Let’s start with the hapless though occasionally competitive San Francisco 49ers and especially their quite expensive quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. A few years ago, Jimmy got some starts with the Patriots and kind of dazzled for a few games before getting injured. These few games raised his value to the point of San Francisco trading a second round pick for him during the 2017 NFL season. With a few games of competent play, Jimmy earned the starting gig, a new contract and promptly tore his ACL early the next season. Obviously not his fault. Finally, despite somewhat inconsistent, though ultimately positive performances, Jimmy and the 49ers made it to the Super Bowl last year before losing to what could be a dynasty in the Chiefs.
After last Sunday’s game against the Seahawks Jimmy went to the short term injured reserve after re-aggravating a high ankle sprain he sustained in Week 2. Despite a relatively good start to the season, a pile of injuries has seemingly derailed the season including Jimmy who tried to make a comeback after missing two games to little avail. With his second 49ers season in four, pretty much ending in injury, it’s worth thinking about whether the 49ers can return to the promised land with him at the helm.
Kyle Shanahan appears to be one of the brightest culture builders in the NFL, something much more valuable than just his offensive play calling prowess. This team, when healthy, boasts an incredible defense, probably the most athletic offensive corp of wide receivers, tight end and running backs in the league, but also probably Jared Goff lite at quarterback. I’ve long been skeptical of Jimmy, living in New England through his time there, remembering that Belichick can probably make anyone look good (except Cam Newton, which I’ll get to) at playing quarterback. Last year, when the 49ers played the Saints, I was treated to my comeuppance as Jimmy outdueled one of the greatest QBs ever, who had it that day, and cemented, at least for me, that he could stand up and win games himself for this team. Jimmy had other impressive games last year, but in the Superdome against a raging Saints team, he stepped up and gave us maybe the most memorable regular season game of last season. The questions about Jimmy arose after the Super Bowl when he failed to win the game for his team by throwing his second pick with a minute left. He wasn’t great in the playoffs leading up the game either. Going into this season, we all asked ourselves whether Jimmy actually had it to lead this very talented team back to the playoffs. As mentioned, the injuries piled up, but from a visual standpoint, Jimmy doesn’t look the part. There are stats to back that up, however we all can see it when we’re watching him. Jimmy had a 60.8 QBR last year, right there with Kirk Cousins, who just ughf. This yeah, through the six games he’ll likely play, he’s right about in the same place….along with Daniel Jones. Looking through just about all of the common advanced stats, he’s usually right there next to Dwayne Haskins. It’s great to have stats backing up what everyone sees, but where I think Carson Wentz is in a funk (maybe), Jimmy is too old for this shit. Just like Jared Goff, Jimmy is a dependent variable, strongly affected by his surroundings. He needs the perfect play caller, perfect passing situation and minimal pass rush to properly succeed. When Aaron Rodgers makes serviceable receivers out of rando guys with long or over complicated to pronounce names, guys named Jimmy, Jared, Kirk can’t function unless everything around them falls into place. I held off on this feeling for a while (i’m still holding out on Wentz, but it’s fading) and obviously the 49ers will probably give this another go next year, but after watching Jimmy this season, I think those good looks will outlast his tenure as a starting NFL quarterback.
Watching Josh Allen this year has been a treat. With a deadly arm, freakish, Sasquatch athleticism and a penchant for the bizarre, Allen has been a sight to behold, confusing draft analysts and just about anyone who’s ever watched college football. Conversely, in the same division, we’ve watched a former MVP get the shit kicked out of him, not by COVID, but by an offense seemingly designed to get him injured. Cam Newton hasn’t played well this year. He’s one of the worst performing quarterbacks who’s started most of his team’s games this year by any stat other than maybe rushing touchdowns. The injuries, other than a COVID test, which robbed us of a delicious bout with the Chiefs, haven’t sapped him of his explosiveness. Josh McDaniels is busy taking care of that by turning Bill Belichick’s forward dream of a mobile quarterback into one of the ugliest things I can see on a Sunday. Cam has 2 passing touchdowns compared to 7 interceptions on the year, despite a completion percentage of 66% that would come close to his career best, along with a decent yards per attempt at 7.3. Watching this offense, it’s like the Pats want to put as many obstacles in the way of Cam to see if he can dance his way out of it. Maybe it’s McDaniels’ unfamiliarity with a mobile QB. Their last QB’s mobility could favorably be compared to me stumbling out of my bedroom, hungover on a Saturday morning, towards the bathroom. McDaniels drafted Tim Tebow in the first round back in 2010, damning Tebow to the high expectations he never could fill since he should have been playing running back. What they’re doing now with Cam looks like all of McDaniels pent up frustration from getting fired in Denver, taken out on a QB who just got over a slew of injuries and has almost no NFL receivers to throw to. Is Phillip Dorsett still on this team? I really don’t know because despite all the years of Brady being downgraded because of good defense, we see that he literally won the SUPER BOWL with a washed up Gronk and not much else. Cam is being asked to throw short and intermediate throws to inferior talent, with risks taken on receivers that are overmatched by just about any secondary they could come against. When he isn’t throwing to some former attackmen from Bellarmine, he’s running some limp dick run pass option, except that no Pats running back provides any sort of threat to defenses. Opposing defenses know Cam will be running the ball. Despite his injuries, he genuinely looks as terrifying to tackle as Derrick Henry. Last Sunday, the grand plan finally crapped all over itself as Cam fumbled on a promising late possession with the Pats falling to 2-5 after putting up a decent fight to the likely division winner. Where Brady owned the Bills and would have put that game away with an appropriate offensive strategy, McDaniels and Belichick gimmicked Cam into a lose lose situation where he was forced to literally be the only offensive weapon defenses have to respect. It’s no wonder he’s being intercepted so much, despite having one of the lower amounts of bad throws of any starter. The problem is that his bad throws are 21% of his attempts, pretty much tied for the third worst in the league. Rather than this being entirely Cam (it’s definitely partially his fault), I really believe the Pats aren’t as smart as we’ve been fooled to believe. Despite a COVID offseason, and a new situation the Pats aren’t letting Cam throw it enough to properly get understanding with his receivers, who also suck. I know it’s a generous gift to Cam, but after watching Brady pull wins out of his ass the past couple of years, and the sheer delight in his eyes throwing to the talent in Tampa, I just have to give Cam a break. The team and the coaching around him, just isn’t giving him a fair shake at the moment.
I think I hate the Rams. Not sure why, could be Jared Goff’s face or Sean McVay’s dude bro douche energy, even though he seems like a nice guy on Hard Knocks. It’s cause they’re frauds. They fooled us a few years ago, winning one of the most magnificent displays of pure offensive football ever (when the real magician lost the game). That game was Plato’s perfect form of offensive football in the NFL and when the Rams fizzled out in the worst Super Bowl this past decade, it became clear to everyone in the league that McVay might not be all he seemed. Look at this way, everyone he’d ever butt dialed got attention for a coaching position after that Super Bowl, but on February 4th, 2019, the day after that game, did Cardinals and Packers fans feel better or worse about the McVay bros they hired? The Bengals obviously did, hiring his quarterbacks coach the day after the Super Bowl. Things have looked more or less better since then with the McVay disciples looking halfway decent maybe. Last Sunday, just like he did in that Super Bowl, Miami coach Brian Flores, completely flummoxed Jared Goff and the Rams. Flores was an unnamed, amorphous coordinator with the Patriots when they completely shut McVay down and seemingly may have broken the will of this team that’s in year three of “win now” mode. The Rams have almost no draft capital and with an aging defense, no real stars on offense, I think games like the one on Sunday against the Dolphins may be more common.
This game was interesting to me because it was Tua’s first start and he proceeded to not factor whatsoever in the game. After tying the game at the end of the first quarter, the Dolphins fumbled a punt in their red zone, giving the Rams a delightful gift to go up by 7. Instead, Jared Goff took a shit on the field, getting sacked with a Dolphins player whose name sounds like a Dutch soccer player’s, returning it for a touchdown. That Flying Dutchman, Andrew Van Ginkel was all over Goff along with a slew of other no names (Kyle Van Noy, I guess) that Flores schemed up again to foil the Rams. After that, Goff went three and out with Miami returning a punt for a touchdown to go up 21-7. Then threw an interception on the next drive. Then lost the ball again on a sack giving Miami the ball on the Rams 1 yard-line on the drive after that. Miami scored with that field position towards the end of the first half. I knew Goff was done at that point. It’s so easy to mentally punish him and any sort of discomfort leads him to retreat into his shell of mediocrity. Look, he earned that extension with his stats, but even when you saw him throwing 400 yards and 3 TDs most game, something didn’t seem right; the Rams paid him anyway. The Rams haven’t looked horrendous this year or anything and they’re only 5-3, but you have to beat this Miami team even as they’ve looked competent this season under Flores. It’s going to be wildly interesting to see what happens in that NFC West division and I don’t think the Rams will be there at the end in the division race. With a defense that’s full of starpower, but lacks cohesion, minimal offensive talent, I think it’s time for McVay to prove to us how good he really is as a culture builder. The Rams petered off last year and somehow ended up 9-7, despite looking like a 5-11 team most of the year. With the Seahawks and Cardinals playing the game of the year and both looking fucking lethal, this division won’t be getting easier this year or the next couple. After seeing this man Goff defy all of his first year jittery body movement to give us a moment of pure football bliss, to the moments when he looks like George Plimpton out there, I can’t trust him. I don’t know that I ever really did.
Bo's Gamut 