Can Jimmy G Take 49ers All the Way?

Questions lurk whether QB can come through in clutch

- Craig Massei

Quickly, decisively, the time has come for Jimmy Garoppolo to show everybody if he is The Man driving the machine or actually just along for the ride as the resurgent 49ers push their way among the NFL elite and bear down on serious championship aspirations that not many felt were really even possible for the team when this season began.

Just like it has been for everybody connected with the 49ers, the 2019 season has been a whirlwind for Garoppolo, the $137.5 million quarterback whose play has increasingly gone under the microscope as San Francisco has emerged as a serious title contender.

The microscope — and those looking through it — hasn’t always been kind. The most prevalent saying going around is that Garoppolo doesn’t always play like a $137.5 million quarterback, that he too often is more subordinate than star, a game manager whose best contribution can be to not screw everything up for a team led by a dynamite rushing game and powerful, elite defense.

As the 49ers won big on practically a weekly basis and rolled to an 8-0 start this year that is the second-best in franchise history, the inconsistencies in Garoppolo’s game left the quarterback of a NFL team still undefeated in November being viewed as a complementary figure in the team’s stunning success rather than a dynamic force that’s fueling the operation.

With the 49ers being the NFL’s only remaining unbeaten team at the season’s halfway point, Garoppolo was asked if he’s OK with this recent development.

“I’m alright with being undefeated, yeah,” Garoppolo said.

And that’s where Jimmy G brings the hammer: Scoreboard.