Getty Jimmy Garoppolo under center for the San Francisco 49ers.
On the penultimate play of the San Francisco 49ers‘ first drive of their Week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins, Jimmy Garoppolo was taken down awkwardly on a split sack by Jerome Baker and Jaelan Phillips for -10 yards and was ultimately carted off of the field to the locker room. Though he has to undergo further testing and an evaluation from the team’s medical personnel, Garoppolo has been labeled as questionable to return with an ankle injury.
While Garoppolo was off to a solid start to begin the game, completing 2-4 passes for 56 yards, the Niners will now hand the keys to their offense to Brock Purdy, who entered only his fourth game of the season and immediately threw a three-yard touchdown to Kyle Juszczyk on his first drive under center. After becoming the first Mr. Irrelevant to record a completed pass as a pro, and the first to throw an interception since the award started being handed out, the Iowa State product has now closed out the trifecta with a touchdown to boot.
After Jimmy Garoppolo was carted off, Brock Purdy entered the game for the 49ers. Garoppolo is questionable to return with an ankle injury.
Update: Jimmy Garoppolo’s Season Is Officially Over
After watching Garoppolo’s ankle compress in an unnatural way in the first quarter of the 49ers’ Week 13 games against the Dolphins, fans hoped that they would receive good news on the condition of his leg as the playoffs rapidly approach.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse, as, according to Kyle Shanahan via Field Yates, the veteran signal-caller’s season is officially over with an ankle injury.
Kyle Shanahan says QB Jimmy Garoppolo is out for the season.
Brock Purdy Makes History With The San Francisco 49ers
After initially being announced as questionable to return for the 49ers, Garoppolo was officially been downgraded to out according to Adam Schefter and others, leaving Purdy to finish out the game as the lone active quarterback on the game-day roster.
After scoring a quick touchdown to start off his time under center, Purdy has struggled through the next three drives of the second quarter, completing six of his 10 passes but only for 41 yards combined, plus an interception.
After coming off the bench cold, ripping off a quick touchdown and then recording his second career interception before the half, Purdy came out out the tunnel to begin the third quarter and turned in an encouraging effort in the largest sample size of his young professional career.
With Garoppolo officially out, Shanahan re-tooled his scheme to favor the run even more but mixed things up with short-to-intermediate passing concepts that helped to neutralize the pass rush that Dolphins defensive coordinator Josh Boyer brought pretty consistently throughout the second half, as Richard Sherman pointed out on Twitter. In the end, Purdy finished out the game with a pretty respectable stat line for a player who effectively played the entire game, completing 25 of his 37 passes for 210 yards, two touchdowns and an interception while being sacked three times. Though his game wasn’t perfect, Purdy led the 49ers to three scores on their final six drives of the game and ultimately secured the win against a Dolphins squad that only scored seven points in the second half.
Will Purdy continue under center now that Garoppolo is done, or will the 49ers look into another option, maybe Cam Newton or Ryan Fitzpatrick? Only time will tell, but in Week 13, Purdy did his job, and that’s all fans could really ask for.