Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers have done it again. The 49ers improved to 4-10 on the season following a walk-off, 25-23 win over the Tennessee Titans for the team's third-straight victory.
In what was his toughest test to date against Tennessee's 10th-ranked defense, Garoppolo finished 31-of-43 passing for a career-high 381 yards and a touchdown against the Titans.
With just 67 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Garoppolo and Co. engineered a seven-play, 48-yard drive that set up Robbie Gould for a walk-off 45-yard game-winning field goal.
"It was a good two-minute drill," Garoppolo said post-game. "A lot of good execution across the board. Every guy stepping up in their own way. I thought the line did a great job today. Through and through, getting me time. (The Titans) brought a lot of pressure and I thought they did a phenomenal job for us."
San Francisco managed 414 yards of total offense with Marquise Goodwin remaining the primary benefactor of Garoppolo's arrival. Goodwin has totaled 319 yards since Garoppolo entered the starting lineup in Week 13 and recorded his second-straight 100-yard performance on Sunday. Goodwin finished the contest with 10 catches on 13 targets for 114 yards. He's now just 103 yards short of his first 1,000-yard campaign.
"It's just the hard work he puts in," Garoppolo said of his No. 1 receiver. "Marquise is one of the first guys that came up when I first got here and said hi to me and introduced himself. He's just a hard worker, and you really have to tip your hat to that. The extra time that we put in, not just with him but with all of the skill position players, the extra meetings we have. The stuff in practice, the extra routes - it's starting to pay off now."
The Garoppolo-led 49ers have now won four of their last five contests, and the QB now boasts a perfect 5-0 record as an NFL starter. He is the first quarterback to win his first five NFL starts since Ben Roethlisberger's rookie season in 2004. San Francisco looks to extend their streak in Week 16 against the 10-4 Jacksonville Jaguars and their top-ranked defense.
"I set pretty high expectations for myself and I hold myself to a pretty high standard. It's a work in progress," Garoppolo added. "We still have two games left in this season. We've got a really good team coming in here next week. So, we have to keep preparing. Going out to practice, having good practices. I think that's playing a huge role in this. We go out Wednesday through Friday and we really put in the time. It's starting to pay off."
