QB’s play outside pocket aids S.F.
Jimmy Garoppolo is far more game manager than gunslinger, but his game recently has included some notable Favre-ian flashes.
In his past two starts, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback’s longest plays, passes of 39 and 33 yards, have been paint-outside-the-line throws on which he has played backyard ball.
The latest example came in the second quarter of Monday night’s 38-10 win over the Cardinals in Mexico City.
With the 49ers leading 7-3, they faced a 3rd-and-3 from Arizona’s 39-yard line. The play began with Garoppolo climbing the pocket because of left-side pressure. His move upfield provided two safe first-down options: Scramble for a short gain or flick a 5-yard pass to running back Christian McCaffrey to his right.
Instead, Garoppolo eschewed the sure things for something offscript.
As Garoppolo began moving up in the pocket, his primary target, tight end George Kittle, was breaking inside 10 yards downfield and was blanketed by AllPro safety Budda Baker. However, in a moment of wordless communication and improvisation, Kittle bolted toward the end zone and Garoppolo floated his onthe-move 39-yard touchdown pass from a yard behind the line of scrimmage.
The pass looked familiar. In the previous game, a 22-16 win over the Chargers, Garoppolo ran right from a crumbling pocket and threaded an on-the-run 33-yard pass to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud, who began sprinting down the sideline after Garoppolo extended the play.
“It was kind of a broken play,” Garoppolo said afterward. “Got off the first and second read, just started to scramble and Ray-Ray just became a football player, man. It’s kind of what we’ve been talking about in our skill meetings: just being a football player and making plays like that.”
The plays — and that quote —
bring to mind what Garoppolo said after he praised the aggressive game plan he inherited after Trey Lance suffered a broken ankle early in the Week 2 win over Seattle. Garoppolo said he felt “freedom” that was unique in his career with the 49ers. The exception: His 5-0 opening chapter with the 49ers five years ago when he often improvised because of his loose command of the playbook.
“It kind of felt like 2017, where you just go out throwing, make plays — that’s what I like to do,” Garoppolo said in September. “It’s different than what we usually do around here, but sometimes you need to do that.”
Garoppolo is in the midst of a torrid stretch that rivals the best of his 53-start tenure with the team.
In 2017, when his five starts earned him an extension that briefly made him the NFL’s highest-paid player, he had a 67.4 completion percentage, 96.2 passer rating and averaged 8.8 yards per attempt.
In his past five starts, he has a 71.3 completion percentage, 108.4 passer rating and has averaged 8.1 yards per attempt.
Garoppolo hasn’t said that his recent performance has anything to do with feeling less programmed. At least not directly. On Monday, after he tied a career high with four touchdown passes, he indicated without prompting that his relationship with head coach Kyle Shanahan has evolved.
“It’s been fun,” Garoppolo said. “Me and Kyle growing together and putting together a good game today.”
• All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams sounded mildly irritated — at least by his sunny standards — three days before kickoff when asked about what had become a popular talking point: He was tipping off whether the 49ers would run or pass based off his stance.
Williams’ reaction: “It’s pretty nonsense.”
Perhaps Williams carried some residual anger into Monday’s game? Not that Williams isn’t typically a menace to defenders, but he was at his wrecking-ball best against the Cardinals.
On McCaffrey’s 20-yard left sideline scamper in the second quarter, Williams paved the path by pancaking Baker downfield and subsequently pushing cornerback Marco Wilson out of the way.
And surprise: Williams was at it again on Elijah Mitchell’s 19yard burst down the left sideline in the third quarter. Williams again ran to the second level and helped clear the way by tossing Baker to the ground.
Said ESPN analyst Troy Aikman at one point: “Trent Williams — he’s knocking down people like they are bowling pins out there.”
• Last year, cornerback Deom modore Lenoir regressed after a strong start to his rookie season and spent much of the season buried on the depth chart.
His second season, however, is following the opposite script.
Lenoir, in his fifth start in place of Emmanuel Moseley, had a season-best performance in which he allowed one catch for 5 yards.
His stellar night began auspiciously when he flew up in run support to drop wide receiver Rondale Moore for 6-yard loss on the game’s first play. Lenoir’s brilliance in pass coverage was best illustrated when cornerback Charvarius Ward was forced from the game for one play in the first quarter.
With Ward out, Lenoir handled what had been his primary assignment, covering All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, and quarterback Colt McCoy immediately tested him. Lenoir aced the exam: He had textbook pass coverage on a deep sideline route that fell incomplete on 3rd and-6, forcing the Cardinals to settle for a field goal.
Lenoir was beaten out by rookie Samuel Womack for the nickel-cornerback spot in training camp, but has since pulled his career from its early spiral. He replaced Womack in Week 3 before subbing for Moseley beginning in Week 6.
• The 49ers had been humiliated by the Cardinals in the teams’ previous meeting, Arizona’s 31-17 romp at Levi’s Stadium in 2021 when the Cardinals didn’t have quarterback Kyler Murray, Hopkins or All-Pro defensive tackle J.J. Watt.
The 49ers turned the tables with a blowout in which one member of each team indicated the Cardinals packed it in early.
Baker said not all his teammates played hard until the end: “Women lie, men lie, that film never lies,” he said (Side note: Great quote, Budda).
Baker didn’t call out a teammate by name, but that wasn’t necessary: Despite having an excellent angle, cornerback Antonio Hamilton kept drifting upfield instead of trying to tackle Kittle around the 5-yard line on a 32-yard touchdown catch that made it 38-10 with 10 minutes left.
Pass rusher Nick Bosa indicated the 49ers’ defense was able to pitch its third straight secondhalf shutout partly because the Cardinals were coasting to the finish.
“Obviously, when a team feels they’re still in the game, they’re going to play harder and give everything they’ve got,” Bosa said. “And toward the end, there it was a little less of that.”
• Bosa flexed his muscles to celebrate his second-quarter sack, but he wasn’t flexing when asked about his takedown of McCoy after the game.
“The sack wasn’t my best effort,” Bosa said, “but I got there, so I’ll take it.”
Bosa got there because the 49ers’ back end brilliantly blanketed Arizona’s pass catchers. Bosa slipped and fell en route to his coverage sack: McCoy double-pumped and held the ball for 4.45 seconds before Bosa arrived.