Kyle Shanahan on the INT: “I thought Kittle had him beat l, but just could get away from the guy grabbing him… I wasn’t too upset with Jimmy on that play. That was a call I made and I liked the look, unfortunately we didn’t get the call.” #49ers pic.twitter.com/StLjTEhCqQ
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 14, 2019
No one was more confident than Jimmy Garoppolo that the offense would remain on the field. As his linemen trudged towards the sideline, he ushered them back, certain that the referees must have seen what he had; George Kittle had been manhandled in an attempt to run a fade in the end zone. There’s no way the interception he’d just thrown would stand.
Instead, Garoppolo was forced to walk off, having to accept that the pop-up he lofted to Nickeil Roby-Coleman would hold, and the Rams would take the ball.
Normally tight-lipped, a staple policy which seems borne from his foundational years with the New England Patriots, Garoppolo revealed frustration by the no-call after the game.
Jimmy Garoppolo on his INT: “I’m trying to get [Kittle] the ball and he kind of got tacked by the defender. I don’t really know what happened with the refs on that one.” #49ers pic.twitter.com/bLoDqTXT0P
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 14, 2019
“The interception, I’m trying to get [Kittle] the ball and he kind of got tackled by the defender,” Garoppolo said. “I don’t really know what happened with the refs on that one. It kind of is what it is.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan declined to fault Garoppolo for the interception, also pointing to the defensive wrangling that Kittle endured in the end zone.
“We got exactly what we wanted,” Shanahan said. “Kittle couldn’t get away from the guy grabbing him. [Garoppolo] threw it up to Kittle, I thought Kittle had him beat, but just couldn’t get away from the guy grabbing him. Then another guy who was guarding someone else came into it. I wasn’t too upset with Jimmy on that play. That was a call that I made and I liked the look, unfortunately we didn’t get the call. I wish I didn’t call it after I saw the result.”
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