Film Breakdown: 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo heads into Arrowhead Stadium

A look back at San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's Week 3 performance against the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2018 season.

The 49ers were fresh off their first victory of the season and headed into noisy Arrowhead Stadium to face the Kansas City Chiefs in their home opener. A shootout was expected given how good the offenses were and how bad the defenses were.

The 49ers would surely have to throw to keep up so this would be a great test for Jimmy Garoppolo. In his first four road starts with the 49ers, Garoppolo threw four touchdowns and seven interceptions.

The Chiefs were the talk of the league and scored 80 points combined in the first two weeks. Patrick Mahomes was spectacular to open the season and the Chiefs looked unstoppable at times.

Unfortunately, this would be Garoppolo's final game of 2018, but there were plenty of positives as far as his play. Jimmy would finish with: 20/30, 251 YDS, 2 TD, 0 INT, 114.7 RTG.

Here's a recap:


Here you'll see a beautiful play action that draws the linebackers to the line of scrimmage. George Kittle slides behind them to the soft spot of the zone but drops the pass. Nice throw by Jimmy and a rare mistake by Kittle.


Kyle Shanahan has shown creative ways to get receivers open. Watch Kyle Juszczyk go in motion then line up in a tight end spot. The direction of the play action goes right, and Kyle is giving the impression he's blocking. Once Garoppolo rolls left, Kyle darts upfield and is wide open for the touchdown.

Here's a similar play from Week 1:




Kendrick Bourne runs a phenomenal route and Jimmy is right on time with the throw. Bourne catches it in stride for a big gain.


This throw by Jimmy is wizardry. The Niners run a play action to the right with George Kittle leaking out left. Dee Ford is bearing down on Jimmy and he changes arm angles for a completion to Kittle. Kittle does the rest after the catch but the quick thinking by Garoppolo was the highlight.


The Chiefs overload the left side with a blitz and Jimmy's quick release and touch under pressure are impressive. The ball is thrown before the rush can get there and placed perfectly. This play is reminiscent of 2017 when Jimmy beat incoming rushers with his quick release.

Garoppolo's deep ball accuracy is still a work in progress. There were two deep shots that were missed:


For what it's worth, Pierre Garçon oddly ran a delayed route and wasn't much of a target for Garoppolo. Even if Garçon had a clean release, he's probably not bringing this one in.

Marquise Goodwin is lined up at the bottom of the screen and gets a clean release into the Chiefs zone coverage. Goodwin is left alone with a safety and an on-target throw would have been a big gain and possibly a touchdown.

Overall, this was Garoppolo's best game of the season. Garoppolo's season ended in Kansas City, but there's plenty to be hopeful about for his return in 2019.