Jimmy Garoppolo vows to use 49ers’ Super Bowl loss as fuel for 2020
Jimmy Garoppolo knew what’s coming.
After losing the Super Bowl, and completing just 3 of 11 passes during the team’s fourth-quarter collapse, the 49ers franchise quarterback is going to be the target of scrutiny throughout the offseason until his team gets back on the field next fall to avenge Sunday’s defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“As an offense, as a team, we’ve been in that situation multiple times and we answered the bell,” Garoppolo said Wednesday as players cleaned out their lockers. “It’s tough when that one time you didn’t. But that’s what people will remember. You just got to own up to it, be a man about it.”
San Francisco’s stellar 13-3 regular season came to a screeching halt Sunday in Miami as Chiefs confetti fell on to the field at Hard Rock Stadium. And Garoppolo emerged as the most talked about player from the game after failing to come through while Kansas City outscored his team 21-0 in the final frame.
One play in particular might stick with Garoppolo for a long, long time: his incompletion to receiver Emmanuel Sanders in which he overthrew Sanders for a possible go-ahead touchdown with 1:40 remaining. The series ended in a turnover on downs, the Chiefs scored their final touchdown and the 49ers lost, 31-20.
“At some point you got to move on from it,” Garoppolo said. “Like I said before, it sucks, obviously (there are) some throws I wish I had back, some throws I made differently. The one to E, just missed him putting a little too much on it. But you got to be a man, you got to own up to those things. So, some things I’d probably have back. But this whole year, it’s been incredible.”
Said coach Kyle Shanahan on Garoppolo’s performance after the game: “I think there were some good things. We’ll be able to find out more. I thought he played alright.”
This season was Garoppolo’s first as a full-time starter. He was the only quarterback in the NFL to finish in the top five in completion percentage, touchdown passes and yards per attempt. And he helped get his team to the Super Bowl despite missing the final 13 games last season coming off a left ACL tear. The 49ers became the third team in history to make the Super Bowl a season removed from winning four games or fewer.
And instead of relearning how to run while recovering from knee surgery and a lengthy rehab process, as he did last spring, Garoppolo plans to have a better opportunity to hone his craft in the offseason so he can help his team get back to the Super Bowl stage next year.
“Just got to tell yourself to remember the feeling,” he said. “Just remember that moment and just got to let it fuel you for this offseason. Just got to come back stronger ready for next year.”
Garoppolo finished the game with one touchdown pass, two interceptions, 219 yards and a 69.2 rating. His 4.81 adjusted net yards per attempt, which accounts for interceptions, was his lowest mark of the season.