Not to diminish his abilities, but Jimmy Garoppolo is very much a game manager, a quarterback of the methodical “take what the defense gives you” variety. While gunslingers in the mold of Patrick Mahomes would rather go for it all, Garoppolo, throughout his career, has been perfectly content moseying his way down the field, nickel-and-diming defenses with an array of quick slants, dump-offs and screen passes.
On their opening drive Sunday at Jacksonville, the 49ers were in no hurry, bleeding a remarkable 13:05 off the clock before settling for a 20-yard field goal courtesy of Robbie Gould. The exhausting, 20-play drive spanned 87 yards while taking up most of the first quarter. Per CBS Sports, it was the NFL’s longest drive since 2000.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, it appears, decided to take a page out of the old Aesop’s Fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, reminding the masses that slow and steady wins the race. Helped by two Jacksonville penalties (both occurring on third down), San Francisco took the scenic route to three points, rattling off modest gains of one, two, four, seven, eight, nine, 12 and 13 yards. The Niners’ game of high-stakes keep-away came to an anticlimactic end when the Jags stonewalled running back Jeff Wilson (starting in place of injured workhorse Elijah Mitchell) on third and one from the two-yard-line.
Shanahan, usually among the more aggressive play-callers in football, surprisingly waved the white surrender flag on fourth down, folding his hand by summoning the field goal unit. Critics on social media chastised Shanahan for being overly conservative, though his decision didn’t have much bearing on the game’s outcome with San Francisco cruising to a lopsided 30-10 victory, building off the momentum they gained a week earlier against the Rams. Thanks in large part to their feature-length opening drive, the 49ers completely dominated time of possession, controlling the ball for over 38 minutes Sunday.
Winners of three of their last four, the 4-5 Niners will be back in Santa Clara to host the Vikings in Week 12.
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