As Kyle Juszczyk entered the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown after hauling in a Jimmy Garoppolo pass, it seemed like the San Francisco 49ers had pulled off a miracle. But it only took Aaron Rodgers 37 seconds to spoil the celebration.
The 49ers trailed 17-7 at halftime and made costly mistakes throughout the game. One of those mistakes was a fumble late in the game by Garoppolo. He was trying to throw the football after being spun around by a defender.
"We were trying to run a screen pass," Garoppolo explained. "The running back got caught up on the line a little bit. Just got caught in between throwing it. I was trying to throw it away as the guy hit my arm, and unfortunate call by the refs there for a fumble."
It was clearly a fumble as it was a backward pass, and it ended up being costly as Rodgers and the Packers offense were able to capitalize with a field goal on the ensuing drive. There were a lot of game-changing moments like that, but none more devastating than watching Rodgers get his team into field-goal range again in the closing seconds for the game-winner.
Garoppolo and his teammates can only look at the loss as an opportunity, probably because looking at it in any other way does little good for a team with high expectations this season. Unfortunately, there are many things to fix, and the loss to the Packers exposed several of the 49ers' flaws.
"We were talking in the locker room, some of the guys," Garoppolo shared. "This is a good character builder, this one. I think we've got to take a long look in the mirror as an offense and just what we can do better, how we can start faster.
"It was one mistake here, one mistake there by guys, starting with myself. If we eliminate just half of those, it will lead to better football early, and we don't have to play from behind the eight ball, like we were tonight."
Next up for the Niners are the Seattle Seahawks. But, for now, San Francisco has to look up at the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams. Both emerged from Week 3 with unscathed records.