Is Garoppolo’s sloppy play going to be a trend all season?
One of the questions about the 49ers’ starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, is his turnovers during last season. He came away with a 2.8-percent interception rate as he threw five picks last season.
It continued into 2018, as he threw three interceptions in his first career loss. Even worse, he completed just 45.5 percent of his passes against one of the better defenses in the NFL.
These aren’t the stats of a quarterback making the money that Garoppolo is making.
To be fair to the 26-year-old QB, he was hampered all game by pressure up front and drops by his receivers. Some of these drops occurred on touchdown passes or plays that would have converted into scoring drives.
A few notable drops were:
- The deep pass to wide receiver Dante Pettis on first down that would’ve given the rookie his first touchdown (before his official first touchdown). This was on the drive where running back Alfred Morris fumbled the ball in the red zone.
- Garoppolo’s pass deep left to tight end George Kittle where he was wide open and dropped. The very next play, Garoppolo threw an interception that’s returned for a touchdown by Vikings cornerback Mike Hughes.
- Another is a third-down pass in the red zone that Pierre Garçon dropped. The next play was a Robbie Gould field goal.
It doesn’t help either that Garoppolo was pressured all game and had offensive line issues. He was sacked three times and hit nine other times. Both Mike Person and Joshua Garnett were out for the rest of the game for right guard. This is another thing that affected his play.
It’s a rough start to the season for the $137.5 million man. However, this is what to expect when facing the No. 1 defense in the league.
He’ll bounce back.
