The 49ers are not a run-first team. Nor are they a pass-first team. The fact is whether Jimmy Garoppolo threw it eight times or 50 times in the NFC championship game, it holds no bearing on how the 49ers will operate in the Super Bowl.
What we saw in the 49ers’ two playoff games was the inherent risk-reward of having Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback, and how Kyle Shanahan navigates that in the postseason. We also saw a masterclass in run blocking and play design that allowed Shanahan to be extra cautious with his quarterback.
Garoppolo is a gunslinger who’ll make magnificent plays like his two conversions on third-and-16 in Week 16 against the Rams. He’ll also give away interceptions like the pair he threw in the red zone Week 11 against the Cardinals. Shanahan typically doesn’t shelve the quarterback completely after a mistake. He generally bounces back well.
The 49ers quarterback didn’t get much leash in the postseason after firing an interception into the hands of Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks just before the end of the first half of their divisional round matchup. San Francisco at the time led 14-7, and Garoppolo’s interception gave Minnesota the ball deep in 49er territory.
Since that interception, Garoppolo has attempted just 14 passes. He threw six in the second half against the Vikings, and eight in the NFC championship vs. the Packers. Eight wasn’t just a low number of attempts. It was the fewest in a playoff game since the 1973 Miami Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese tossed seven passes in Super Bowl VIII.
Part of the reason for Garoppolo’s 14 pass attempts in his last six quarters is Shanahan minimizing the risk of a game-changing mistake by his quarterback. He completed his first three throws, all in the second series, Sunday for 42 yards to help set up running back Raheem Mostert for a 36-yard touchdown to open the scoring.
Green Bay never got close again, and Garoppolo tossed only five passes the rest of the way in a 37-20 rout.
While Shanahan’s faith in Garoppolo to take care of the football may have played a role in his eight pass attempts, the head coach’s offensive philosophy and the team’s run-blocking clinic helped push them away from the pass for the entire third quarter and most of the fourth quarter.
San Francisco, for the game, attempted 42 carries for 285 yards. That’s good for 6.8 yards per carry – the fourth time a team has reached that average on at least 42 carries in a playoff game. (The last time it happened was the 49ers-Packers divisional playoff game at Candlestick Park in 2013).
Shanahan said prior to the Vikings game that leading the game in carries was typically a recipe to winning.
“Eventually if you just get five yards here and there every time, that’s great, but are you going to get points,” Shanahan said. “All that stuff goes into it. You can’t give a good answer for that because there’s variables within the entire game that usually leads to who has the most run carries. Usually the team who has the most run carries wins so you try to get the most run carries. But, the answer isn’t just calling run every play.”
The 49ers got explosive runs, converted third downs and were scoring points in the run game. They’ve out-rushed both of their opponents and won both playoff games with their quarterback essentially riding shotgun. Some of that is certainly on the quarterback, but we’re not seeing a dramatic shift in offensive philosophy from Shanahan that we can anticipate moving forward.
When it came time to make a play after Green Bay cut the lead to 34-20 with 8:13 left, Shanahan dusted off his quarterback’s right arm. Garoppolo completed his sixth and final pass on a first-down crossing route to tight end George Kittle, who turned the corner and plowed ahead for 19 yards.
Garoppolo’s final pass attempt of the game came two plays later when Shanahan called upon his quarterback again to make a throw on a high-leverage third-and-3 play. The pass fell incomplete, but Kittle was interfered with and the 49ers secured a first down.
San Francisco ran it 51 percent of the time in the regular season. That number has skyrocketed to 76.7 percent in the postseason.
There’s been a talking point on some sports talk shows and sites following the NFC championship that this is the new 49ers. They’re going to go into the Super Bowl and run it 45 times no matter what happens because Shanahan doesn’t trust Garoppolo.
Given what we know about Shanahan and what we’ve seen from Garoppolo over a 16-week sample size, it’s impossible to fathom that being the case. And that’s why Shanahan has so much success as an offensive play caller. He’s not adherent to a scheme or a style of play. The 49ers have had games where Garoppolo throws it 40-plus times. They’ve had games where they run it 40-plus times. There’s not a play-type specific label for what Shanahan’s offense does. He’s going to do what works.
“Everybody wants to commit to the run and stuff,” he said in the week prior to the divisional playoffs. “Committing to the run isn’t just committing to the run. Players laugh at me a lot because I always say, ‘Do you guys want to run the ball?’ Yeah. You better be able to throw it then. If we want to throw it, you better be able to run it. You don’t just run the ball and get 40 runs by calling run-run-pass because you’re going to be in some third-and-eights. You’re not going to do that good on third-and-eight. You have to mix it up, you’ve got to do things.”
If the 49ers are going to get labeled a ‘running team’ ahead of the Super Bowl, that’s perfectly fine for them. They’ve won games on the ground, and they’ve won them in the air. The ideal game plan for Shanahan includes a little bit of both, but if the Chiefs come ready to sell out to stop one, the 49ers offense will be ready to counter effectively with the other. They just haven’t had to do it in the playoffs yet.
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