Jimmy Garoppolo did not looking comfortable tonight against the Tennessee Titans. He made countless mistakes in the first half for the San Francisco 49ers which took points off the board.
At one point he stared down George Kittle in the end zone and didn’t realize the cornerback was in front of his tight end. The result an interception that went for a touchback. He missed a wide open Kyle Juszczyk which if the pass gets completed it is an easy touchdown. He nearly threw another interception, yet it got dropped.
On the 49ers first offensive possession of the second half, Kyle Shanahan elected to have Garoppolo continue to throw the football. The result an interception and the Titans took advantage of the mistake with a rushing touchdown by D’Onta Foreman.
That touchdown tied the game up at 10.
Yet it was not Garoppolo making the mistakes either. While San Francisco’s defense did great on first and second down, getting the offense back on the field especially in the second half was difficullt.
This was clearly shown in the waning seconds of the third quarter when on a 3rd and 23, Ryan Tannehill got a free play after the 49ers defense jumped. The result a 42-yard completion to A.J. Brown.
Brown capped that drive by beating cornerback Josh Norman for an 18-yard touchdown reception, which gave the Titans their first lead of the game.
San Francisco did get an opportunity to tie the game up, yet after a holding penalty on Alex Mack the drive stalled. Still the 49ers got one more opportunity and needed to go 95 yards. Garoppolo managed to do that, with the biggest play of the game for the 49ers coming from Deebo Samuel. Brandon Aiyuk finished the drive with a touchdown reception in the back of the end zone on a great play call by Shanahan.
Unfortunately for the 49ers there was too much time left on the clock especially with both teams having all three timeouts. Tannehill made the biggest play of the game for the Titans by escaping pressure, getting in field goal range, and forcing Shanahan to use all three timeouts.
After a run to the right by Tannehill it setup a 44-yard field goal for Randy Bullock with only eight seconds left. He made the kick and the Titans won 20-17.
Also noteworthy is that Mitch Wishnowsky continues to struggle on kickoffs and punting. The 49ers were fortunate the Titans didn’t score before halftime after a holding penalty negated a big run by Foreman who even with the facemask penalty call on the play got Tennessee in field goal range.
Still the biggest mistake of the night is that Kittle only got targeted three times in the game, all in the first quarter. That is something that will need to get addressed by Shanahan to close out the 2021 season and if the 49ers are to reach 10 wins on the season.