Their No. 1:
Big plays enable S.F. to secure 1st victory
Quarterback C.J. Beathard, facing, and the 49ers pick up their first win of the season after nine losses with a 31-21 decision over the Giants.
Sorry, 2008 Lions, the 2017 49ers won’t be joining your infamous and lonely club this season.
On Sunday, the 49ers accomplished something they last managed Christmas Eve, a mere 325 days earlier, by winning a game.
San Francisco’s 31-21 victory over the Giants at Levi’s Stadium improved its record to 1-9 and ensured it wouldn’t join those Lions as a second franchise to have an 0-16 season.
How did the 49ers’ first home win since Sept. 12, 2016, feel? After reporters entered the postgame locker room, they witnessed a huge dark area on the carpet where players had dumped a bucket of water on Kyle Shanahan and boogied around him to celebrate his first victory as a head coach. It was so raucous that cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon joked he stayed on the outskirts of the mosh pit to avoid injury.
“As soon as he got hit with the water ... we had a big boom box and we were just jamming in here,” tight end Garrett Celek said. “It was just awesome.”
Said left tackle Joe Staley: “This win felt just as good as winning the NFC championship.”
Shanahan began exchanging hugs with players on the sideline in the final minutes and was doused with cups of Gatorade by a group that included safety Eric Reid. Shanahan strode to the postgame podium for his news conference and smiled: “It’s an easier walk up here today,” he said.
“You lose nine in a row and you learn to savor the moments and enjoy these,” Shanahan said. “It was tough work for us to get our first win and we got it. The guys knew how much it meant to me and I knew how much it meant to them.”
The good news is the 49ers broke their franchise-record 11-game home losing streak and beat a team other than the Rams for the first time since Dec. 6, 2015.
The bad news? They can’t play the wildly dysfunctional Giants (1-8) again this season.
Against the NFL’s 30thranked defense, which was coming off a 51-17 loss to the Rams, the 49ers’ 24th-ranked offense was dominant. The 49ers had a season-high 474 yards, averaged 5.6 yards a carry, didn’t punt until less than six minutes were left in the fourth quarter and averaged 8.2 yards per play, their fourthhighest total since 2000.
“It’s just your picture-perfect game,” guard Brandon Fusco said. “Everything was working for us.”
Indeed, they topped their point total from the previous three games (30) and led for the entire second half after leading for 29:37 in their first nine games.
Leading up to kickoff, two anonymous members of the Giants, who were coming off their worst home loss since 1964, told ESPN that players had quit on head coach Ben McAdoo. On Sunday, after the Giants trailed by 18 points in the fourth quarter to a winless team, McAdoo was asked to assess his team’s effort.
“I’m going to look at the tape before I make a comment on anything,” he said.
Whatever. After becoming the first 0-9 team in franchise history, the 49ers won’t throw this one back.
They broke their streak thanks in large part to a standout performance from rookie C.J. Beathard, who played as if he wanted to keep his muchheralded backup, Jimmy Garoppolo, on the bench indefinitely.
In his fourth career start, the third-round pick completed 19 of 25 passes for 288 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He added an 11-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the 49ers a 24-13 lead. Beathard hurt his right thumb on his scoring run and was examined by trainers, but stayed in the game.
“I wanted to be in there when we did the victory formation,” Beathard explained.
With the 49ers trailing 6-3, Beathard launched an 83-yard touchdown pass to wideout Marquise Goodwin, which matched the eighth-longest pass play in franchise history.
On the 49ers’ next possession, after the Giants responded with a 9-yard scoring pass from Eli Manning to tight end Evan Engram, Beathard did it again.
This time, he lofted a 47-yard touchdown pass to Celek, who had not had a touchdown longer than 16 yards in his six-year career. Celek juked cornerback Janoris Jenkins and was sprung for the score by Goodwin’s block on safety Darian Thompson around the 25-yard line.
Celek had been told before the game that he was a sleeper fantasy-football player Sunday because of the Giants’ inability to cover tight ends. And he suggested he was in a fantasy world during the longest reception of his career.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what I did,” Celek said. “I think I blacked out afterward. I was just super excited. I guess I gave him a little juke. I didn’t even know I had that in me.”
After waiting so long to experience a win, the 49ers will get to savor it.
Next up is their bye week before they return to host the Seahawks on Nov. 26.
The 49ers, who have not had a one-win season, still could have a historically humiliating season, and Shanahan suggested he’ll be working to ensure that doesn’t happen — after savoring his first victory.
“I got that monkey off my back,” Shanahan said. “Now I’ve got to get my second win or that will be a monkey, too. That was just one win. But it definitely feels good.”