Patriots

‘Couldn’t imagine it going any better than this’: Jimmy Garoppolo discussed his New England return

"Seeing the same stadium, hearing the same songs they used to play, a lot of memories came back."

By Hayden Bird

October 25, 2020

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After the 49ers defeated the Patriots 33-6 on Sunday, former New England quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was asked how it felt to defeat the team that originally drafted him in 2014.

“I don’t know, it was an exciting night, a lot of emotions,” Garoppolo responded. “Couldn’t imagine it going any better than this.”

Despite throwing a pair of interceptions, Garoppolo and San Francisco had little trouble with New England, inflicting the worst home defeat in Bill Belichick’s tenure as coach of the Patriots.

Still, Garoppolo — who traded to the 49ers from the Patriots in 2017 — enjoyed coming back to the place he called home for the first three and a half years of his NFL career.

“It was a cool week. Just a lot of emotions, a lot of memories,” said Garoppolo. “Especially coming back here, seeing the same stadium, hearing the same songs they used to play, a lot of memories came back.”

In a separate postgame interview with Mike Giardi of NFL Network, Garoppolo acknowledged it hadn’t been a “normal week.”

With Jimmy Garoppolo after the #49ers ran away from the #Patriots Sunday in Foxboro. @nflnetwork @AroundTheNFL pic.twitter.com/AxXp4RFU1b

— Mike Giardi (@MikeGiardi) October 26, 2020

Asked if he ever expected to put together such a decisive victory over his former team, Garoppolo maintained he was only focused on getting a win, regardless of the score.

“It really was never in my mind.” he explained. “I obviously wanted to come here and get a win. To me it didn’t matter if we won by 1 or 100. It was go and get the win. That was the mindset we had this week. Same mindset we had last week. Just got to keep that mindset the rest of the season.”