A little more than a month after being traded to San Francisco, Jimmy Garoppolo made his first start with the 49ers. He completed 26 of 37 passes for 293 yards. He did not throw a touchdown, and he was intercepted once.
He led the 49ers on five scoring drives, every one of them ending in a Robbie Gould field goal. That includes the game-winner with four seconds left in the fourth quarter.
In all, it was a successful debut start, if not necessarily one for the ages. Just don't tell that to the 49ers, who were incredibly impressed with Garoppolo's play. The team's leading receiver in the win, Marquise Goodwin (8 catches, 99 yards), apparently gave Garoppolo his seat in the first row of the bus. Not only that -- the team applauded him for doing so.
49ers players were so impressed with Jimmy Garoppolo yesterday after their 15-14 win at Chicago that wide receiver Marquise Goodwin - with other players cheering - offered to get up and give Garoppolo his first-row seat on the team bus when Garoppolo boarded it. #49ers
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) December 4, 2017
A win is a win; and Garoppolo both played pretty well AND led a game-winning drive, but this reaction also tells us just how low the bar for a super-impressive quarterback performance was for the Niners. Brian Hoyer and C.J. Beathard did not shower themselves in glory in their 11 starts before Garoppolo took helm of the team on Sunday, completing 56.4 percent of their passes and averaging 6.2 yards per attempt while throwing just eight touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
If Garoppolo starts playing as well in San Francisco as he did in his two starts for New England last season, who knows how his teammates will react.
