5 things 49ers must clean up after beating Cowboys in Wild Card

No. 2: 49ers will need a better game from Jimmy Garoppolo

Jimmy Garoppolo could have been a massive reason why, had the 49ers lost their Wild Card matchup against the Cowboys.

Simply put, Garoppolo wasn’t great in the performance, going 16-of-25 for 172 yards, no touchdowns against an interception and all for a passer rating of 67.4 on an afternoon where Dallas’ vaunted pass rush failed to sack him once.

Garoppolo overthrew a wide-open wide receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, for what could have potentially been a long touchdown, or at the very least, a massive gain into Cowboys territory. Yet Garoppolo’s biggest gaffe, an overthrown pass intended for fellow wideout Trent Sherfield ended up in the hands of Cowboys cornerback Anthony Brown at the 9:48 mark of the fourth quarter, and Dallas turned that turnover into an eventual touchdown:

At this point, Garoppolo is who he is. There are going to be those nail-biting moments intertwined with the untimely bad throw.

The Niners have now improved to 3-6 in games where Garoppolo has thrown an interception, entering Week 18 going 1-6.

Still, San Francisco survived the Garoppolo interception rather than overcoming it outright.

It might not be so lucky against Green Bay.