Picture from The Press Democrat
With distrust from all around, Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Fransisco 49ers after a great season made it to Super Bowl LIV. Garoppolo had a chance to prove everyone who belittled him, compared him to Trent Dilfer at his worst, and didn't believe he could get here wrong. This was the perfect chance to toss out all the gossip about his playing style, and preeminence. With only 2:44 seconds left, the 49ers were only down 24-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs, holding a full amount of timeouts. With two incomplete passes from Garoppolo, and an overthrown pass to Emmanuel sanders. If only he had been a few feet further, this game could've had a very different outcome. The next play was quickly ended by a sack, making it the Chief's possession, who scored once more to win 31-20. Losing their 10-point lead started their domino effect of problems. Offensively, completed plays were very rarely seen, and they consistently showed weakness to protect Garoppolo. Defensively, they weren't able to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Kansas City also showed remarkable defense from the start of the fourth quarter, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo made sure of that. Between three quarters, the 49ers offensive line allowed three pressures on Garoppolo's first 20 dropbacks, and in the fourth quarter, they pressured Garoppolo on eight of his 13 dropbacks. In conclusion, Garoppolo went 2-of-9 including two interceptions, and during the fourth quarter 0-for-6 with a pick. Although Garoppolo showed a lot of strengths during this difficult loss, Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark had a very few choice words to say about quarterback Garoppolo after his first Super Bowl "You paying the guy $140 million, $130 million, whatever he's getting paid," Clark said. "He's gotta throw the ball. Obviously, He didn't do that. They threw for about 200 yards on check-downs; that ain't enough to win a game against us." As Garoppolo continues to get heat for this game, opponent quarterback Patrick Mahomes earned Super Bowl MVP and full support from his surroundings. Considering Garoppolo came back from a torn ACL, it wasn't an easy adjustment back into the game, but after getting into the groove he became more comfortable and gathered big wins to get here. Next season Garoppolo will be another year further from his ACL injury and have a better understanding of how head coach Kyle Shanahan runs the team, and the system he uses. What does Garoppolo need to do in order to take the next step as a quarterback? What does he need to do for another chance to win the chip?
