GETTY Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers looks to pass against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game.
The San Francisco 49ers walked out of AT&T Stadium victors on Sunday, but it didn’t come without some scary moments.
The 23-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys now takes the Niners to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round. If the team has it there way, names like defensive end Nick Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner will be making the trip to Wisconsin.
Bosa suffered a concussion in the first half. In the fourth quarter, Warner suffered a non-contact injury and seemed to be in immense pain, but what fans or media wasn’t aware of was quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffering a right shoulder sprain. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed the news on Monday.
“#49ers coach Kyle Shanahan with injury updates: QB Jimmy Garoppolo has a right shoulder sprain,” ESPN reporter Nick Wagoner tweeted. “He should be fine for practice on Tuesday. LB Fred Warner has a low ankle sprain. They’ll see where he is tomorrow but Garoppolo and Warner have good chance to play this week.
While initially concerning, Shanahan saying that Garoppolo ought to practice all week makes this relatively good news considering it could’ve been much worse.
Athletic reporter David Lombardi added an interesting point as well, saying that Garoppolo’s injury may have been the cause of his lackluster second-half play against the Cowboys.
So Jimmy Garoppolo played the entire game with a torn ligament in his throwing thumb and over half of it with a sprained shoulder. Combination of both is relevant when discussing his second-half drop in accuracy. Because he was very on point in the first half before missing in 2H
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Garoppolo’s Halves Compared
Garoppolo finished Sunday’s game with 172 yards, no touchdowns and one interception after completing 16 of 25 passes. Not exactly an impressive statline.
However, it does belie of how Garoppolo and Niners offense looked early on. In the first half, Jimmy G completed 11 of 14 passes for 133 yards. San Francisco struggled to get in the endzone throughout the game, but they moved the ball fairly consistently in the first half.
In the second half, Garoppolo was hard to watch. The interception came on an extremely inaccurate throw, and he only completed five passes on 11 attempts for 39 yards.
The injury would explain the night-and-day performance, but it’s also worth mentioning that the 49ers are a run-focused team that looked to continue their first-half success, so they looked to Garoppolo less in general.
Warner Updates His Injury Status
As mentioned above, Warner and Bosa were also injured in the game. Bosa will have to go through concussion protocol, and his status for Saturday’s game against the Packers won’t be certain until late this week.
But there’s already good news coming from Warner and Shanahan, with the linebacker sending a message to the 49ers faithful about the moment.
“Sorry for the scare yesterday everyone,” Warner wrote on Twitter. “I appreciate everyone showing love and support for me and the fellas. We’ll be good to go. Huge win, onto the next.”
That was then backed up by Shanahan’s comments above in the press conference on Monday. Warner could miss practice the whole week and still be good to go for Saturday, but the earlier he returns, the better. There is a huge difference between a low-ankle sprain and a high-ankle sprain, and fortunately the 49ers and Warner are on the right side of that difference.
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49ers’ Kyle Shanahan: Jimmy Garoppolo Suffered Injury in Cowboys Game