Jimmy Garoppolo’s endurance of hits gives credence to his toughness

Knowing the injury history of Jimmy Garoppolo, seeing him endure hit after hit definitely made most of us watching cringe. However, he kept getting back up and attacked the defense like it was nothing.

Jimmy Garoppolo made really good friends with the grass field at Levi’s stadium in week three. The Pittsburgh Steelers were in Garoppolo’s face for a good portion of the day and although they didn’t reel in many sacks, they did make their presence felt. Garoppolo hit the ground on a number of drop backs, which I’m sure made so many fans and coaches cringe when they saw that.

Garoppolo is known to be injury prone after all, so it’s only natural to feel worried after seeing him hit the ground numerous times. However, Garoppolo kept coming back again and again delivering throws. All of this with pressure in his face as well as the multiple times his teammates coughed up the ball.

The fact that Garoppolo remained composed throughout the whole game just gives credence to his toughness. Imagine that, a guy coming off a torn ACL with an injury history taking hits like nothing. If you’re a 49ers fan, you’re feeling great about where Jimmy Garoppolo is at. He’s gotten better week after week and just proved to us how tough he is.

Even Richard Sherman gave Garoppolo his tough guy props in his postgame presser in week three. Not too many quarterbacks are able to sit in the pocket and continue to deliver throws knowing the pressure is there. Either they are going to get the ball out quickly, which is what Steeler’s quarterback Mason Rudolph did against the 49ers pass rush. Or they’ll make an inadvertent throw that becomes a turnover.

If Garoppolo had done this I wouldn’t have blamed him too heavily because he is coming off a gruesome injury. But not only did he take the hits, he was tossing dimes. The stats may not show it, but Jimmy Garoppolo arguably had his best game as a San Francisco 49er. He’s been on a roll ever since his inaccuracy issues in week one against the Buccaneers.

Now that the 49ers are on their bye week, you just hope that Garoppolo will be able to pick it back up again easily. They’ll have an intriguing matchup in week five on Monday night football against the Cleveland Browns at Levi’s Stadium. Myles Garrett is a human wrecking ball, so that toughness Garoppolo had versus the Steelers need to be replicated for that game.

All in all in, through three games Garoppolo has looked like the real deal. Now it’s on him to continue his solid performance in hope of a playoff bid.