The San Francisco 49ers gave up a 10-0 lead last week in a 19-10 loss to the Chicago Bears thanks to monsoon-lite conditions at Soldier Field and the relative inexperience of quarterback Trey Lance. They didn’t have to contend with either in Week 2 and improved to 1-1 as a result.
Reasonable weather in Santa Clara and a first quarter, season-ending ankle injury for Lance led to Jimmy Garoppolo’s triumphant return to the lineup. Garoppolo didn’t have to do much; he only threw 21 passes as the Niners controlled the game early and protected their lead en route to 45 run plays.
What we saw from the starter-turned-backup-turned-starter was generally positive. He completed 62 percent of his passes, lost zero yards via sack, avoided turnovers and scored two touchdowns — one on the ground and one through the air.
He wasn’t asked to do much. He certainly didn’t show the kind of downfield passing attack Kyle Shanahan wanted so badly from his quarterback that he was willing to trade three first round picks just for the chance to draft Lance in 2021:
Only three of Garoppolo’s passes covered more than 15 yards downfield. This wasn’t a problem because the Seahawks are bad (more on that later), but it will likely take pages out of Shanahan’s playbook.
This isn’t new. In 2021, the Niner QB ranked 22nd in the league with an average throw depth of 7.5 yards downfield. Despite a litany of shorter, easier passes Jimmy G had an interception rate that ranked in the bottom third of all starting QBs.
In 2019 he ranked 31st out of 32 quarterbacks in pass distance. His 2.7 percent interception rate ranked 26th. While Garoppolo wins games — 32-14 now as San Francisco’s primary quarterback in the regular season! — he attempts too many short passes and too often throws them badly.
The 49ers are ready for this because they’ve dealt with it each of the last five seasons. It’s why they’ve cultivated a receiving corps that’s led the league in yards after catch every year since 2018. Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle (once healthy) are gonna scoop the ball six yards downfield and get tackled eight yards later. San Francisco will ride that and an army of running backs who slid to Day 3 of the draft or later to a playoff berth.
It’s fine! Or at least it was Sunday.
Of course, it’s tough to read too much into a win over the Seahawks in 2022. Seattle beat the Denver Broncos in Week 1. This was generally regarded as a louder statement regarding Nathaniel Hackett’s misconfigured football brain than anything positive about Pete Carroll’s team. Denver’s Week 2 struggles against the Houston Texans and Seattle’s, uh, whatever the hell this was seemed to confirm that:
.@49ers weren’t fooled on this trick play…
📺: #SEAvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/5seLjDGe69 pic.twitter.com/aj07qUbesx— NFL (@NFL) September 18, 2022
The Seahawks have a strangely constructed roster trapped between a rebuild and contention with a septuagenarian head coach. I don’t know what the 49ers ceiling for 2022 is after welcoming Jimmy Garoppolo back to the fold. I just know we didn’t see it in a home win over the woebegone ‘Hawks.
