hey Garoppolos!” and then hugged or shook hands with all family members, but only after first making sure his starting quarterback was doing OK.
Shanahan gave out two game balls: one to punter Mitch Wishnowsky’s wife, Maddie, who gave birth to a baby girl Saturday night (and that allowed Wishnowsky to fly in Sunday at 7 a.m. to make this game), and one to Garoppolo.
Said Shanahan: “Coming back home, in front of family and fans, his back was against the wall, like everybody else in the building. To step up and play the way he did today was huge.”
The trade deadline is Tuesday. Garoppolo does not look like he’s heading anywhere, other than back into the starting lineup for next Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, with a chance to further rally a franchise that hasn’t abandoned him just yet.
After a cascade of criticism all October, this was a welcome repreive.
“It’s nice to maybe not have to listen to it as much for a week,” Shanahan said. “Jimmy does as good as anybody. He’s not a social media guy or watching stuff. He’s been around the league and knows that stuff doesn’t help you. But he gets the questions so you’re aware, and that goes with the territory, for the quarterback, coordinator, head coach.”
Once he hugged his family farewell, Garoppolo summed up that joyous reunion by saying: “You can’t beat that.”
Not a bad day at the office, indeed.