Hopefully, Jimmy Garoppolo has a short memory. The last time the San Francisco 49ers quarterback faced the Minnesota Vikings, he felt a relentless pass rush get to him en route to a Week 1 loss.
The Vikings got to Garoppolo three times. Minnesota's stingy pass rush created a world of pain for the quarterback, who completed just 15 of his 33 passes for 261 yards, three interceptions, and a touchdown. Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter said the 49ers passer eventually started to become scared of the pass rush.
“As the game goes on, you have to bring the pressure on him. You see that he’s starting to get scared,” Hunter said then, as pointed out by Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
Garoppolo responded, saying:
“I’ve never heard that before. Pressure’s always a good thing in a quarterback’s eyes. It opens up windows, they have less guys in coverage.”
Garoppolo welcomes pressure, and he also responds to it well. According to Player Profiler, he logged the NFL's second-highest completion rate under pressure in 2019 with 46.9%, as opposed to 77.3% while throwing from a clean pocket.
The Vikings know how to get to quarterbacks. In 2019, they tallied 48 sacks, the sixth-most in the NFL. A pass rush duo of Hunter and Everson Griffen tends to give other quarterbacks nightmare, including Garoppolo in Week 1 of the 2018 season.
On Saturday, the Vikings will look to make Garoppolo scared again. Minnesota will face the 49ers in hopes of pulling off an upset for the second straight week. If they do so, they will be in the NFC Championship Game.
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