Sunday’s outing against the Arizona Cardinals wasn’t the worst performance of Jimmy Garoppolo’s career. It wasn’t even the worst Week 1 performance of his career. In fact, in a three-year sample size with the 49ers, Garoppolo has struggled mightily in season openers. His numbers from Week 1’s 24-20 loss to Arizona were actually his best opening-day numbers in a 49ers uniform.
Here are Garoppolo’s stat lines from each of his season openers with San Francisco:
2018 loss at Minnesota: 15-for-33, 261 yards, TD, 3 INT, 7.9 YPA
2019 win at Tampa Bay: 18-for-27, 166 yards, TD, INT, 6.2 YPA
2020 loss vs. Arizona: 19-33, 259 yards, 2 TDs, 7.9 YPA
The 2018 opener gets lost because he wound up tearing his ACL in Week 3 vs. the Chiefs that season.
In 2019 his showing included a Pick 6, but the 49ers’ defense answered with a pair of interception returns for touchdowns to help lift San Francisco to a 31-17 victory. Had they lost that one, the reaction may have been worse than it was after this year’s loss.
This season the numbers were much better, but the performance wasn’t good. He went 7-for-9 for 135 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. Garoppolo was efficient, hitting his open receivers, and helping the offense churn out 10 points in its first two series.
Then the wheels came off. He was indecisive, inaccurate and came up short on an attempted game-winning drive that included a couple of bad throws to end the game. After a hot start, he went 12-for-24 for 124 yards and a touchdown over the final three quarters. And the numbers matched the eye test.
While a pattern of poor early-season performances isn’t great, and Sunday’s game was an indicator that Garoppolo hasn’t taken the step forward the team hoped he would in the offseason, there’s a precedent for him bouncing back from a bad showing early. It’s part of what the team and coaches like about him. He’s capable of putting mistakes behind him. That goes for after he throws an interception and after he has a bad outing.
Even though he wasn’t great, Garoppolo is starting at a better spot than he did last year, and last year he wound up putting up a good enough season to get the team to the Super Bowl. He’ll need to continue improving for the 49ers to have a shot to contend in 2020, but if last year is any indication, it’ll only get better from here.
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