Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer 2y

Bad night for Jimmy Garoppolo a bad sign for San Francisco 49ers' potential playoff run

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- In the midst of the San Francisco 49ers' recent surge back into playoff contention, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo hadn't been perfect but he had been effective.

Garoppolo wasn't throwing often but when he did, it was usually turning into something positive as Garoppolo jumped to the NFL lead in yards per attempt. More important, he'd cut down on the interceptions, throwing just four in the past eight games as the Niners went 6-2.

Suffice to say, Good Jimmy had showed up more than Bad Jimmy. That wasn't the case Thursday night. Garoppolo threw a pair of costly interceptions, missed wide-open fullback Kyle Juszczyk for what should have been a walk-in touchdown and nearly threw another pair of picks.

The result was a 20-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans in yet another game that was there for San Francisco's taking. Garoppolo finished 26-of-35 for 322 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for a passer rating of 88.0. The Niners were minus-2 in turnover differential, falling to 1-21 under coach Kyle Shanahan when they are minus-2 or worse in that category.

"Good, bad or indifferent, I'm right here," Garoppolo said. "It doesn't change for me. I wish we would have won it. ... You've got to take your lumps, look at the film, be hard on ourselves and for 10 days we've got to get ready and move on to the next one."

In a vacuum, the loss shouldn't be death knell to the Niners' playoff hopes.

ESPN's Football Power Index dropped the 8-7 49ers' chances of reaching the postseason from 84% to 72% with the loss. Take care of business next week against Houston and the Niners should be fine. Another win against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 18 would basically guarantee it.

Of greater concern should be what happens if Garoppolo turns in more performances like he did Thursday night. Whenever he was asked to throw the ball 5 or more yards downfield, it felt like something bad could happen at any moment.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Garoppolo completed 20 of 22 passes for 186 on throws traveling less than 5 yards in the air. He completed 6 of 13 passes for 136 yards with two interceptions on throws traveling 5-plus yards in the air.

And, as the game wore on, Tennessee dared Garoppolo to beat them. To his credit, he led a drive for the game-tying touchdown. The Titans had enough time to get the game-winning field goal.

But it shouldn't have come to that. The Niners had many chances to put this one away early and couldn't do it.

"I thought we should have been up more, that was for sure," coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I thought we could have got three scores with those drives. We didn't."

And if the bad version of Garoppolo continues to appear, the Niners are going to be watching from home sooner than later, even if they reach the postseason.

Describe the game in two words: Ugly Loss. Nobody expected these two teams to put on an aesthetically pleasing game on a short week but the Niners had a chance to put this one away early and couldn't get out of their own way. This is another defeat that could haunt them down the stretch.

Third-and-wrong: It's hard to put too much blame on the 49ers defense in a game where it held the Titans in check for the entire first half and was repeatedly put in bad spots. But that group gave up way too many conversions on third-and-long, missing valuable opportunities to get off the field.

Tennessee had six first-down conversions on third-and-10 or more, the most by any team this season. Titans' receiver A.J. Brown made most of those happen and though he appeared to get away with a couple of push offs, the Niners pass rush has to make it so Brown doesn't even have that chance. They didn't do it often enough Thursday night.

The Titans finished 9-of-16 on third down with an average of 10.8 yards covered on those conversions. Tennessee had conversions on third and 11, 15, 23 and 10 (three times).

"Anytime they're in third-and-long situations, we've got to get off the field," linebacker Fred Warner said. "That's just like a no-brainer. That can't happen."

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