No. 3: Jimmy Garoppolo, SF 49ers must get the ball out sooner
The Cardinals don’t exactly have a prolific pass rush outside of EDGE Chandler Jones, who managed to sack Jimmy Garoppolo once during the game.
Yet the SF 49ers signal-caller still took three sacks in Week 1, and one figures New York will work extra hard to bring additional pressure when necessary. Last week, the Jets blitzed 39.2 percent of the time, which was fourth highest out of all teams last week, and this directly resulted in Jets safety Marcus Maye recording the team’s two sacks against the Bills.
Garoppolo didn’t fare well under pressure against Arizona, and Pro Football Focus gave him a 64.6 passer rating when pressured compared to 110.3 when he wasn’t.
According to NextGen Stats, Garoppolo’s average hold time before throwing in Week 1 was 2.83 seconds, notably above the typical 2.5-second threshold most quarterbacks aim for when dealing with pressure from defenses.
The PFF split here for Jimmy G on either side of that figure is quite telling:
- Under 2.5 seconds: 126.0 passer rating
- Over 2.5 seconds: 67.5 passer rating
Like the Cardinals, the Jets aren’t expected to boast a prolific pass-rushing team in 2020 and are expected to rely heavily on scheming pressure via the blitz.
In response, and unlike what he did in Week 1, Garoppolo will need to be more decisive with his throws and do so much sooner.