 Jimmy Garoppolo came in and played well in mop-up duty Monday night. (USA TODAY Images) |
Generally speaking the only time you hope to see anyone other than Tom Brady throwing the football is if the Patriots firmly have the game in hand and Bill Belichick decides to be be generous enough to let the guy behind him into the game.
On Monday night it was the other way around, as the Chiefs were having a field day getting to Brady and hitting him, including two forced fumbles, one of which they recovered. Following a 39-yard interception that was returned for a touchdown and put Kansas City's scoring total at 41, Belichick took Brady out before it could get any worse and allowed rookie back-up Jimmy Garoppolo to make his NFL debut.
Overall Garoppolo played fairly well while he was out there, finishing 6-of-7 for 70 yards and a touchdown.
Here's a quick run down of his numbers by down:
1st Down: 4-of-5 (80%) 22 yards, 1 TD
2nd Down: 2-of-2 (100%) 48 yards
3rd Down: no attempts
It's tough to read too much into his play considering it came in garbage time in a contest where the game was well in hand. Bill Belichick laughed off the notion that there's any reason to evaluate the quarterback position, but the bigger story is the fact that he looked more comfortable out there than Ryan Mallett ever did during his tenure here in New England.
Hopefully for now, this will be the only time he sees action for the rest of the season. The good news is Garoppolo has at least shown that should Brady ever get hurt that he can remain poised enough to lead the offense.
"Obviously, first time, there's a bunch of learning experiences, it's a good experience in general to get that out of the way," Garoppolo told the Boston Globe. "We'll go back, watch the tape, and I'm sure there's a bunch to learn from."
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