The last time San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo squared off against Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs, he left early due to a torn ACL that put his 2018 campaign to an abrupt end.
Now, he will go against Kansas City for just the second time in his 49ers tenure on pro football’s biggest stage in Super Bowl LIV.
Garoppolo makes a good case for the Comeback Player of the Year award since tearing his ACL at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 3 of the 2018 season.
In 2019, Garoppolo led the 49ers to a 13-3 record, won the NFC as the 1st seed and had the best season of his career thus far.
For the 2019 season, Jimmy-G completed 69.1 percent of his throws for 3,978 yards and 27 TDS to 13 INTS, ranking 5th among NFL passers in the game today.
That being said, there’s skepticism on if Garoppolo can go toe to toe with Patrick Mahomes if the big game were to turn into a shootout.
San Francisco is built with an elite defense and a great run game and never really needed Garoppolo to step up in many games in order to win this past season.
In their divisional matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, Garoppolo only threw for 131 yards and in the NFC Championship against the Green Bay Packers, he attempted just 8 passes, completing 6 for 77 yards.
San Francisco won both games by 17 points on their way to the Super Bowl.
However, the lack of passing production may have to change against Patrick Mahomes and this Kansas City offense.
Mahomes is considered the most prolific passer in the National Football League right now, having already set playoff passing records in the divisional and championship rounds and now has a chance to be the youngest QB to win a league MVP and a Super Bowl in his young career.
The fact that Mahomes has more passing yards in the second quarter than Garoppolo has overall this postseason, paints a good picture of how different these two quarterbacks are.
So, assuming Mahomes and the Chiefs offense begin to run like they normally do, would Garoppolo be able to keep up?
There’s reason to believe that he can.
Jimmy-G has thrown 35 or more passes in just four games this past year and won three of them. The lone loss was in overtime against the Seattle Seahawks on November 11, 2019.
In the other three games, Garoppolo threw 4 touchdowns and completed 75-percent of his passes and one of those games just so happened to be a 48-46 shootout victory against Drew Brees and the Saints in the Superdome. Garoppolo also led a game-winning drive to seal that victory.
Not only does this prove that Garoppolo has the ability to hang with Mahomes in a winner take all quarterback dual, but he’s also proven this year that he won’t crack under pressure.
What I mean by that is, a lead over Jimmy-G is never safe because he finished the regular season tied for most fourth-quarter comebacks with four.
So with that being said, Super Bowl LIV has a chance to be arguably the most exciting one the NFL has displayed in a long time. Especially if both Pat Mahomes and Jimmy Garoppolo light up the scoreboard and that’s just one of the many individual matchups that will unfold this weekend.
We’re in for a treat.
