San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo spoke with reporters before Thursday's practice as the team prepares for the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Going back to Kansas City, what can that do for you mentally to kind of get going in the comeback?
"It'll be a good stepping stone. Definitely it'll be a little weird getting back there, but yeah, just trying to treat it like a normal game."
Have you flashed back to that moment a lot over these last 11 months?
"Yeah, initially after it happened. I mean, you try to replay it all in your head and what you'd do differently and everything like that and really everything that goes into it. It's come up a couple times, but I think I'm past that at this point."
When you watched the tape from last week, what did you see? I know it was just a few snaps.
"Yeah, just little details here and there. Just got to be sharper with those things, starting with myself, and I think it'll help our offense going forward."
What were those joint practices like? It seemed like sort of a night and day difference between what you did against the Broncos the Friday and Saturday versus the Monday.
"Well obviously, preseason and everything, you're not truly game planning and everything, but I thought the practices went really well. We moved the ball pretty frequently and we got into a good rhythm offensively. I just felt like in the game we couldn't get into that rhythm. I thought that was a big difference."
It seemed like you had a week from hell last week starting with Wednesday where anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Have you ever experienced anything like that as an athlete and what do you do to just move on and maintain confidence?
"Yeah, I'm sure it's happened at some point throughout my football career. That's football, though. There's going to be ups and downs. As a quarterback, you just try to stay right in the middle the whole time and kind of just do what you do over and over and the results will take care of themselves."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was talking about mental hurdles. Do you feel you had some mental hurdles to overcome last week?
"I think it was good for me to get out there, for sure. It's been, what, almost a year or so and I think naturally you try to block those things out, but naturally I think they just come. So, yeah, I think it was a good stepping stone last week getting on the field, live bullets flying and all that stuff."
How much do you look forward to getting an extended run where you can have a chance to kind of get into a rhythm this week?
"It'll be good. Yeah, hopefully we can string some plays together, get some good drives and everything and get the offense moving. It's just taking it from the practice field and bringing it over to the game field and making it happen."
It's only preseason, but there's been a lot of noise around your outing last week. I'm wondering, do you hear any of that, do you shut it out? You haven't really in your career had too much criticism and I'm just wondering what's your reaction to that? Are you able to shut your ears?
"Yeah, throughout my entire football career, there's always going to be that noise and everything, but you just have to block it out. We have so much going on in our meetings and the locker room, you're just trying to take all that in that if you start worrying about the outside noise, you've got no chance at being successful. I think it's just staying mentally strong and just doing what we do."
For most guys that consider themselves their own worst critics, do you beat yourself up after something like that or do you just look at it from a more analytical point of view? How do you deal with situations like that?
"Yeah, I'm very hard on myself, especially that night watching the film, the next day watching the film. At some point, you have to move on. You're still trying to correct those mistakes and not make the same mistakes twice, but if you just dwell on the past and dwell on that one game, you're going to get stuck there and you will have no success going forward. I think it's good to be hard on yourself, but at some point, you've got to move forward."
What did you learn from that, especially with the interception and Kyle was talking about a miscommunication in the protection? What did you see from that play? What did you kind of learn from that?
"Those are just the little details that I was talking about. Just me getting the protection set and everything like that. I think it would just make everything much easier."
You haven't had WR Trent Taylor out there, TE George Kittle. Not having those guys, how does that affect you? You obviously have a good chemistry with Trent in particular.
"Yeah, I think all of these receivers, all of our skill players on offense, I've got good relationships with all of them and I've got confidence in all of them. I think it's some of that takes time, especially with the new guys, the younger guys. I think that just comes naturally over time. You can't really press that too much and make it fake. You want it to be real. So, I think that stuff will come with time. Those guys, whoever's injured, we're trying to get them back as soon as possible and we'll go from there."
With a different center in there now, not C/G Weston Richburg, does that take time as well in this scheme, because I know the center has a lot of communication responsibilities?
"I thought [OL] Ben's [Garland] been doing a great job. He's very clear with everything. We really haven't had any miscommunications between the two of us so far. He's done a great job. Those guys up front have done a phenomenal job for me. I appreciate them."
Kyle said he has goals for you in mind just in terms of how much you play and what he wants to see from you. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to see from yourself in that game on Saturday?
"I think just go out there and execute. As an offense, like I said, get us into a good rhythm, get the ball moving down the field and just kind of string good plays together, one after another. I think that's ultimately what it's all about as an offense is just consistently going out there and executing."
Where are you at health-wise? Did you have to do anything differently after the game, any other nicks or twists or anything?
"No, I really didn't get hit too much, so I felt pretty good. Knee's holding up well, so I'm happy about that."
There's been a mild hysteria over a preseason game, but you've seen when New England Patriots QB Tom Brady had a bad game Monday night against the Chiefs and everyone was like well he's kind of done now. Week-to-week or day-to-day, things can change about perception. Did you learn from that from watching, not that Brady had tons of awful games, but even he wasn't immune from that. Does that experience help you kind of put things in perspective a little?
"Yeah, kind of. It's one of those things that you could react two ways to it. You could crumble up and kind of go into a fetal position and surrender or you could go out and fight. We've got a locker room full of guys that want to fight, and myself included. Every day you have to come in and earn your spot. It's never going to be given to you, so you've got to come earn it."
Kyle said WR Jordan Matthews had a hell of camp. What about his camp was so good?
"Well, it being his first year and coming in and learning as quickly as he did. Our receivers, they're asked to do a lot of tough things, blocking in the run game, details on routes, motions and all that stuff. He's done a good job picking up quickly. He's one of the first guys in, last guys out. He works as hard as anyone I've ever seen, so you've got to tip your hat to him on that."
