49ers film room: Detailing an uninspired 49ers offense in the loss to Denver

The loss doesn't fall squarely on Garoppolo's shoulders. It was total offensive collapse.

The 49ers loss in week three epitomizes everything that has gone wrong this past year since losing in the final minutes to the Rams in the NFC Championship game last season. The 49ers seemed ready to turn the franchise over to Trey Lance after Jimmy Garoppolo could not find three points to tie the Rams on their final two drives.

Then Jimmy elected to have surgery on his shoulder as soon as the free agency period opened We learned last week that the Washington Commanders had made San Francisco an offer of two second round picks but that Garoppolo more than likely vetoed that trade due to a no trade clause in his contract. Then the leaks all offseason came out that detailed the 49ers were unsure about Lance and that he had “arm fatigue.”

While all of this was going on, they lost key players at key positions on the offensive line and were bogged down in a battle over retaining Deebo Samuel. In training camp, Lance underperformed in the week three game against Houston and a few days later, Garoppolo was back as the backup, raising more eyebrows about an already tenuous quarterback situation. It is well known what has happened since then.

The culminating event where all these factors seemed to collide was in the game versus Denver in week three. A “rusty” Jimmy Garoppolo said after the game that he did not want to make any excuses but then proceeded to list off a bunch of them. Deebo, whose impact has hardly been felt this season, looked flat in the run game and missed opportunities for big plays when Garoppolo under threw him or did not look his way when he was open.

The offensive line, while not responsible for every sack, had some bad miscommunication that led to some bad plays, that led to some bad throws, that killed drives. In Kyle Shanahan’s offense, they live or die on how the offensive line executes their responsibilities. It wasn’t pretty.

In Jimmy’s defense, there is some merit to not having any reps until last week. He was not cleared to participate in spring practices, did not throw with the team all training camp, and he did not take first team reps as the backup in week’s one and two. As he gets reintegrated into the offense, these kinds of performances should become less and less, even if he is prone to making the same mistakes game after game.

But as highlighted above, it was more than just on Garoppolo’s shoulders. It was a total offensive team effort in the loss. The defense? They did their job. Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy Garoppolo, and the other 10 starters on offense, did not.

Where did it go wrong? Niner’s Nation editor-in-chief Kyle Posey asked Kyle Shanahan “After watching the game, where do you think you personally could have done better as a playcaller? What really stuck out to you the day after?”

Shanahan’s answered:

“Anytime a player makes a mistake, you look at it as yourself too. Your position coach, the coordinator, me as the play caller, what we put them through in practice, I thought we made way too many mistakes across the board and that always, to me, starts with coaching. And it goes to the players, they’re the ones who have to execute it, but we’re the ones prepare them for that.”

He then listed five plays he thought were the biggest contributors in the loss: 

“So when you look at each play as a whole and you just go through our whole, mainly our second half, the first series with the fumbled snap, the second series with the safety, the third series on that second-and-10, just had a real bad sack that got us to third-and-18. On the fourth series, we had that second-and-10 after we had [WR] Ray-Ray [McCloud]’s good punt return and we’re on the 40 and we have a second-and-10 where we throw it to [WR] Jauan [Jennings] down the sideline. Got a real big chance for a big play to get in the red zone and we ended up not coming down clean with it, had a bust on protection, got Jimmy hit way too hard on it. And on the fifth series, just messing up a little bit in the protection to where we missed Deebo, who’s got [Denver Broncos DB] K’Waun [Williams] beat on that end break and route, which I think Deebo’s going to go to the house on it and we’re just not quite right in our protections and we’re a little off on the throw and that’s what gave them another opportunity for that big drive where they finally got the touchdown.”

And then finished with:

“So you look at it through the whole course of a game where there’s too much stuff going on like that. We have to make sure our guys are more consistent and give better chances in that way. And that always starts with me.”

I am not going to cover all of those plays specifically because I felt there were others as well in addition to the ones Shanahan cited above that deserve mention too and we’ll start with the obvious: the quarterback.

Garoppolo misses Deebo for big plays

Garoppolo missed Deebo on three big plays that could have netted some points, field goals at the very least but Deebo might take these to the house as well. We will never know. Two of the passes were incomplete. One was completed but it was so severely underthrown that Deebo had to reverse course and back pedal to ensure he didn’t outrun it to catch it after having about a three yard cushion on the defender.

First play

The first play, near the end of the first quarter, came on a 3rd-and-3 at mid field. Deebo is the point receiver running a go route through the coverage.

The Broncos look like they are in some form of man coverage, probably cover-1 single high. On his drop back, Garoppolo looks to the right as the Broncos appear to bust their coverage. Looks like they had a banjo call that the bunch defenders could not get sorted out and as a result, Deebo gets free access behind the coverage.

He threw his hand up to signal that he was open but for whatever reason, Garoppolo did not pull the trigger. In fact, he moved off the read pretty quickly and elected to throw into the coverage to Aiyuk running the backside dig route over the middle.

Second play

Shanahan is known for identifying a defense’s weakest link and devising a game plan that attacks that link. On the Broncos defense, that defender was linebacker Josey Jewell (No. 47). On several plays, Shanahan put Jewell in a blender. On this play, on the very next drive, after the play above, Shanahan got the match-up he was looking for with Jewell covering Deebo man to man out of the backfield.

Deebo is running a wheel route out of the backfield versus Jewell on a concept Shanahan calls “Shadow Hash”. The receiver to Deebo’s side is running a short post route with Deebo running behind him on the wheel.

They catch Jewell flat footed as Deebo breaks up the field. This is a nice tendency breaker for Shanahan as the defender expects Deebo to run a choice route from the backfield and either cut outside to the sideline or inside across the field. He even chops his steps like he’s going to break in or out horizontally on a choice route before he turns on the jets down the sideline. 

But Garoppolo drastically under threw the pass, which made Deebo have to backpedal to catch. This ball should be out ahead of him but Garoppolo never sets his feet to throw and as a result, the pass is short. This should have been a touchdown, or at the very least a long explosive pass play.

Third play

Later in the game in the fourth quarter, The 49ers were at mid field and just needed to convert a short 3rd-and-3, get across the 50, and get into position to score and end the game.

Deebo is running a choice route out of the backfield underneath a corner/clear out route by Aiyuk. Former 49ers nickel defender K’Waun Williams is in coverage versus Deebo. The route combination tries to create a pick or rub versus the man coverage to get the choice route open underneath.

Williams jumps outside of the routes knowing Deebo wants to cut inside. That’s where the open space is and it’s a risky move by the defender but Jimmy rushed the throw and threw it behind Deebo. If he places that pass on him in stride with some anticipation, Deebo might take that all the way.

This play was not all on Jimmy though. Notice the pass protection. The Broncos bring a third rusher, a linebacker from the right side of the offense that messes with the pass protection.

The extra rusher should be picked up by fullback Kyle Juszczyk (No. 44) and Spencer Burford (No. 74) should let that rusher go and pick up the rusher to the outside. This likely caused Garoppolo to speed up his process to get rid of the ball. It also does not help that right tackle Mike McGlinchey ends up on the ground.

In addition to this, Garoppolo missed several reads and matchups dictated by the play call.

The play call is designed to go to Aiyuk here right away. He is in the slot to the top of the 3x2 on the two receiver side and is running a slot fade versus Jewell. They got the match up they wanted.

The defense is in a cover-1 robber with a “rush” front (two 3-tech and two 9-tech defensive linemen) that is designed to get after the quarterback with their fastest rushers on the outside.

Garoppolo should have recognized this pre-snap. Man coverage with a linebacker covering a receiver in the slot. When he drops back, tries to escape the pocket instead of climbing through to a hit throw to Aiyuk down the seam.

Garoppolo also threw his signature interception over the middle when he did not see the buzz safety rotate down to the hash to cut the dig route.

Left side of the offensive line issues

Left tackle Jaylen Moore (No. 76) came in for the injured Trent Williams, who got hurt on the infamous safety play midway through the third quarter. Moore was benched after about seven total snaps where he giving up a sack and two total pressures per Pro Football Focus.

On a 2nd-and-10, the play Shanahan mentioned above, Moore gave up a pressure that gave Garoppolo no chance on the play, eventually forcing him into a sack that took the down series to 3rd-and-18.

He is already in a bad position having to block Randy Gregory 1-on-1 here but this should be a somewhat winnable rep for the young lineman, or at least hold up in protection long enough for the quarterback to attempt a pass. Instead, he over sets and jumps too far outside, allowing Gregory to beat him to the inside and quickly get to Garoppolo. He knows he has to protect his outside rush lane from the pass rusher but he put himself in no-man’s land while already on an island with Gregory.

Later, in another play mentioned above by Shanahan, a combination of Moore at left tackle and receiver Jauan Jennings ensured this drive would be killed, preventing them from getting into scoring position.

The play call is a jailbreak screen with two slot fades to get behind the coverage while getting the defense to bite on the screen fake. George Kittle and Jennings are the slot receivers running the fade routes.

Denver’s defense bites hard on the screen fake while Jennings and Kittle get vertical. The safety is capping Kittle over the top so Garoppolo throws to Jennings down the sideline. Jennings makes a great play on the ball but bobbles going to the ground and out of bounds. Incomplete. This has to be caught. If it was, they are in the red zone at the 20 yard line.

The pass likely hung a bit due to Garoppolo taking a hard hit just as threw and not having time to step into the pass. The reason? Moore did not “full slide” to the right with the rest of the offensive line. He had protection on the backside from Juszczyk. He pass sets and looks left instead of at Jewell blitzing right through the B-gap. Garoppolo still made a great throw despite having to get it out quicker than he would like to. That would be Moore’s last snap of the game as he was replaced by Colton McKivitz.

The infamous Garoppolo Orlovsky-esque safety

I do not want to spend any length of time breaking down what is an obvious error by the quarterback. The play is posted below. Fans can decide on their own.

Shanahan took the ultimate blame for it in his post game press conference saying he put Garoppolo in a tough situation. He kind of did and I am not really a fan of a slower developing play that is backed up in your own end zone. They are running the leak concept off play action and the quarterback needs a minimum of 10 yards on his drop back to set up and throw. 

Regardless, Garoppolo is a 9-year veteran quarterback who should know that when the throw you want is not there and you are that close to the end line in the end zone, throw the ball away sooner. That play was designed to go to only one player: Kittle on the leak route. Just get rid of it.

Outlook

This week only gets tougher with the Rams on Monday night football but for some reason, the 49ers ALWAYS play a tough game against the Rams in primetime. They will get back on track this season and probably be fine. This is a good game to start that process.