Niner Noise looks back at Jimmy Garoppolo and his five best games with the 49ers since joining the team midway through 2017.
The San Francisco 49ers may not be pegging quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as someone they want to hang around well into the distant future.
At least not after trading up to the No. 3 overall spot in this year’s NFL Draft to select his apparent replacement, Trey Lance.
There are, perhaps, two reasons that describe this. First, undoubtedly, the injuries. Garoppolo missed all but three games back in 2018 after suffering an ACL tear, then multiple ankle injuries forced him out of all but six contests in 2020. On top of that, if Garoppolo was much more effective as a quarterback and capable of shouldering the offense with regularity, it’s likely the Niners would have been reluctant to go up and get Lance despite Jimmy G’s injuries anyway.
All that said, however, Garoppolo has put together a number of memorable performances during his San Francisco tenure, including these five best games.
No. 5: Jimmy Garoppolo beats LA Rams in Week 16 thriller in 2019
From a purely statistical vantage point, Garoppolo’s efforts late during the 2019 season on a Saturday Night Football bout against the Los Angeles Rams weren’t great.
He went 16-of-27 for 248 yards, a touchdown against two interceptions with a passer rating of 71.2 while taking six sacks. Just looking at the numbers, one could actually make the argument this was one of Garoppolo’s worst games with the 49ers, too.
But with the Niners needing a win to maintain their hold on the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC while also eliminating the Rams from playoff contention, Garoppolo came up huge late in the game when it mattered most.
Not just one 3rd-and-16 completion, which was hauled in by wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, but another 3rd-and-16 on the very same play where Garoppolo’s arm was hit mid-throw.
Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders hauled in the pass, which set up a game-winning field goal by kicker Robbie Gould.
Garoppolo wasn’t good earlier in the game, no. But fans don’t remember what happened on those picks or sacks. Instead, they recall those back-to-back 3rd-and-16 completions.
No. 4: Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers beat Rams again in Week 6 of 2020
Maybe Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers merely like beating the Rams. After all, Jimmy G has a 4-0 record against the Niners’ NFC West rivals from Southern California.
While Garoppolo’s Week 6 matchup against Los Angeles in 2020 wasn’t anywhere near as memorable than the one to help close out San Francisco’s playoff run the year before, from a statistical perspective, Garoppolo was far better during his performance in this particular bout.
Garoppolo went 23-of-33 for 268 yards, three touchdowns and an uncharacteristic zero interceptions thrown.
It’s almost a default, when Garoppolo doesn’t turn the ball over, it has to be considered a good game.
Garoppolo got the 49ers off to a quick 14-0 lead, and that lead held all the way until the clock struck 00:00 with the Niners winning 24-16. And while Jimmy G wasn’t slinging the ball around like crazy, namely because he was still dealing with his first of two ankle injuries and just underwent a terrible performance against the Miami Dolphins a week earlier, he was nevertheless good enough to get the job done.
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.
No. 2: Jimmy Garoppolo beats the Cardinals on Halloween 2019
There are a number of games where Jimmy Garoppolo had to put the 49ers offense on his shoulders. Perhaps the only wish for Jimmy G would be he could do that more frequently.
Nevertheless, he had one of those chances on an Oct. 31 Thursday Night Football bout against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium, which was a game that saw one of his best targets, tight end George Kittle, suffer a ribs injury early in the game before scoring a touchdown.
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Kittle was pulled from the contest shortly thereafter, and the Niners ground game didn’t do much to support Garoppolo either, managing just 101 total rush yards and averaging 3.3 yards per attempt.
Despite all this, Garoppolo’s line of 28-of-37 for 317 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions helped get San Francisco out to a 21-7 lead by halftime, only to see Arizona cut into the lead with a desperate second-half comeback.
The lack of a rushing game hindered Garoppolo’s ability to rely heavily on play action. And while the 49ers were held off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, he had helped build a big enough lead to absorb the Cardinals’ comeback efforts.
A key third-down conversion pass to Kittle’s backup, tight end Ross Dwelley, sealed the game and also helped this bout rank high on the list of Garoppolo’s all-time best games.
No. 1: Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers outduel Drew Brees, Saints in Week 14 of 2019
If there’s going to be one statement game from Jimmy Garoppolo that he talks about 50 years from now, the Niners’ epic back-and-forth win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 14 of the 2019 season should be up there towards the top.
And for now, it’s No. 1 on the list. No other game should come close.
The red-hot Saints presented a challenge for Garoppolo and a playoff-hopeful San Francisco squad anyway, given the game was at the always-hostile Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, and then-Saints quarterback Drew Brees was having yet another one of his Hall of Fame-caliber seasons.
Garoppolo would need to be on his A-game, putting it lightly.
Fortunately, that’s exactly how Garoppolo played. Despite the 49ers falling behind early, 20-7 early in the second quarter, Jimmy G and the Niners managed to close the gap, take the lead, surrender it again before George Kittle had that epic catch-and-run fourth-down grab to set up another game-winning field goal by Robbie Gould.
That’ll be the play etched in San Francisco fans’ heads, yes. But let’s not overlook the fact Garoppolo went 26-of-35 for 349 yards, four touchdowns, an interception and a passer rating of 131.7, effectively outdueling Brees despite the latter tossing five touchdowns of his own
Pretty darned good.