Jimmy Garoppolo headlines 49ers duds from putrid loss to Broncos

There aren’t too many studs from the 49ers’ ugly Week 3 loss to the Broncos, but there are plenty of duds, including Jimmy Garoppolo.

The San Francisco 49ers are quite literally this close to being a perfect 3-0 on the season. Remove a defensive blown coverage or two from the Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears, and that waterlogged road game could have been a victory.

And if quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo avoided just one of his many mistakes during the Niners’ 11-10 Week 3 loss on the road against the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football, that game likely would have been a win, too.

Yet Garoppolo made those mistakes, one too many.

The Broncos, still struggling to find their way under scuffling first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett, presented the perfect opportunity for Garoppolo and Co. to climb up the ranks of the NFC, doing so under the bright lights of prime time.

Except that Garoppolo and San Francisco’s offense presented an absolute dud, leading to far too many duds overall and way too few studs from Sunday night.

Let’s look at those.

49ers dud vs. Broncos: Jimmy Garoppolo

There’s no other way to get around it: Garoppolo was atrocious versus Denver.

Despite the 49ers’ inability to get the run game going, and amid pass-protection issues, Garoppolo nevertheless posted arguably the worst game in a Niners uniform since that ugly loss versus the Miami Dolphins back in 2020, especially according to Pro Football Focus’ Jeff Deeney:

Whether or not one wants to call out Garoppolo missing wide receiver Deebo Samuel (twice) for potential touchdowns, stepping out of bounds in the end zone (a la Dan Orlovsky) for a safety, or even tossing an oh-so predictable interception late in the fourth quarter with San Francisco trying desperately to retake the lead, Jimmy G was awful.

And he showed exactly why the 49ers wanted to trade him this offseason, also arguably showing why no other team wanted to trade for him, too.

Yet the worst part might be Garoppolo’s postgame comments where he said, “it was my kind of first week with these guys.”

After entering in relief of injured quarterback Trey Lance a week ago against the Seattle Seahawks, Garoppolo commented, “[playing was] just like riding a bike.”

Apparently not.