Jimmy Garoppolo was sacked six times in the 49ers’ narrow win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon. Oddly, Garoppolo seemed to have pretty decent protection on many of those drop backs, leading one to speculate either that the 49ers’ receivers weren’t getting open, or that Garoppolo was holding onto the ball too long.
After the game, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan pointed to both, but said specifically that Jimmy G needs to get rid of the ball quicker.
“I thought he took too many,” Shanahan said of Garoppolo when asked about the sacks. “We’ve got to get open, we’ve got to beat man coverage, that’s for sure. I thought we could’ve done a better job today beating man coverage, but on a number of those I thought we had to get rid of it. I’ll see when I see the tape on all of them, but those ones in the red zone especially, you’d like to give a guy an opportunity, and if he doesn’t beat man, we’ve got to get rid of the ball.”
Garoppolo seemed to agree, indicating on multiple occasions that he thought the offensive line gave him ample time to throw on Sunday.
“I’ve got to get the ball out faster, help those guys out, get our offense into more of a rhythm, and just take what they are giving me type of thing,” Garoppolo said. “I thought the offensive line played great today. Mike (Person) stepping up like he did, he didn’t practice all week and he comes out and had a hell of a game for us. Those guys up front are battling and I’ve got to help them out.”
Garoppolo was asked if he was being over-cautious after throwing a career-high three interceptions in last week’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
“It’s always in your mind you don’t want to throw interceptions, but I think there’s a happy medium,” Garoppolo said. “I think it’s like everything with a quarterback. It’s about decision making and putting your team in the right spot to be successful.”
Other than the sacks, the numbers would seem to indicate that Garoppolo had a spectacular game on Sunday, posting a 118.4 quarterback rating while going 18-of-26 for 206 yards and two touchdowns. That performance was mitigated somewhat by what was nearly a costly late-game interception by Garoppolo, that was called back by a questionable holding penalty on the Lions.