49ers' Garoppolo gives solid performance in homecoming

Jimmy Garoppolo triumphed on the field in his Chicago homecoming, and then he failed.

He tried not to flash his Hollywood smile as he stood at the podium in the visiting team interview room.

But who was he going to kid? No, the quarterback acknowledged, Sunday was no ordinary Game Day for him. Not with his parents and brothers, decked out in 49ers red, watching from the Soldier Field stands. Not with his new football team playing the team he rooted for as a kid growing up in Arlington Heights.

It was even his dad's birthday.

"I tried to say all week that it was just a normal game," Garoppolo said after engineering a fourth-quarter drive that ended with Robbie Gould kicking a 24-yard field goal to give San Francisco a 15-14 win over the Bears. "But obviously I've never come back to Chicago like this, so it was exciting. I had a ton of people here today. It was one of the more fun games I've been a part of."

Acquired in a trade with New England on Halloween, Garoppolo made his first start as a 49ers QB in a battle of two teams that could have top-10 picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. The fourth-year pro made the most of it, completing 26 of 37 passes for 293 yards, earning an 82.4 rating and, more importantly, win No. 2 on the season for San Francisco, which dropped the Bears to 3-9.

So much for the local kid being nervous.

"Jimmy just came to work like he does every single day," rookie wide receiver Trent Taylor said. "Ready to work, communicating really well with our receivers and our offensive linemen. He's a great leader out there on the field for us, and we enjoy having him."

Saturday wasn't a normal day for Garoppolo, either, as his parents and brothers visited him at the hotel where the 49ers were staying. Then Sunday arrived, finally, for the Rolling Meadows High School and Eastern Illinois University graduate.

"It was special having them in the stands," Garoppolo, one of four sons of Tony and Denise, said of his family. "I saw them before the game, after the game. There were a lot of red (No.) 10s. It was cool."

On the game's opening drive, San Francisco's No. 10 drove the team 60 yards to the Bears 15, before the 49ers settled for the first of Gould's 5 field goals. Garoppolo never got the 49ers into the end zone, but he made big throws throughout the day and was particularly clutch in the fourth quarter with his team trailing 14-12.

San Francisco started at its own 8 with 5:27 left. Fourteen plays later, Gould trotted out to finish a drive that included Garoppolo's 33-yard pass to Taylor on third-and-9 to the Bears 18 just before the two-minute warning. It was Garoppolo's seventh completion on third down that resulted in a first down.

Happy homecoming. For Gould. For Garoppolo.

"Unbelievable," Garoppolo said of Gould's 5-for-5 day. "It's crazy how things happen. Everything happens for a reason."

While Bears quarterbacks and wide receivers have struggled to establish consistency all season, Garoppolo was on the same page all day with Taylor, a 5-foot-8 rookie out of Louisiana Tech, and 5-9 Marquise Goodwin, a fifth-year pro out of Texas. Garoppolo targeted the two wide receivers a combined 14 times and completed 14 passes to them.

"He's a professional," Goodwin, who had 8 catches for 99 yards, said of his new QB. "(He's) got a couple of (Super Bowl) rings (with New England), so no big deal. He's a phenomenal athlete. Phenomenal leader. That was all him. I had the easy job today. I just had to catch the ball. He put it in perfect positions for me to make the plays."

Garoppolo did throw his first interception as a pro, and that was because Kyle Fuller tugged the ball away from Louis Murphy just before the wide receiver's knee hit the ground.

"He was cool," Fuller said of Garoppolo. "He got it done today. Good quarterback, made some throws. Overall he was good."

San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan thought so, too.

"I thought it was a real good first start," Shanahan said. "He handled the offense well, definitely moved the chains. It will be fun to get back and watch the tape."

The Bears might not feel the same way after watching the tape.