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San Francisco 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo bounces again with hometown win in Chicago

CHICAGO – Entering Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears, it was fair to ask if Jimmy Garoppolo made his final start as the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in the same location where he made his first: his hometown of Chicago.

With the Niners in the middle of a four-game losing streak and rookie quarterback Trey Lance returning from a sprained left knee, another loss combined with fights from Garoppolo could have seen Lance join the line-up at some point, maybe next Week.

Instead, Garoppolo put together perhaps his best overall performance of the season in front of more than 100 friends and family from the Chicago area he grew up in, and the Niners improved to 3-4 with a 33-22 win at Soldier Field .

“It means a lot,” said Garoppolo. “Every game does, but when you go back to your hometown it just feels different. Landing at the airport, getting into the city, all the familiarity, all the good stuff, it’s just a special feeling. It’s a good day. “

Not only was it a good day, it was a necessary day for Garoppolo, who weathered last week’s battles in a rain-soaked loss to the Indianapolis Colts. After a few early drops from his receivers, Garoppolo hit receiver Deebo Samuel for a 50-yard stroke to set up a field goal just before half-time.

That deal seemed to ease things up as Garoppolo finished 17 of 28 for 322 yards without interceptions for a pass rating of 100.6. He added a couple of roaring touchdowns, the first multi-score game on the floor. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Garoppolo is the third player in franchise history to throw 300 yards and score multiple points in a game, along with Steve Young and Jeff Garcia.

All of this came after Garoppolo’s two interceptions in last week’s 30:18 loss to the Colts. That performance made the drumbeat louder for Lance, even as coach Kyle Shanahan declared Garoppolo to be this week’s starter on Monday.

Despite Lance’s return to the backup role, he didn’t snap a shot of the bears.

“I wanted to be on the safe side with the packages for him this week,” Shanahan said. “It was his first week back so I wouldn’t just put him in there just to do that kind of thing.”

Garoppolo underscored the first of his roaring touchdowns – a broken game that should go to Samuel – with an emphatic spike. After his second goal, Garoppolo uncorked a throw in the stands, the first time since a league win in Seattle at the end of the 2019 season.

“My college roommates were in that end zone, so hopefully one of them got it,” said Garoppolo. “It was just so much emotion. I’m not used to capturing it right from the start, so it was pretty cool when it happened.”

For all of these efforts, Shanahan awarded Garoppolo a cue-ball, a train that caused loud cheers from a cheerful Niners’ locker room.

“When he got home in front of his fans, he had his back to the wall just like everyone else in our building, but it was great to see him show up and play like he did today,” said Shanahan.

It wasn’t the only ball Shanahan handed out on Sunday. The other went to someone else who made an even more important birth on Saturday night: punter Mitch Wishnowsky’s wife, Maddie, who gave birth to the couple’s first child in Northern California.

“I gave Maddie one because I heard she was very tough,” Shanahan said. “And we kept checking her, he said he couldn’t eat, he vomited, he was so nervous he didn’t get one, she got one.”

After giving birth to his daughter, Wishnowsky flew to Chicago on Sunday morning and arrived around 7 a.m. Wishnowsky, however, did his usual holding duties.

“Poor Mitch had to fly all the way out of here and only hold balls for field goals,” said center Alex Mack with a laugh.

Unfortunately, not all of the news from Sunday’s game was happy for the 49ers. Free Safety Jimmie Ward was eliminated in the fourth quarter with tight quadriceps that could hold him out for a while.

“It’s a pretty big concern,” Shanahan said. “I don’t know yet, but when you talk about pulling a quad, it’s a lot like pulling a hamstring, so we’ll see if that is the case.”

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