Jimmy Garoppolo Is Quickly Becoming ‘Jimmy Goat’, Not GOAT, for the 49ers
Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers are already mired in the post-Super Bowl loss hangover.
Although the 49ers have been plagued by injuries in the early going, the list of excuses only runs so far for Garoppolo and friends.
San Francisco even benched Garoppolo midway through a surprising Week 5 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
The San Francisco 49ers have to be concerned at this point, because Garoppolo is looking more like Jimmy ‘Goat’ instead of Jimmy ‘GOAT.’
Jimmy Garoppolo is having a mixed start to 2020
A quick glance at Jimmy Garoppolo’s traditional statistics shows he’s really not playing all that poorly.
Garoppolo completed 57.6% of his passes for 259 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in a Week 1 loss to Kyler Murray and the Cardinals.
A week later, Garoppolo hit 14 of his 16 passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-13 rout over the New York Jets.
Garoppolo left the game early, though, because of a high ankle sprain and missed the next two games.
When Garoppolo returned in Week 5, however, he looked nothing like his usual self. Garoppolo completed just seven of his 17 passes for 77 yards and two interceptions. Garoppolo also fumbled at one point.
San Francisco pulled Garoppolo after only 31 snaps and replaced him with C.J. Beathard.
The 49ers should have seen this coming
Although San Francisco is 2-3 this season, those two victories came at MetLife Stadium against Giants and Jets teams that went a combined 0-10 through Week 5.
San Francisco’s other three games were all in Santa Clara, Calif., and they lost all three. The most recent loss, a 43-17 defeat to an inconsistent Miami Dolphins team, was a bad look for the reigning NFC champions.
San Francisco should have seen this coming, however. With respect to Jimmy Garoppolo, he is a game-managing quarterback who made it where he did last year because of a great defense, solid running game, and enough awareness to not be considered a liability.
One game, and his first game back from injury, isn’t enough to say Garoppolo is in trouble. But when injuries have plagued the defense, and the running game has been inconsistent, San Francisco should have seen this coming from their franchise quarterback.
Jimmy Garoppolo is Jimmy ‘Goat’, not Jimmy GOAT
The 49ers’ loss in Super Bowl 54 is because of two things: Allowing Patrick Mahomes back in the game, and Jimmy Garoppolo’s lack of a clutch gene.
A 2-2 start in an extremely competitive NFC West Division requires players to show their toughness. Even with the NFL expanding to seven playoff seeds per conference, 10 wins in the NFC West may not even be enough for a postseason spot.
Jimmy Garoppolo’s nickname is ‘Jimmy G.’ Instead of becoming Jimmy GOAT, or Greatest of All-Time, with a Super Bowl victory last year, his poor play down the stretch made him Jimmy ‘Goat,’ or someone who failed at the worst possible time.
If the 49ers are hoping they’ll see Jimmy GOAT in the next few weeks, they need to reconsider. San Francisco has five straight games against teams with winning records before a bye week.
The 49ers then travel to the Rams in Week 12 and host the Buffalo Bills a week later.
Of San Francisco’s 11 remaining games, only a Week 14 home game against Washington and, possibly, a Week 15 trip to Dallas — now without Dak Prescott — look winnable.
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