49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo needs to clean up his inaccuracy issues against the Bengals

Jimmy Garoppolo was all over the place last Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with his main issue being his inaccuracies. He needs to clean that up when the 49ers visit the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

One of the reasons why the San Francisco 49ers win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was ugly, aside from penalties, derives from Jimmy Garoppolo’s inaccuracies. On the simplest, easiest of throws Garoppolo struggled to hit his receiver. Either it was behind his receiver, too high or just out of reach. These weren’t pass plays that required any needle threading or some next level placement.

Some of them were off of play-action where a receiver was crossing the field. Those types of play are a staple of Shanahan’s offense. Garoppolo has to make those throws in his sleep. Now his stats may defend him a bit because he did finish 18/27 which is a completion percentage of 66.7. There is also the three passing touchdowns he threw that were nullified due to penalties. However, the types of throws he missed on doesn’t give him a pass.

Not to mention the terrible decision he made to throw to Tevin Coleman on a hitch route that lead to a pick six. Even Coleman was surprised he threw it his side given how relaxed he was in his route. Garoppolo’s inaccuracies got to the point that Kyle Shanahan started calling safe plays for him. A lot of his throws ended up being within 10 yards. That’s not really how you want to start a season off with your head coach lacking some trust for you.

#49ers Film: Uneven performance by Garoppolo. Too many imprecise balls, handful of outright inaccurate balls. Almost all were to moving targets.

— Andy Benoit (@Andy_Benoit) September 11, 2019

 Garoppolo needs to be held to a high standard like how his contract suggests. Of course, there is time for him to work on this so it's not a huge concern right now. He just needs to start feeling a little heat on his seat, which will only increase in temperature if he continues to throw off target. This is the exact reason Garoppolo played those two preseason games. Imagine if he didn’t, then he likely looks worse than he did against the Buccaneers.

It won’t get much easier when he faces the Cincinnati Bengals defense on Sunday. They fared well against the Seahawks in Seattle, which isn’t easy to do. Coming back home to host the 49ers, they should be angrily motivated for them since they only lost by a point to the Seahawks. The defense of the 49ers will keep them in the game, but the offense needs to put up the points to close out the game. A lot of this hinges on how Jimmy Garoppolo performs and if he is able to hit his targets accruately.