Niners Steamroll

The sequence, to Jimmy Garoppolo, was nothing special, even if the result was spectacular. With three minutes left in the third quarter of a game that the Green Bay Packers were suddenly threatening to turn competitive, the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback walked to the line of scrimmage, surveyed the defense and checked into a “can” option that coach Kyle Shanahan had built into the call. After taking a snap from under center, Garoppolo executed an exquisite play fake to running back Raheem Mostert and rolled to his left, seemingly locked in on receiver Richie James Jr., who had swept into the left flat after motioning across the formation. Then, suddenly, Garoppolo stopped, set his feet and delivered a pinpoint pass to tight end George Kittle, who had completely duped Packers cornerback Kevin King while running a corner post from left to right.

The upshot was a 61-yard touchdown that gave the 49ers a 22-point lead and ended any suspense in a Sunday Night Football game featuring two of the NFC’s top teams coming in — though the Niners’ 37-8 victory in front of 71,500 fans at Levi’s Stadium left the indelible impression that the gap between San Francisco and Green Bay is massive. One key distinction: While the 49ers’ menacing front seven swallowed up Aaron Rodgers, limiting the Pack’s future first-ballot Hall of Famer to 104 passing yards while sacking him five times and harassing him on many of his 33 attempts, Garoppolo sliced up the Packers’ secondary like a knife through, well, spreadable cheese.

After Jimmy G completed 14 of 20 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns without an interception — or, realistically, a mistake of any consequence — a case could be made that given the setting and significance, this was his most impressive game of the season.

When I tried making that case to Garoppolo as we stood at his locker long after the game, he laughed and acted as though he’d just been congratulated for tidying up his cubicle.

“Nah, it was just another one,” he said of his performance. “It wasn’t anything crazy. My teammates made it pretty easy.”

Perhaps, but in playing a strikingly clean game against the Packers (8-3), Garoppolo reinforced his credentials as the quarterback of his conference’s top dog. Only the AFC-leading New England Patriots, the team which selected Garoppolo out of Eastern Illinois in the second round of the 2014 draft and traded him to San Francisco midway through the 2017 season, has a record that matches that of the 49ers (10-1), who aced the first stage of a three-week gauntlet that includes the 8-2 Ravens (next Sunday in Baltimore) and the 9-2 Saints (the following Sunday in New Orleans).

Contrary to some depictions, Garoppolo isn’t merely a superfluous game manager who soaks up the glory while a strong rushing attack, Shanahan’s brilliant game-planning and play-calling, and a dominant defense do the heavy lifting.

“They’re hard on the quarterback,” 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman said of Garoppolo, who missed most of the 2018 season after suffering a severe knee injury in Week 3. “It’s his, what, 11th game coming off a torn ACL? For most people, they get the benefit of the doubt, but not him. When we run for 250 (yards), people say, ‘He didn’t throw enough.’ When he puts up big numbers, people say, ‘Yeah, but they weren’t playing anybody good.’ He can’t win for losing.”

Jimmy G, however, can win in the most important manifestation of the term: He’s 16-3 as San Francisco’s starter, including the five-game winning streak that ended the 2017 season, a stretch which many of the fired-up 49er Faithful spent chanting “MVP” and calling him “Jimmy Jesus.”

The following February, the Niners gave Garoppolo a five-year, $137.5 million contract extension, but the fairy tale soon ended. A slow start in 2018, followed by the torn ACL, created some trepidation as San Francisco set out to rebound from a 4-12 finish that put a ton of pressure on Shanahan heading into his third season.