The San Francisco 49ers new starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo debuted as the starter in Chicago. His chemistry with rookie wide receiver Trent Taylor was on full display with the two connecting on all six targets for a total of 92 yards. What wasn’t revealed until after the game was that Taylor had a pretty bad virus or food poisoning the night before. He spent most of the night and game day morning vomiting out whatever was in his system.
Yeah it was a long night for me for sure. I didn't get much rest. Just puking all night. But that’s just what you do for your team. That’s just the winning mentality you have as a team. Just everybody sacrificing for each other, doing whatever it takes to get a victory. I believe anybody else on this team would have done the same thing if they were feeling that way so that’s just what you do as a team. I think it was food poisoning but I’m not sure. It was coming out of me though, whatever it was,
When asked how if he had to take any special precautions after his illness:
I had to sit on the IV for a long time to put whatever in that I possibly could and just find any type of energy that I possibly could to go out there and contribute to the team. (During the game) I was kind of coughing up a little bit. Not full heaving but yeah my stomach was definitely still turned but we made it through.
Garoppolo only started taking the majority got the first team reps on Wednesday before the game. When asked about how he and Garoppolo were able to get their lines of communication in synch so quickly Taylor replied:
He did a great job today for sure. Just his work ethic throughout the week he’s he’s on top of everything, making sure everything is explained the right way making sure we’re all on the same page. So it’s just a credit to him and his work ethic the way we were able to perform today with his first start just moving the ball as an offense.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned in his post game press conference that offense had one of their best days catching the ball. When Taylor was asked if Garoppolo’s style of throwing had anything to do with it, or if there was anything different about the way he throws, he answered:
Not anything I can think of. He’s good at hitting the spots. He understands the game really well and it was great having him out there, it was just the beginning. We’ll see how we do.
One of the most dynamic plays between Taylor and his new quarterback came towards the end of the game on a third and nine with 2:17 that went for 33 yards.
Yeah it was just a 10 yard in route. Luckily, I was able to get inside the defender and Jimmy had great placement on that ball throwing it off his back foot I think. Not positive on that, but just laid it up there perfectly for me and just being able to get inside that defender, that was the biggest deal and then make my move from there. It worked out just how we drew it up.
The game against the Bears ended up being a career high for Taylor who said there was never any doubt that he would play.
No definitely not. It’s just one of those things that, I mean I was throwing up all night so I though for sure by game time that I was going to be done puking. If I wasn’t something was going to be really wrong at that point for sure. So I stopped puking at about 6 am, slowly started to find some energy, got the IVs in me, and I knew I was going to still be able to play. I wasn’t going to let that hold me back. I love this game to much. It wasn’t a question.