"I think he did some real good things," San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's play against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. "When I see the tape, I'll find out more, but I thought Jimmy played alright."
Garoppolo certainly got more chances than he did in the NFC Championship Game. He was 20-of 31 passing for 219 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions on Sunday. It wasn't a performance that will silence his critics.
Shanahan was asked what the locker room was like after the disappointing end to an otherwise impressive season.
"Just hurting," Shanahan responded. "I mean, guys put it all out there. They've done it all year from the first game to the last game. It's a real close team. Everyone's disappointed, and they should be. I wouldn't expect anything different. Guys put their heart into this season, and then came up one game short.
"Extremely proud of us and everything, but this is going to take a little bit of time to get over. But we'll be alright."
Now, the focus shifts to improving the roster to compete again next season. Shanahan and company will soon start to look toward the draft and free agency to do so. They will have some difficult decisions to make with several players, like Arik Armstead, Jimmie Ward, and Emmanuel Sanders, scheduled to become free agents.
Shanahan was asked how difficult it will be to pick up the pieces and move past yet another Super Bowl loss.
"It shouldn't be a problem," Shanahan said. "We'll lick our wounds. We'll get over this. We'll be fired up for next year. We've got a lot of people coming back.
"I think we surprised a lot of people this year. We knew we had a good team, and I'm very proud of the guys and how much better they got throughout this year. And I expect to get almost all these guys back. Plan on adding a few more.
"I'm going to rest a little bit, get over this some, but we'll be very fired up for next year."
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