The legend of Jimmy G. lost a little of its luster Sundayafternoon. from linchao's blog

 First a recap: Jimmy Garoppolo rose to prominence as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s backup and heir apparent. He played sparingly until 2016, starting two games in place of a Minnesota Vikings T-Shirts suspended Brady before suffering a shoulder injury.The Patriots dealt Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, where he made his debut during Week 12. He was off and running after that, throwing for 1,542 yards and six touchdowns with five interceptions in five starts, all wins, while earning a 94.0 passer rating.That resume was enough to earn Garoppolo one of the richest contracts in NFL history. His $137.5 million extension was the second-largest contract in the league until last week, when Khalil Mack signed with the Chicago Bears.His first start since signing didn’t quite meet expectations.Garoppolo struggled all afternoon against the Minnesota Vikings, completing just 15 of 33 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown.He was under duress throughout, as the 49ers’ offensive line wilted when faced with the combined talents of Linval Joseph https://www.minnesotavikingsshop.com/hats , Everson Griffen, Danielle Hunter and newcomer Sheldon Richardson.The damage: 12 passes defensed, three interceptions and three sacks. It was, by virtually any metric, the worst game of Garoppolo’s brief career.Garoppolo set career lows in all the wrong areas: completion percentage, passer rating and yards per attempt. He also set some notable highs.That was the first time in his career that Garoppolo has been picked off three times, and just the second time he’s suffered three sacks. He also lost 24 yards on those three sacks, another career high.The Vikings’ defense was particularly effective in the red zone, holding Garoppolo without a touchdown and limiting him to just three completions.It shouldn’t be particularly surprising that a quarterback — even a quarterback with as much hype behind him as Garoppolo — would struggle against the Vikings’ defense.Mike Hughes, Xavier Rhodes and Harrison Smith weren’t exactly showing off on those interceptions Minnesota Vikings Hoodie , but Garopollo’s run as the 49ers’ starter last season wasn’t particularly easy.He showed out against the league’s top pass defense last year, posting a 102.4 passer rating after completing 70 percent of his passes against the Jacksonville Jaguars en route to one of the most impressive wins of his young career.Maybe the Vikings are just that good. The Minnesota Vikings have been built around a stifling defense since Mike Zimmer was hired as head coach.That foundation has developed a frightening amount of cracks, one-fourth of the way through Zimmer’s fifth season. The Vikings allowed 456 passing yards in their 38-31 loss in Los Angeles to the Rams on Thursday night, the highest total against them since 1980.Zimmer said afterward he’s never been a part of pass defense so poor in his career, which includes successful stretches as an innovative defensive coordinator with Cincinnati and Dallas. The following afternoon, Zimmer wasn’t in any better of a mood when he was asked to assess the coverage breakdowns that led to five touchdown passes by Jared Goff.“It was guys getting out of position. There was some misdirection plays. It was similar to what we’ve gotten before,” Zimmer said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “Some of it was corners, some of it was safeties, some of it was linebackers, some of it was nickels https://www.minnesotavikingsshop.com/Paul-Krause-Jersey , some of it was me.”You?“I might be over-coaching them some,” Zimmer said.The good news is the Vikings have three extra days to recover from the Rams game and prepare for their trip to Philadelphia. The bad news is that next game is against the Super Bowl champion Eagles, who were last seen by the Vikings in that 38-7 blowout in the NFC championship game. As dominant as Zimmer’s defenses have been, certain teams with versatile and creative passing attacks have been able to exploit them. The Eagles last season and the Rams this year are two glaring examples.Zimmer stopped short of blaming his system for the problems against the Rams, noting the 24-7 victory by the Vikings in Minnesota last season, but the most devastating plays against them on Thursday night were the result of mismatches that Rams head coach Sean McVay helped create with either pre-snap confusion or clever play-calling.Vikings outside linebacker Anthony Barr wound up in coverage on three of the five touchdown passes, to running back Todd Gurley , wide receiver Cooper Kupp and wide receiver Robert Woods .“They had a good game plan against us,” defensive end Danielle Hunter said. “We made more mistakes than they did, and then they ended up on top.”The Vikings only allowed 300-plus passing yards in six games over Zimmer’s first four seasons Fran Tarkenton Jersey Black Friday , let alone 400-plus, with a previous high of 383 passing yards at Miami in 2014. Even the 2013 team that finished next-to-last in the league in passing defense didn’t yield a 400-yard game.With the arrival of a new quarterback and offensive coordinator, Zimmer said, he figured the Vikings (1-2-1) could start slowly the season. They were 2-2 at the first-quarter mark last year, before finishing 13-3. So all is not lost, but this once-daunting defense has a lot of work to do.“This team has a chance to be really, really good. One week it’s the offense. One week it’s the defense. One week it’s the special teams,” Zimmer said. “If we put it all together, we can beat any team there is.”___