Jimmy G Has Rough Day At 49ers Training Camp Practice
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) -- A nightmare unfolded at the San Francisco's 49ers training camp Wednesday as starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had a practice session he hopes he never will repeat.
On five straight plays, Garoppolo was intercepted.
"He threw it to the wrong team five plays in a row," Head Coach Kyle Shanahan said. "The defense did great today and obviously he struggled. You hope to never have a day like that, but I don't think it's never not happened to anyone."
As the practice session continued, Garoppolo's play improved.
"You hope you can practice long enough and give him a chance to play out of it and use it as an opportunity that hopefully you can do in a game," Shanahan said. "Hopefully you don't have five in the game, but you can play yourself out of two in a row or something like that. I thought he did play better at the end of the two-minute drive and in the red zone."
Shanahan wasn't pleased with the offense's overall play.
"We hit a rough spot," he told reporters. "I was happy for the defense, but the offense is going to have about a day and a half to think about it."
Once things started going bad, Garoppolo's struggles also began to snowball.
"I think there's frustration," Shanahan said. "It's more competitive and I think sometimes you've got to balance out. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, you want so badly to make it up the next play, but the next play you've still got to make the right decisions and take what the defense gives you."
"Sometimes it's hard to make the right decisions when you're fired up and competitive and usually when you make a bad play it makes your mind go a little bit sideways," the 49ers head coach said. "When that does happen, sometimes you try to protect them a little bit in the game, but in practice, it's the exact opposite. When there's an issue, you kind of poke at it a little bit more to see how guys react."
The 49ers will be scrimmaging against the Denver Broncos this week. How Garoppolo -- who missed most of last season with a torn ACL -- plays will determine how much action he will see in the team's second exhibition game.
"I haven't decided yet," Shanahan answered when asked how much his projected starting quarterback would play. "That depends on how the practices go this week. That's something I'll probably decide on Sunday."
