Jimmy Garoppolo is no stranger to this situation.
The 49ers covered up his anything-but-elite quarterback play for not one, but two playoff games only two seasons ago.
But eventually, as it always does, the burden of offensive success fell on the quarterback.
The Niners tried to hide him as long as they could, but in the third game — Super Bowl LIV — Garoppolo crumbled under the weight. His fourth-quarter quarterback rating in the biggest game of his life was 2.8. That's out of 158.3. He completed only two of his 10 pass attempts for 24 yards and he threw an interception.
Garoppolo has another chance at a third playoff game on Sunday, when the 49ers play the Rams in the NFC Championship Game in Los Angeles.
And while the Niners will once again try to ensure that Garoppolo — who has thumb and shoulder injuries — is not the fulcrum of the team's offensive attack, the Rams will do their best to make sure that he is.
If Sunday is the moment he is called upon to lead the way to victory — to be the MVP of the game — can he do it?
Maybe.
I wish I had a better answer for you. I wish I could levy a strong prediction. Even I, someone who has called out Garoppolo for sub-par play again and again (and, today, again) can't tell you. The truth is that nothing seems off the table for Garoppolo, good or bad.
Garoppolo has shown that perplexing duality during the Niners' run to this improbable championship game. At times, he has been woeful — a curse on an otherwise great team. Other times, he's been clean, efficient, and accurate — a leader of the highest order and a quarterback who seems undeniable in the biggest moments.
As we saw Tennessee in Week 16 and Dallas in the wild-card game, and, oh yeah, the last time the 49ers played the Rams, in Week 18 with the playoffs on the line, Garoppolo can be both versions of himself in the same game. Good Jimmy or Bad Jimmy — you never know which one is going to show up when the ball is snapped.
Yes, the Garoppolo experience has required an increased dose of Dramamine — and perhaps some stronger stuff — over the last few weeks. And yet here the Niners are. In a league defined by quarterbacks, Garoppolo and San Francisco stand as part of the NFL's final four.
Let's be clear: Garoppolo has the ability to be the exact quarterback the 49ers need to reach the Super Bowl with a win on Sunday. His best might not be anything close to the level of Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, but in this Niners' offense — and with this great defense's backing — the best of Garoppolo (no turnovers, a couple of nice throws) is more than enough to win and play for a championship in the same stadium in a few weeks.
But we're yet to see that Garoppolo in a postseason game. Frankly, we have not seen that kind of play against a good opponent since Week 10, when the Niners beat the Rams at Levi's Stadium. (I won't just happily forget that Garoppolo had a game-losing pick-six dropped in Cincinnati in Week 14.)
It's without argument that Garoppolo has been the Niners' weak point on offense in the Niners' two trips to the playoffs. If you can't agree to that, you're beyond salvation.
After all, Garoppolo has completed only 62% of his passes, 146 yards per game, two touchdowns to five interceptions in five games.
This postseason, he's completed 61% of his passes for 151 yards per game, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions (with far more possible interceptions than touchdowns).
This isn't the 1970s. This is not a model for winning a title.
"All he does is win" I hear his supporters claim. Indeed, the Niners are 4-1 with him at the helm in the playoffs. But it's more like the 49ers win and Garoppolo comes along for the ride, sometimes chipping in at the end, just to make sure he gets his name on the group project.
I would even go as far to say that Garoppolo's performance in this postseason to date — again, both games the 49ers have won — has done nothing to increase the slim chances of him coming back to the team next year.
Think about it: if the 49ers can get this far with this kind of quarterback play, what's the impediment to moving on from Garoppolo?
Perhaps Trey Lance, Garoppolo's replacement next season, won't have the ineffable qualities that No. 10 carries: Garoppolo is tough, well-liked, and his relentless sense of optimism seems to rub off on the team, especially in big moments. But I think those things get far too much run for Jimmy G.
He's a quarterback of a final four team — for most folks it feels strange to not compliment him. But, what else has there been to compliment him about as of late other than the things we cannot quantify?
The truth is because the 49ers keep winning with Garoppolo, some folks feel the need to package the quarterback's bad as good and his average as great.
Even his teammates are flummoxed by the fact that he is at the helm of a final four team.
Niners linebacker Fred Warner is a sharp guy. I don't say that about everyone. But check out the logical knots he tied himself into to explain Garoppolo being a final four quarterback:
"Well, I mean, we're able to maintain trust in him because we keep winning," Warner said. "A quarterback, if you went down the list of [the] order of importance of positions on the team, like, [the] quarterback's number one. A team's success is very heavily dependent on the quarterback position. So the fact that we're winning games is not just a surprise, Jimmy's playing great football."
He continued:
"And it's a team game. It's not just all heavily dependent upon if Jimmy does well when we're gonna win. No, he does exactly what we need him to and he comes into work every single day and it is the exact same person."
Did you follow that? The Niners keep winning, so Garoppolo must be playing well. After all, the quarterback position is the most important on the field. But also, the Niners don't need Garoppolo to win games, because it's a team sport.
Huh?
Rams quarterback Matt Stafford sure wishes he could have Warner tripping over himself like that come Sunday.
But the duality of Garoppolo doesn't matter for Sunday. That's because the time for grading on the curve is over for the Niners' quarterback.
Whether you believe he's an impediment to winning or someone who has done his part to date — or both, like Warner — the Niners are going to need more from Garoppolo than what they have received to date this postseason.
Can he do it? Absolutely. But that's no longer the question.
The right question is "will he do it?"
We're about to find out.
