Garoppolo has way, stubborn, relentless 49ers are in playoffs
The 49ers’ entire season was on the line Sunday in Week 18 against the Rams.
And, bless this crazy team, the Niners also found a way to distill their entire inscrutable season into that one game.
After an improbable , this crazy campaign will continue for at least one more week.
But what a game. What a regular season.
It was strange and exhilarating; engrossing and more than a bit frustrating in the process.
High hopes were replaced by early doubts, which were then overwhelmed by bounce-back confidence. Bad quarterback play was overcome by strong quarterback play and incredible offensive playmakers. The defense rounded into form late.
Yes, Sunday’s game was all those things in just over 68 minutes.
As such, the 49ers’ win over the Rams was the least likely victory in the NFL since 2016.
That’s not me saying so, that’s the NFL.
The Niners had less than a half-percent chance of winning that game, per NFL Next Gen Stats, when Robbie Gould punted the ball to the Rams with 1:57 remaining in the contest and the Rams up 24-17.
Yes, the kicker was punting. And yes, the NFL calculated the Niners’ odds of winning at 0.4 percent.
I told you it was a crazy game.
Though, while 0.4 percent is a low number, anyone who watched the first half of Sunday’s game could have told you a
49ers win was even more improbable than that.
But facing their demise, the Niners forced a 3-and-out on defense, calling three timeouts in the process. They had the ball back with 1:27 to play, 75 yards to the end zone, and no timeouts.
They only needed 61 seconds to score.
Jimmy Garoppolo had thrown two egregious interceptions earlier in the contest — he was so bad before the final drive of the first half that benching him would have been
easily justified — but with the game and season on the line, he completed four of five passes for 83 yards, hitting Jauan Jennings for a 14-yard touchdown.
He was zipping around the field, too. Garoppolo’s throw to Deebo Samuel on the final drive of regulation — a 43-yard completion — was arguably the best of his 49ers career. He ripped it past the outstretched arm of All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, right into the chest of his receiver, who did the rest in the open field.
The work wasn’t done, though. After the touchdown, the Niners stopped the Rams from scoring, again, before driving 79 yards in overtime to set up what was a game-winning field goal. That’s because five plays later, rookie cornerback Ambry Thomas
intercepted Rams quarterback Matt Stafford’s deep shot down the right sideline to end the contest.
I’m still not sure how the Niners won, but they did.
Now, I don’t think this Niners team is special, but they might be something better than that. They’re more than resilient, they’re stubborn and relentless. They won’t accept no for an answer, even when no is seemingly the only choice on the board.
That attitude was behind them making the playoffs. How far they go is anyone’s guess. They might be bounced early — their flaws being exposed with immediacy — or they might win the whole thing.
Seriously, there is no outcome that is beyond this team.
But let’s take a moment
to look at the bigger picture and provide credit where it’s due: Shanahan’s grand plan at quarterback was validated on Sunday.
Shanahan stuck with his guy, Garoppolo, at the beginning of the season, throughout the season, and in the final game of the regular season, too.
That could not have been easy, particularly Sunday against the Rams.
There is simply not enough room in this column to explain how bad he was early in the game.
He was spraying the ball all over the field (in a bad way) and his secondquarter interception was downright unacceptable.
Add it all up, and the Niners were down 17-0, the Rams’ head coach was celebrating with his team in the end zone, and the Niners looked like they were playing their last game of the season.
But Shanahan continued to ride with Garoppolo, who threw another terrible interception in the fourth quarter.
Somehow, the Niners quarterback found a way to compartmentalize all that struggle and come up big in the biggest moments.
Shanahan said after the game that he didn’t think that Garoppolo’s thumb injury — which kept him out of last week’s game and reportedly will require surgery in the offseason — affected him.