Giant ‘D’ no match for ailing Niners
The Giants defense would certainly like a mulligan for its performance against the 49ers.
Against a 49ers team missing several players on offense, including starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and starting running back Raheem Mostert, they allowed 420 yards and 5.8 yards per play in a 36-9 loss. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan called a masterpiece of a game en route to a blowout win.
Daniel Jones and the Giants offense did their defense no favors by failing to put up points and sustain long drives, but linebacker Blake Martinez isn’t using that as an excuse for the defensive struggles.
“For any competitor, there’s nothing that’s impossible,” Martinez said about the near 40 minutes the Giants defense was on the field. “I think for us, we work in situations. Whether it’s sudden change, whether it’s backed up, whatever ends up happening i n the game, we’ve worked it. We’ve done the conditioning, we’ve done multiple things throughout training camp, the ramp-up period. Everything you can think of that has given us the ability to go out there whether we play all 60 minutes, or we play one minute of a game.”
Along with Martinez, head coach Joe Judge and defensive lineman Leonard Williams stressed that they needed to watch the tape to fully understand what happened. However, one fact is certainly clear from Sunday’s beat down at the hands of the reigning NFC champions.
The Giants simply aren’t good enough yet.
This week marked the third straight game the Giants gave up a scoring drive to end the first half. Against Pittsburgh to open the season, they gave up an eightplay, 78-yard drive for a touchdown before the half. Last week, the Bears scored a touchdown with an 11 play, 80-yard drive. On Sunday, the 49ers were able to punch the ball into the end zone with a 12 play, 75yard drive.
Starting safety Jabrill Peppers was lost to an injury early in the game, but that doesn’t completely excuse the Giants’ inability to stop San Francisco’s offense.
INJURY REPORT
Rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas got shaken up on a late sack and was replaced for a few plays by fellow rookie Matt Peart … Isaac Yiadom made his first start at corner after replacing a benched Corey Ballentine in Week 2 in Chicago, but Yiadom then was replaced late Sunday by Ryan Lewis … The Giants’ inactives Sunday were injured corner Brandon Williams (groin) and safety Adrian Colbert (quad) and healthy scratches LB TJ Brunson, OT Jackson Barton, TE Eric Tomlinson & DL RJ McIntosh.