Jimmy Garoppolo: 5 best games from 49ers quarterback
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers upset Jaguars in Week 16 in 2017
Oh, that five-game win streak San Francisco enjoyed with Jimmy Garoppolo under center back at the end of 2017.
The 49ers were out of it, yes. But Garoppolo infused a level of excitement for the franchise that hadn’t had much of it since the tail end of former head coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure in 2014.
Heavy underdogs against the playoff-bound Jacksonville Jaguars, who’d go on to boast the NFL’s second-best defense that year, Garoppolo and the Niners would hang a whopping 44 points on “Sacksonville” during this epic coming-out game.
What makes this contest stand out, aside from the fact the Jaguars had one of the league’s top defenses in 2017, was also the fact Garoppolo was still relatively new to head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, only being traded from the New England Patriots less than two months before and making only his fourth start in a San Francisco uniform.
True, Garoppolo wasn’t excellent, per se, going 21-of-30 for 242 yards, two touchdowns and an interception thrown while taking a sack. And his top receiver was one, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who had five catches for 76 yards.
Still, Jimmy G all but silenced the swag Jacksonville had when it entered the game, which was something most quarterbacks who faced the Jaguars that year couldn’t say.