San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo bounced back nicely during his second preseason outing of 2019, helping lead the Niners to a 13-10 halftime lead over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo wasn't good last Monday in Denver against the Broncos, which marked his first on-field action since tearing his ACL in Week 3 last year.
Early during Week 3 of the 2019 preseason against the Kansas City Chiefs, it looked as if Garoppolo was still dealing with some rust. A few of his early passes were behind his receiving targets, and it looked as if the shaky efforts from Denver were carrying over into Kansas City.
San Francisco's opening drive managed to move into Chiefs territory before a failed 4th-and-1 attempt gave the ball back to Kansas City. Not surprisingly, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Co. marched down the field and scored on three plays, which included a 62-yard touchdown pass to running back Damien Williams.
On the following drive, however, Garoppolo bounced back with an impressive drive of his own, culminating in a wheel-route touchdown pass to running back Matt Breida to tie things up:
20-yard TD for #22! @JimmyG_10 finds @MattBreida in the back of the end zone to tie it up. #SFvsKC pic.twitter.com/t38ik5e98v
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) August 25, 2019
Garoppolo finished out the first half, which also included two more drives ending in points -- two field goals made by kicker Robbie Gould, which gave San Francisco a 13-10 halftime lead over Kansas City.
"He got to play longer and got a few more opportunities," head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Garoppolo to KPIX 5's Dennis O'Donnell during halftime.
In Denver, Garoppolo went 1-of-6 for a net of zero yards, an interception and a passer rating of 0.0. During his half in Kansas City, Garoppolo's line was 14-of-20 for 188 yards, the touchdown to Breida and a passer rating of 116.2.
Quite the contrast to the quarterback's first efforts this preseason.
With Shanahan wanting to give Garoppolo one half of action during the game, quarterbacking duties will likely be handed off to one of the backups, Nick Mullens or C.J. Beathard, before moving on to undrafted rookie Wilton Speight late in the fourth quarter.
San Francisco will kick off to start the second half.