Welcome to Talking Touchdowns where this Fangirl gets to not only talk touchdowns, but she also gets to talk wins, two in a row in fact.

It turns out this Garoppolo kid is pretty flipping good and the Jimmy Show takes it act home as the 3-10 San Francisco 49ers get set to take on the 8-5 Tennessee Titans, who are fighting to to win their division and to stay in the playoff hunt. Let’s take a look.

San Francisco 49ers vs. Tennessee Titans

• We’ll start again with quarterback, because obviously. After a slow start on Sunday, Jimmy Garoppolo finished the day 20-of-33 for 334 yards, one TD and one INT. With Trent Brown out, he got hit nine times and sacked twice, but the man can take a hit and keep on kicking.

• Garoppolo is also the best thing to happen to Marquise Goodwin since quarterbacking, as Goodwin has 14 catches for 205 yards since Jimmy G was named the starter. Kyle Juszczyk had two huge catches to set up Carlos Hyde’s TD Sunday, while Garrett Celek had a 61-yarder that led to his touchdown a few plays later. You know what that sound is 49ers fans? That’s the sound of an offense that works. Boom-chick-a-boom!

• Meanwhile, over in Tennessee, the Titans are coming off a loss to the Arizona Cardinals and it’s one that left quarterback Marcus Mariota and left tackle Taylor Lewan banged up. It looks like they’ll both play Sunday. The Titans’ O-line struggled in Lewan’s absence, so the man behind center should be hoping for that.

• Tennessee’s offense started slow, as it has much of the season, on Sunday, and their run game was pretty much stagnant with DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry combining for 54 rushing yards total.

• Mariota is struggling. He overthrew his receivers quite a bit this past week and finished the game with 159 passing yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions. He was also sacked three times. Meanwhile, the Niner defense delivered three sacks and seven quarterback hits this past Sunday.

• And then there was that Adrian Colbert forced fumble that sealed the win for the red and gold. Garoppolo’s offensive efficiency has made the defense more efficient as well because they’re not exhausted come the 4th quarter. If the Niner D can apply pressure to Mariota, keeping him off his game, and if they can contain Murray and Henry as Arizona did, this game could go well.

• The Tennessee defense will definitely be the toughest Garoppolo has faced this season, but it wasn’t stellar this past week. The unit did sack Blaine Gabbert eight times and that was without their sack leader Derrick Morgan who missed last week with a sprained knee. TBD if he’ll play this week. Please be ok Trent Brown. Please!

• Tennessee’s defense is allowing an average of 233 pass yards and 90 rushing yards a game, so this one is going to have be won in the air if the Niners have a chance to win.

Game Prediction

The Titans are 100% the better team. That being said, they are trending down while the Niners are trending up. The 49ers have momentum. It will be Garoppolo’s first start at Levi’s Stadium, and these are the kind of games the underdog wins late in the season, so I’m giving it to the Niners. Call it Phil Barber’s Garoptimism or call it crazy but I’m calling it. Go Niners!

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Photo Credits:

• 49ers on Wikimedia Commonsby Sports Logos.Net
• Jimmy Garoppolo on field photographed by Tracy Sandler
• Tennessee Titans on wikimedia by Tennessee Titans
• Jimmy Garoppolo at Press Conference photographed by Tracy Sandler
• Trent Brown on Wikimedia Commons by Jeffrey Beall
• Marquise Goodwin photographed by Tracy Sandler
• Garrett Celek on Wikimedia Commons by Jeffrey Beall
• Kyle Juszczyk photographed by Tracy Sandler
• Carlos Hyde on wikimedia commons by Jeffrey Beall
• Arizona Cardinals on Wikimedia Commonsby Moe Epsilon
• Marcus Mariota on flickr by Erik Drost
• Taylor Lewan on Wikimedia Commons by Thomson200
• Adrian Colbert photographed by Tracy Sandler
• Derrick Morgan on Wikimedia Commons by Keith Allison
• Trent Brown on Wikimedia Commons by Jeffrey Beall