Finally, the truth comes out.
The Kansas City Chiefs spent the week before Super Bowl 54 praising Jimmy Garoppolo. They had nothing but nice things to say about a quarterback who appeared to be an accessory to the San Francisco 49ers offense during the playoffs. While the Chiefs’ words were kind, their game plan was not. Kansas City adjusted their defense to challenge Garoppolo to throw the ball, and he struggled to do so.
After the Chiefs’ 31-20 win over the 49ers, a few Kansas City players spoke their mind about Garoppolo’s performance.
“You paying the guy $140 million, $130 million, whatever he’s getting paid, man,” Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark said in an interview on the Fox Sports postgame broadcast. “He’s gotta throw the ball. Obviously he didn’t do that. They threw for about 200 yards on checkdowns. That ain’t enough to win a game against us.”
Clark has a tendency to be brutally honest during postgame conversations. He did the same thing when ranting about Titans running back Derrick Henry on the field after the AFC championship.
Frank Clark on Jimmy G: pic.twitter.com/NFwizcmnao
— Emerald City Sporting News (@ECSN206) February 3, 2020
Garoppolo finished the game throwing 20 of 31 for 219 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The 49ers were running a balanced attack early in the game, but when the Chiefs took the lead in the fourth quarter, Garoppolo began to throw at a higher volume. He couldn’t make enough plays to beat back Patrick Mahomes’ comeback efforts.
Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu admitted he was “grateful they (the 49ers) got out of the run and started to throw the ball,” via ESPN’s Will Cain.
Perhaps they didn’t respect Garoppolo as much as they claimed.
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