–As if he weren’t already in enough pain, Jimmy Garoppolo got thrown under the bus by head coach Kyle Shanahan in the wake of the season-ending knee injury suffered in Sunday’s loss at Kansas City.
“I think everyone’s (reaction) is the same after it happened: Why didn’t you just get out of bounds?” Shanahan said. “I think it’s a reminder to all quarterbacks and coaches. Just turn on the tape any Sunday and you’re going to watch 15 plays by quarterbacks jumping over people, not getting out of bounds, doing a little extra to move the chains where it’s a heck of a play and everyone’s glad they did it. Then you see some guys get out of bounds, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do.’
“Those guys are competitive guys who want to do whatever they can to win the game. You’re not assuming just by going and staying in bounds you’re going to tear your knee up. But I think that’s something that Jimmy will probably look at differently going forward because I know he’ll remember this the rest of his life. Nothing against him. I think it’s just a reminder for everyone why that is the obvious coaching point and why you need to stick with that.”
Garoppolo blew out his left ACL making a cut upfield at the sidelines inside the Kansas City 10 on a third-and-goal with the 49ers trailing 38-24 with 5:55 remaining in the game. He was able to gain about an extra three yards by staying inbounds.
–C.J. Beathard threw one pass after replacing Garoppolo in Sunday’s loss at Kansas City. It produced arguably the best 49ers’ completion of the game, and the most controversial penalty at the same time.
Facing fourth-and-goal at the 7-yard line, Beathard lofted a perfect pass to tight end George Kittle along the right sideline for an apparent touchdown that would have gotten the 49ers within one score with still almost six minutes to play.
But one official thought he saw fullback Kyle Juszczyk setting an illegal pick to help Kittle get free, and threw a flag that negated the TD and pushed the 49ers back to the 17, from where Shanahan elected to kick a field goal and get within 38-27.
Shanahan expected a letter of apology from the NFL this week.
“They grab every single play in the red zone. That’s their philosophy,” he said of the Chiefs. “It’s very obvious. You see it on tape every single play. So if they’re going to grab and do that and we’re not going to call that, just let them play. It kind of blew my mind when it was called the other way.”
–The 49ers suffered more than one key injury in the Kansas City game. Defensive standout Richard Sherman had to leave the game in the second quarter with a strained calf.
Before he left, Sherman made the 49ers’ defensive play of the young season, catching speedy Tyreke Hill from behind and tipping away what appeared to be a sure touchdown pass from Pat Mahomes.
Sherman is expected to miss at least the next two games.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I always look into what style of offense I want to do, what style of offense we’ve been doing for the last two years. You’d like to bring in guys that you felt you didn’t have to change as much of your offense for.” — 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, on why the 49ers opted not to call Colin Kaepernick about their quarterback opening this week.
BY THE NUMBERS: 175 — The number of rushing yards the 49ers have topped in their last two games. The last time they had 175 or more three games in a row was during the 1998 season.
