San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was one completed pass from a potential Super Bowl championship, MVP, and silencing his doubters. That didn't happen, and the Kansas City Chiefs, not the 49ers, took all the glory.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has already expressed faith in Garoppolo, despite the quarterback's fourth-quarter meltdown. He realizes that without Garoppolo, the 49ers probably would not have been in the Super Bowl in the first place.
"We made those plays all year, our whole team," Shanahan said earlier this month. "That's one of the reasons we were there. Whenever you don't make those plays at the end in a game like that, first and foremost, the quarterback is going to get attacked and then usually the play-caller. We understand that's how it goes."
Garoppolo went 3-for-11 for 36 yards, an interception, and a passer rating of 2.8 in the fourth quarter, leading many to place much of the blame for the loss squarely on the quarterback's shoulders. Among those is former NFL linebacker Bart Scott of ESPN's Get Up.
Scott says Garoppolo didn't show up when the 49ers needed him most. He isn't a player who you can compare to the elite within the NFL.
"He needs a lot of support to be that quarterback, and that's the issue," Scott said. "Great quarterbacks don't need as much support as he needs."
Former NFL quarterback turned ESPN analyst, Dan Orlovsky, believes Garoppolo is worthy of the contract he received from the 49ers in 2018. Still, his Super Bowl performance could define him until he shows he can be more dependable in clutch moments.
"Jimmy Garoppolo, I said this after the game, played really good until he needed to play really good, and he didn't," Orlovsky said. "... Jimmy G, those plays will haunt him until he gets the opportunity to get back there again — if he does."
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes had no problem stepping up when the pressure was on late in the fourth quarter against the 49ers and rallied his Chiefs to 21 unanswered points to win the game.
Added Scott: "[Garoppolo] didn't show up when it's the most pivotal time, when it's winning time. That's what you get judged from. When you make that type of money, you have to show up when the lights are the brightest, and he failed to."