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Watching Jimmy Garoppolo play quarterback is an emotional roller coaster filled with seemingly endless peaks and valleys that fluctuate throughout the game. However, while Garoppolo is throwing interceptions at the fifth-highest rate in the league (3.2 percent of his throws), his lows are generally followed by pretty substantial highs.
Josh Dubow of the Associated Press tweeted a remarkable stat about Garoppolo’s production on drives following an interception. While the 49ers’ quarterback is susceptible to making multiple mistakes per game, he never does it back-to-back.
His numbers immediately following an interception are tremendous:
Jimmy Garoppolo on the 10 drives for #49ers following his INTs this season is 32 for 35 for 288 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs and a 120 passer rating
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) November 21, 2019
Three incompletions in 10 series following an interception is a remarkable number. The low yardage and touchdown totals indicate Garoppolo is a little more conservative with the ball in the set of downs after a pick, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed Garoppolo’s sometimes reckless play during his Wednesday press conference.
“I think that’s part of football, you get used to that stuff,” Shanahan said. “What’s more frustrating to me is when a guy can’t make any plays and a guy can’t throw it at all and you just sit there and you’re beating your head against the wall for three-and-a-half hours. So, it’s nice when they do make a lot of plays and do some good stuff, but some bad plays do come with that. I understand that, I think Jimmy will get better in that area. I think he does continue to get in that area and I think we also could make it easier on him based on the type of game we call, how good we do around him, but that’s part of football. It’s very rare that you just come out and throw a ton of touchdowns and not picks, but I do like that Jimmy doesn’t seem to be affected by it, that he doesn’t go into a shell. He still gives us a chance to win. The more that he can keep playing the way he is without doing those turnovers, the harder he’ll be to stop.”
It’s important to remember with Garoppolo that he’s still just 20 starts into his NFL career. A bad throw here and there comes with the territory of being an NFL signal caller. He’s not near his ceiling in terms of development as a passer, so there should be some optimism that his turnover issues will subside at some point.
For now, San Francisco will have to take the good with the bad. Garoppolo racked up a career-high 424 yards, and tied his career-best with four touchdown passes in the 49ers’ 36-26 win over the Cardinals last week. He also tossed two bad interceptions – one of which nearly ended the game.
What matters when the clock hits 0:00 though is that Garoppolo threw a game-winning touchdown pass with 31 seconds left after his defense got him the ball back. It’s the good with the bad, and Garoppolo continues to thrive immediately following a mistake. It’s not perfect, but it’s a better spot to be in than having a quarterback who compounds his mistakes.