Jimmy Garoppolo’s postseason productivity hasn’t been impressive from a volume standpoint. His 27 pass attempts, 208 yards, one touchdown and one interception through two games have raised questions about his ability to carry the 49ers in a Super Bowl.
While the small sample size of a couple postseason games certainly garners that kind of question, the larger, full-season sample size we have indicates Garoppolo and the 49ers offense will be fine if the quarterback has to throw it 30-plus times, or come up with points in crunch time. Right tackle Mike McGlinchey expressed this sentiment during the Super Bowl Bye week with 95.7 the Game in San Francisco.
He certainly wasn’t perfect, and had some big moments come late in games where he didn’t perform very well overall. His numbers when trailing say a lot about why the 49ers have so much faith in their quarterback.
San Francisco didn’t spend a lot of time behind in games, but when they were down, Garoppolo completed 72.7 percent of his 161 throws. He had 1,470 yards, 11 touchdowns, three interceptions and 9.1 yards per attempt when the 49ers were behind in a game. His yards per attempt, completion rate, and 115.7 passer rating were all higher than when the 49ers were ahead or tied.
His 13.5 pass attempts per game have been anomaly borne from a dominant run game and big, early leads.
For evidence that Garoppolo is capable of throwing the 49ers to wins, here are seven times the 49ers rode their quarterback to victory this season.
Week 3 vs. Steelers
The 49ers’ home opener had disaster written all over it when Garoppolo’s second pass of the game got intercepted. It was a screen to Matt Breida where the throw bounced in and out of Breida’s hands and into the waiting arms of Steelers defensive end TJ Watt. That was the first of four first-half turnovers by the 49ers in a game where they gave the ball away five times.
The fifth giveaway looked like a backbreaker with the 49ers trailing 20-17 with 6:53 remaining. Wide receiver Richie James ran in motion and had the snap bounce off of him as he went between Garoppolo and center Weston Richburg. Watt recovered that fumble and the Steelers needed a couple first downs to effectively ice the game.
The 49ers defense got the ball back though on a fumble by Steelers running back James Conner, and this time Garoppolo and the offense captialized.
With a first-and-10 on the Steelers’ 24, Garoppolo completed a throw to George Kittle for 9 yards, then pushed ahead for a yard on a QB sneak two plays later. He extended a play on a third-and-11 that fell incomplete thanks to a drop from wide receiver Dante Pettis, but Garoppolo extending the play on a rollout forced a defensive holding that gave the 49ers a new set of downs.
On a second-and-5 from the 5, Garoppolo threaded the needle between two defenders and hit Pettis for the game-winning score with 1:15 left. Garoppolo finished that game 23-for-32 for 277 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Both picks went off his receivers’ hands. Still, with the game on the line, the 49ers turned to their quarterback who made multiple plays on the final drive that helped win the game.
Week 7 at Washington
There was nothing pretty about this game – a sloppy mess of a contest at FedExField.
Garoppolo’s numbers weren’t eye-popping by any means in a 9-0 contest where both teams had trouble moving the ball, but the 49ers leaned heavily on their quarterback in the second half, and he delivered.
After a first half where he completed 3-of-10 throws for just 10 yards, Garoppolo turned it on in the final two quarters. He went 9-for-11 with 141 yards and an interception on a deep shot to Pettis on a fourth-and-4 play on the first drive of the second half.
This is one of those games where context is everything. The 49ers without Garoppolo throwing as well as he did may have been limited to just a field goal or two, leaving them susceptible to a fluke touchdown losing the game for them.
Instead, after the pick, Garoppolo led three field goal drives in about the nastiest possible conditions to ice the 49ers’ sixth win of the year.
Week 9 at Cardinals
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was a legitimate problem for the 49ers’ defense, and Arizona gave San Francisco’s defense fits in their first meeting. On the other side of the ball, the 49ers couldn’t get their run game going and averaged only 3.3 yards per carry on 31 attempts for the game.
That meant it was up to Garoppolo to carry them to a win and he did in a big way – completing 28 of his 37 attempts for 317 yards and four touchdowns.
It was the first time all year Garoppolo looked comfortable and in total command of the offense. He hit four different receivers for touchdowns, and was dealing with a banged up Kittle at tight end.
Perhaps the play of the game was the one that iced the win for San Francisco. Leading 28-25 and facing a third-and-9 at the Cardinals’ 48, Garoppolo dropped to throw with just under two minutes left. The pocket collapsed and he stepped up through it looking to run. At the last minute he found backup tight end Ross Dwelley open to his left, and flipped a pass that way. Dwelley grabbed it and barreled ahead for 11 yards and a game-winning first down.
The Cardinals’ defense wasn’t great this year, but Garoppolo put the team on his back that night and did what a good quarterback should do against a not-so-good defense.
Week 11 vs. Cardinals
Garoppolo’s next big-time game came against Arizona in a contest where the 49ers needed to come back from a 16-0 deficit without Kittle, who was dealing with knee and ankle injuries.
The first big play came on a well-executed throw-back screen to wide receiver Richie James that went 57 yards. Then Garoppolo hit fullback Kyle Juszczyk for 14 yards, and two plays later found Dwelley for a four-yard touchdown.
Garoppolo’s next touchdown pass gave the 49ers a 17-16 on their first drive of the third quarter. He found Dwelley again for a five-yard score.
The 49ers’ quarterback certainly wasn’t perfect. He threw the first of two bad interceptions which led to a Cardinals field goal that put them up 19-17. Garoppolo responded with a two-yard touchdown pass to Kendrick Bourne that made it 23-19 on the next series.
Arizona answered back to go up 26-23 on a rushing touchdown by Murray. Then came Garoppolo’s second bad interception. This one was on a throw behind Dwelley that bounced off the tight end’s outstretched hand and into the arms of Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson. After a stop by the defense, the 49ers offense got the ball on their own 35 with 2:12 left.
Garoppolo went 6-for-7 for 58 yards through the air, and had a seven-yard scramble to account for all 65 yards on the drive. His final completion was a 25-yard catch-and-run to running back Jeff Wilson on Wilson’s first snap of the game. Arizona came with an all-out blitz that Garoppolo recognized and stood in against to complete the throw to a wide open Wilson in the middle of the field.
The touchdown with 31 seconds left effectively iced the game. This wasn’t Garoppolo’s best game. He went 34-for-45 for 424 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions, but the picks were both in the red zone and on very poor reads and throws.
While the turnovers are troublesome, his sensational final drive is why the 49ers have so much faith in their quarterback. When the game was ultimately on the line, he came up with his best series of the day.
Week 14 at Saints
It doesn’t get much better than this. While the 49ers defense struggled to stop Drew Brees and the Saints’ offense, Garoppolo and the offense matched them step-for-step and ultimately overcame a pair of 13-point deficits in the Superdome.
Garoppolo was dialed in the entire contest, going 26-for-35 for 349 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. The turnover came on a good throw over the middle that uncharacteristically bounced off the hands of Emmanuel Sanders.
Still, there wasn’t a lot Garoppolo couldn’t do on that Sunday in New Orleans, and his completion to Kittle outside the numbers on a fourth-and-2 on the final drive of the game helped set up one of the best plays of the year.
Kittle’s long run after the catch put the 49ers in a spot to kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. While Kittle did a lion’s share of the work on the final play, Garoppolo still completed the fourth-down pass that would’ve gone for a first down even without the superhuman run by Kittle.
The more impressive part than the game-winning drive though was the overall body of work in the most hostile environment in the NFL. Garoppolo was nails all day in the biggest game of the year, and that above all else should be the moment people circle as evidence of his ability to keep up in a shootout.
Week 16 vs. Rams
The 49ers’ Week 16 showdown with the Rams wasn’t a must-win in the literal sense, but it was extremely important if they wanted a chance for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Again, Garoppolo wasn’t stellar over the length of the contest, with 17 completions on 26 attempts for 277 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, but his work on the final drive stood above his play as whole.
San Francisco faced a third-and-16 at its own 19 with just under two minutes to go. Garoppolo dropped back, and under heavy pressure, delivered a strike over the middle to wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who fell across the first-down marker for an 18-yard pickup.
The very next set of downs brought up another third-and-16, and again Garoppolo was equal to the task. He found wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders streaking all alone down the middle of the field, and aired out a strike for 46 yards all the way down to Los Angeles’ 28-yard-line. That set up another game-winning field goal for Robbie Gould as time expired.
Again, Garoppolo put an overall mediocre game behind him in the biggest moment. Just another piece of evidence for why the 49ers continue supporting their quarterback despite some mistakes and up-and-down performances.
Week 17 at Seahawks
There wasn’t any one moment that stuck out in Seattle, but Garoppolo’s outing in the biggest game of the year spoke volumes about his ability to play under heavy pressure.
San Francisco was the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a win, and the No. 5 seed with a loss. Defeating the Seahawks in Seattle for the first time since 2011 seemed like an even more daunting task considering the Seahawks had already notched a win over the 49ers in Week 10.
Garoppolo calmly completed 18-of-22 throws for 288 yards with no turnovers, including a perfect 7-for-7 for 132 yards in the second half. There weren’t any touchdowns for Garoppolo since Raheem Mostert had two rushing scores and Deebo Samuel added another, but his efficiency and perfection in the second half against the 49ers’ biggest boogeyman in the biggest game of the year spoke volumes about how well the quarterback performs in the biggest moments.
