San Francsico 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was playing well. His season is now over thanks to head coach Kyle Shanahan not paying attention to the situation on the field.
Shanahan’s offense was driving and seemingly in position to answer the Miami Dolphins touchdown drive. Yet there was a hiccup, after an incomplete pass on second down and huddling up, the play clock was winding down to zero for Garoppolo and the 49ers offense. So maybe Garoppolo elects to taket the delay of game penalty instead of calling a play. Five yard penalty which likely ends with the same result. A field goal attempt for Robbie Gould.
Instead Garoppolo the 49ers offense breaks the huddle quickly to avoid the penalty. With little time to snap the football and the offense seemingly not on the same page where was the timeout taken by Shananhan? Nowhere.
Hindsight is always 20/20, still the question that needs to get asked is what did Shanahan see to allow for a play to get run? Where was the timeout instead? Even more important though is how come he was not aware of what was going on with the offense? In that situation it should not matter how early in the game that a timeout gets taken.
Also for general manager John Lynch he needs to ask the same thing of Shanahan. There is absolutely no excuse for a play to have been run with how discombobulated it looked.
Since the play was ran, no one on the offensive line blocked Jerome Baker who had a free run at Garoppolo. Who may have been able to spin out of the sack if Mike McGlinchey had not been easily beaten by Jaelen Phillips.
Garoppolo failed to avoid the sack and Phillips ended up landing on his left foot. As a result the 49ers quarterback then was carted off the field where he has since been diagnosed with a broken foot which will need surgery.
Interestingly enough once quarterback Brock Purdy entered the game, when the play clock started inching towards zero, Shanahan was definitely making sure that a timeout was called regardless of the situation.