How reborn 49ers trounced Giants on the strength of preparation in West Virginia
Not many wins were as demoralizing as the 49ers take-down of New York Jets last week. The season-ending injury to Nick Bosa was a season-shaking moment that left coach Kyle Shanahan and his players emotional knowing they had a new hurdle in the way of their Super Bowl expectations.
Sunday’s game against the Giants, however, was on the other end of the spectrum.
It started when the team regrouped for the week of practice at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. Then the team trekked back to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where artificial turf last week helped take out Bosa, former No. 3 draft pick, Solomon Thomas, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and the team’s top two rushers, Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman.
The pain is less sharp after a 36-9 thumping of the Giants on Sunday to improve to 2-1. The 49ers outscored both New York teams 67-22.
“I was real happy with this week,” Shanahan said afterward. “To pull together throughout the week, I just got a real good energy and vibe from the guys on Wednesday by the time we started practicing all the way to last night at the hotel meeting before the game.”
The positive energy also came through an excellent performance from backup quarterback Nick Mullens, who threw for 343 yards on 25-of-36 completions (69 percent) with a touchdown pass and 108.9 rating. Dating back to 2018, Mullens joined Joe Montana as San Francisco’s only signal callers to throw for at least 220 yards in nine straight starts.
The 49ers didn’t punt or turn the ball over. They had nine possessions and seven resulted in points. The only ones that didn’t ended with a missed field goal and Mullens kneeling out the clock to end the game.
“I think the biggest thing, just stay ahead of the chains and convert on third downs,” Mullens said. “I think early in the first half, we were moving the ball pretty good, but we kind of got in some second and long situations, and we had to overcome a lot of stuff to keep it going. In the second half, those field goals turned to touchdowns, which was huge.”
The Giants tied the game at 6 midway through the second quarter as the two offenses traded field goals. From then on, San Francisco outscored the home team 30-3, getting touchdowns from running back Jerick McKinnon, receiver Brandon Aiyuk (a rushing score and the first of his career) and two from backup halfback Jeff Wilson Jr.
Mullens had five different pass catchers with at least three catches: Aiyuk, Kendrick Bourne, Wilson, tight end Ross Dwelley and McKinnon.
“Nick was great,” Shanahan said. “Very poised.”
Shanahan noted the length of some drives. His offense had four with double-digit plays and it converted 8-of-12 third downs. The 49ers outgained New York, 420-231.
San Francisco entered the game as modest favorites given the Giants began the year 0-2 and last week lost their best player, Saquon Barkley, to a season-ending ACL tear. They were also without top receiver Sterling Shepard, due to a toe injury. And given the 49ers’ injury situation, missing tight end George Kittle, Dee Ford, Richard Sherman and the players that went down last week, it appeared like a relatively even matchup, particularly because Mullens was starting in place of Garoppolo.
But it turned out to be anything but when the two teams took the field. Shanahan was asked if the resounding victory came as a surprise.
“No, nothing against them at all,” Shanahan said. “We had a real good week of practice and we were pretty confident last night. I know the way it ended up. By no means was that easy. Those drives were grinds. ... I was real proud of our guys and that was our plan. We came in and wanted to do that, thought we could do that, and I was proud of the guys for pulling it off.”
Aiyuk made a strong first impression as a focal point of the offense for the first time. He had just two catches last week in his first action since missing time with a hamstring injury. This week he had 101 all-purpose yards (31 rushing, 70 receiving) on eight touches. His touchdown came on a reverse sweep in the third quarter that was schemed up so well against the Giants defense that blockers didn’t engage with defenders until they were 10 to 15 yards downfield.
Shanahan said Aiyuk was off on some of the details of his game in the first half. And Aiyuk responded with a big third quarter.
The No. 25 pick in the recent draft said he was excited coming out of last week despite his minimal production. That excitement seemed warranted, given his production.
“It was fun to get out there to get my feet wet a little bit. But this week I was just get excited to come back and play the next game because I just got the feeling out of the way of not knowing what it would be like out there,” Aiyuk said. “So after I got that out the way, I was excited to get to work this week knowing I’ll be more of an option in the offense. It was a fun week, excited and glad that we could practice, so much to play into the game.“
Things could get even better for the 49ers’ offense next week. There’s a good chance Kittle returns and Garoppolo may be back after spraining his ankle. The team also expects receiver Deebo Samuel to resume practicing for the first time since breaking his foot in June.
“It’s hard enough to win in this league as it is, when all things are going how they’re supposed to on our side,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “I think we showed today that we have a lot of depth. We knew that we were coming in with a lot of injuries but we wanted to prove to everyone that we’re all we got and we’re all we need.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
