It seems like only yesterday I was throwing olive branches Jimmy Garoppolo's way, celebrating his comeback season to propel San Francisco on its playoff run. Because it was only yesterday, in Ask the Experts. This is how Jimmy G thanks me: by almost single-handedly losing a key Week 16 game to Tennessee. Brutal.

QUARTERBACKS

Things started so well, with Jimmy Garoppolo marching San Francisco easily down the field for a touchdown on the opening drive, and then marching them down the field into the red zone again on the second drive. George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel each caught 2 passes. Jeff Wilson was ripping off yards and a touchdown against Tennessee's top run defense. All was well.

Things quickly soured. Garoppolo tried to force a pass into Kittle in the end zone that was easily intercepted, ending that drive. That was bad. Then he missed a wide-open Kyle Juszczyk down the sideline for what would have been a long touchdown; there was no one within 20 yards of his fullback. A 10-0 halftime lead could easily have been 24-0. No question. Finally, on the first play after the Titans opened the third quarter with a field goal drive to make it 10-3, he sailed one 10 feet over Samuel's head that was picked, setting Tennessee up for its first touchdown and a 10-10 tie. It was arguably the most you've ever seen one player do to turn a comfortable win into a loss. Trey Lance isn't starting next week, but it probably occurred to Kyle Shanahan once or twice in the second half last night.

Ryan Tannehill struggled early on, but it's not that he was wildly inaccurate; it's that San Francisco's defense was fired up, dropping receivers in their tracks, blowing up screen passes 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, bum-rushing the passer (the Titans had multiple offensive linemen unavailable due to injuries and COVID, down to starting a guard at left tackle). But as Garoppolo's game went south, Tannehill's improved, with him rolling out to buy time and hitting receivers over the middle downfield -- receiver, mostly, with A.J. Brown destroying an undermanned San Francisco secondary. Tannehill also had a huge 23-yard scramble at the end, single-handedly setting up the winning field goal. Defenders look afraid to tackle quarterbacks running these days, wary of fines and penalties, probably why those plays work so well.

RUNNING BACKS

Jeff Wilson, like Garoppolo, was fairly effective against Tennessee's 2nd-ranked run defense on the opening drive, carrying 6 times for 19 yards and a touchdown. But just 26 yards the whole rest of the game. He caught 3 passes, same as JaMycal Hasty and Kyle Juszczyk, helping his PPR appeal (but not that of the team itself, really). With Deebo Samuel mixing in some runs, San Francisco ran well enough to win this game, and you're not displeased if you started Wilson. If Elijah Mitchell can't return in Week 17, Wilson will be all over Houston.

With Tennessee, the lack of respect given running backs around the league these days was highlighted by the fact that the Titans seemed to totally not care whether they had D'Onta Foreman, Dontrell Hilliard or Jeremy McNichols on the field. McNichols played 40 percent of the time, and he's a barely functional third-down back. All I can figure is he's best of the three in the pass protection (Hilliard, most notably, totally whiffed on an early blitz pickup that got Tannehill clobbered). Hilliard seems to have the most juice, although McNichols also had a couple of decent early runs, probably surprising San Francisco, unaware they needed to account for him as a runner. Foreman came in for a goal-line carry to blast into the end zone for a short touchdown, but his 9 carries went for just 17 yards. Hopefully you didn't start any of these players, and won't have to next week.

WIDE RECEIVERS

There were two game-changing wideouts in this game, and they both did big things. A.J. Brown returned from injury to look a little sluggish in the first half, but wound up turning 16 targets -- more than half of Tannehill's 29 attempts -- into 11 catches for 145 yards and a touchdown. San Francisco couldn't do much with him, with him making contested grabs all over them, and they didn't get much help from officiating crew. On the play before his touchdown, Brown basically picked up his defender and pile-drived him into the turf to get open; no flag was thrown. That was a 12-yard completion to convert a 3rd and 10 from the 30-yard line, so kind of an important play. If you're going to swallow a flag on that kind of mauling, I'm not sure why you bothered to step onto the field at all. Anyway, nice game for Brown.

Deebo Samuel did all he could to win this game, continually picking up yards after contact on runs and receptions. He had two plays end down near the goal line, including the 56-yard slant that set up the tying touchdown (shaken up on the play briefly, but he was fine). Great year for Samuel, I'll thank Jimmy G for that I guess.

Brandon Aiyuk caught only 2 passes after San Francisco's opening drive, with an incompletion that was a little off but Aiyuk also stopped his route for some reason; I think I understand why Shanahan gets frustrated with him at times. But he saved his fantasy day with a late touchdown, a play where San Francisco lined up three receivers to the left and Tennessee curiously didn't cover the one guy who seemed like the logical target; easy touchdown. The other receivers for both teams were total non-factors. Julio Jones played half the snaps but saw one target; presumably no one was starting Jones, aware of the likelihood of him leaving due to injury during the game. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine caught 2 balls, about the best he could do with Brown dominating.

TIGHT ENDS

It's hard to understand why Geroge Kittle wasn't even targeted after catching 2 passes and seeing a ball in front of him get intercepted on San Francisco's first two drives. He'd been on a record pace the last three games, seems like a credible receiving threat, maybe want to involve him in the offense. Thinking out loud here. Anyway, Kittle busted for a lot of playoff teams last night. Presumably nobody was starting any of the Titans' warm bodies.

MISCELLANEOUS

It's a fine line between winning and losing. If you're a Titans fan, you're celebrating the clutch plays made by Tannehill and Brown, and Randy Bullock seemingly sneaking in all of his kicks just inside the upright. You're thankful for Garoppolo's miscues, which were huge in this one. If you're a San Francisco fan, you're wondering how a game you dominated for a half got away. The playoffs are still possible (next week is a tap-in against Houston), but they'd look like a certainty had they not blown things last night.