49ers 36, Giants 9
![#mood [Full Press Coverage]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e40f3a094d5fa3ebbbedb09/1601316849683-JX95TFR0FFWSANLQOVNZ/daniel+jones+QB+hit.jpeg)
#mood [Full Press Coverage]
This was a statement win.
The Giants aren’t a great team and this wasn’t the prettiest contest and a win on Sunday didn’t guarantee that our injury issues would fix themselves or that we’re destined for another magical run, but winning the way that we did given the circumstances is a statement of a different kind: that 2019 wasn’t a one-off.
Winning this year is just as much about chasing a Super Bowl as it is about cementing ourselves as a perennial contender. The best franchises don’t let strings of injuries—no matter how extensive, unlucky, or even comical in circumstance—knock them from their contender status. A down year is a trip to the playoffs. An up year is a championship run. That’s not to say we’re already there as franchise—there’s no way of obtaining that status before we see how this season shakes out—but it is to say that this was a good sign. So while we beat up on yet another lowly New York squad in a largely boring contest, this game was a statement that—despite being down 11 starters by the second quarter (three of them All-Pros)—we are still deep enough, talented enough, and well-coached enough to blow out the competition.
It was a statement of resilience.
OFFENSE
The Niners chipped through the first half—showing signs of breaking away but never shutting the door on the Giants—until a Shanahan defensive-download at halftime led to this stat line in the second half:
Three drives
27 plays
197 yards
Three touchdowns
This was after Jordan Reed, Mullens’ favorite early target and a major part of the game plan, went out with injury in the first half. The Niners didn’t punt for the first time since 1993, nearly doubled the Giants’ time of possession, and totaled 420 (the devil’s lettuce) yards of total offense while down our number one quarterback, wide receiver, two tight ends, and two running backs. That’s damn impressive, regardless of competition.
Young Money Mullens: Despite a bit of a slow start and some issues getting the calls in and out of the huddle on time, Mullens really got into rhythm in the second half. He was in full command of the offense, did a great job of finding passing lanes, pushed the ball with zip into tight windows, and showed nice touch when lofting passes over defenders. Ten Niners caught balls in this one, seven amassing 20+ yards receiving, as Mullens totaled a line of 25-of-36 for 343 yards and 1 TD. It was both a testament to Mullens’ willingness to throw to whoever is open and Shanahan’s creative deployment of talent regardless of who’s available. By midway through the third Mullens looked incredibly comfortable out there, which is good considering he may have a couple more starts in the coming weeks.
Run Game Woes: Despite paltry rushing stats—our backs combined for only 62 yards on 28 carries at 2.2 ypc—the addition of Kittle on the edge and Mostert’s shot-out-of-cannon burst through the LOS would have made for a much better performance on the ground. McKinnon has been great in the passing game and filled in admirably on the ground, but he doesn’t have the juice of either Mostert or Coleman through the hole and without our star tight end or tailback on the field, the Giants showed a lot of this front in an effort to take away our edges.
Coaches film isn’t up yet so I’m not totally confident in the gap responsibilities here, but the general idea was simple. Load up the line of scrimmage to create one-on-one blocks, extend a stand-up edge defender super wide so that he can’t get hooked, and let your second-level defenders fly unblocked to the hole instead of having to read/react/guess as to which hole the ballcarrier was hitting. You’re basically aiming to take away the double team advantages of zone/stretch while also forcing the running back to a specific hole, rather than letting him choose.
In response to the near-impossible to hook edges, we prodded the interior of the Giants front but to little avail. The two-gappers along the Giants’ interior really held their ground and—while the backs who were healthy enough to play performed admirably—they had little room to run in what was a pretty subpar performance from our interior line. There was some yardage left on the field in terms of missed cutback lanes, although—of all people—rookie JaMycal Hasty started hitting those bend backs once he got in the game. The UDFA showed nice burst and fluid movement in the run and pass game. While improved backfield health will hopefully relegate him to the practice squad moving forward (where we will surely lock him up each week so he doesn’t get poached), Hasty looks like an intriguing rotational weapon in 2021 and beyond.
YAC Gods Incoming Boiiiiiii: In order to punish the Giants for their employment of run-stopping fronts with six- and seven-defenders on the LOS, the Niners turned to the rookie Brandon Aiyuk. After a full week of practice, he was ready to deliver—including on the first play of the second half.
While not the exact same front as earlier (the Giants are in a two-high safety look here), it uses the same basic principles. Clog gaps on the LOS then fast flow to the point of attack. So this was Shanahan’s counter.
In this set, Dwelley motions across the formation, showing a potential lead stretch look that forces the two linebackers to shift to the strong side of the formation so as not to get outflanked. Most importantly, this isolates Aiyuk on the cornerback at the top of the screen.
The Niners have called a pretty simple run pass option (RPO) here. That means the play call is a RUN with a PASS tag to punish defenses from overcommitting to the run. Unlike a play action, this play can go either way, with the quarterback determining hand-off or pass AFTER the snap based on a lightning-quick read of a read defender. If the defender plays pass, the ball is handed off. If he plays run, the ball is thrown.
In this case, the linebackers are so far from the play they won’t be able to take away the slant, so the read key is the stand-up edge defender, highlighted in red. Due to alignment, Mullens pretty much knows pre-snap that he’s gonna be able to hit Aiyuk on the slant. Since the defender is lined up on the LOS he’d have to drop directly backwards into the slant’s path, and in that unlikely case Aiyuk would have likely just worked around him anyways. Herein lies the weakness with playing this kind of defensive front against us. You’ve committed to taking away every gap at the LOS but that takes you out of position to stop passes to the short alley—an area that the Niners’ offense excels at attacking.
The edge defender and Trent Williams engage, leaving a giant passing lane for Mullens to fit the ball in to Aiyuk, who is able to work his way upfield for an easy first down.
Just three plays later the Niners would return to a very similar formation, and the Giants—expecting another isolation slant RPO—had a call in place to theoretically take away that very concept. Unfortunately for them, Shanahan made his play call expecting that very adjustment and was (per usual) one step ahead.
This time we’ve split out Juice into the slot so that the Giants—who are showing a one-high look to defend the run and keep numbers on the LOS—have to decide whether to give support to their backside cornerback or lighten up the box against the run. Here they choose to keep their numbers against the run.
Just like before, Dwelley motions across, making the linebackers bump towards the trips side of the formation.
Unlike the last RPO, this is a straight play action pass—the offensive line will show stretch blocking horizontally but will NOT cross the LOS. They are in pass protection. On the backside, Aiyuk will be running a ten-yard dig instead of the three-step slant. That’s because (A) the Niners want to attack further down the field since they’re employing a six-man protection play action concept, (B) they are correctly expecting the Giants to present a single-high safety instead of a two-high look so as to keep numbers against the run, and (C) Shanahan has rightly assumed that the Giants will be keying backside RPO slant as a means of helping their isolated corner and after getting burned on that very concept to start this drive.
This time the Giants backside edge defender drops into coverage, widening as if to take away a slant or a hitch. I am potentially giving Mullens too much credit here, but in the frame above it seems like he’s even looking wide for a split second, specifically to keep that defender out of his intended passing lane inside. Meanwhile, both linebackers have bit on the play action fake and must bail to coverage. The linebacker closest to Aiyuk committed so much that he has to baseball turn and open to try and take away a dig or post route. Unsurprisingly, he won’t be able to get there in time.
At the bottom of the frame Juice actually looks inside at Mullens. I’m just guessing at this point, but I’d assume this is either to (A) create a very slow-developing heavy commitment to a run block fake in hopes that his man will jump the route and he’ll break open up the field, (B) sell the blocking fake to help the inside linebackers commit to the run, (C) he’s the hot read and can choose to break this route off if he sees a blitzing linebacker, or (D) this is just what a hitch-and-go from the slot looks like out of a run fake when you’re a fullback. I don’t know. These are just guesses. But regardless it’s another testament to the attention to detail this offense employs.
With the Giants trying to take away the backside RPO slant with their edge defender, they’ve now taken away a possible pass rusher to guard nothing but grass. Meanwhile, Mullens gets this gigantic passing lane to throw into, where he hits Aiyuk in stride and the rookie rumbles forward for a 19-yard gain.
Notice at the bottom of the screen Juice makes a mandatory outside release against his defender. He wants that defender to turn AWAY from the intended target, both to minimize the chance he can make a play on the ball and to create more of a runway for potential YAC.
To cap this very same drive, Shanahan once again plays against the Giants’ edge-rush stopping formation and their fast flow linebackers by dialing up this reverse, which gave Aiyuk a caravan of three blockers on one poor defender and could have likely been a touchdown from 90 yards out just as easily as 19. Again, he used Aiyuk, and again, it resembled how Deebo was deployed last year.
This is already gonna be too long so I’m not gonna breakdown this reverse, but here we’re selling a power to the left-side of the formation, even pulling Brunskill and having Garland and McGlinchey block down before peeling out to lead on the reverse after their defenders have already committed the wrong way. To get a real sense of the attention to detail of this play and how important Juice is to the offense, watch him from start to finish in this play. It is a wild blocking path.
With 70 yards receiving on 5 catches and 31 on 3 carries, Aiyuk is getting deeply involved in the offense just as Deebo is set to return. That combo—especially when complemented by the defensive gravitational pull of George Kittle—is going to make for a whole lot of receiver/wing T running back versatility for Shanahan to toy with.
DEFENSE
Let’s give Robert Saleh the credit he deserves. While the Niners’ defensive explosion a year ago is often credited to improved talent and Kris Kocurek coming onboard, this game really showed how the entirety of the defensive unit—both in talent, cohesion, and scheme—has improved over the past two years. Despite being down so many key contributors, the Niners held the Giants without a touchdown, and—considering the opposition never crossed the Niners’ 29-yard line—it was never even close. That’s a testament to Saleh as much as anyone.
Dat D-Line Depth Doe: Down three-ish starters from their front four and with their top bench rusher and a key DT reserve still on the PUP list, the Niners showed that their supposed DL depth was more than just training camp fluff.
We no longer have the insta-death third-and-long Turbo package, and two sacks and six QB hits may not be an eye-popping number, but the Niners held the Giants backs to 10 carries for 17 yards and—entering the fourth quarter before pulling starters—delivered pressure on 12 of 22 of Daniel Jones’ drop backs. It wasn’t a world-beating performance, but it showed how our pass rush is far from neutered despite the many missing bodies. We have the coaching, the system, and the depth to be able to sustain on defense without a total schematic overhaul.
Dual Threat Daniel? To my memory, the Giants had four positive plays on offense. A perfectly placed back-shoulder pass and three zone read keepers from Daniel Jones (although the last one was called back on penalty, so the fact that I consider it one of their successful plays says all you need to know about the Giants’ offensive performance this game).
The three zone reads would have gone for 58 combined yards, the last of which moving the ball to the Niners’ 14-yard line before it was called back on a hold. Each zone read was a weak-side pull against Kwon Alexander and Dion Jordan (2x) or Kerry Hyder (1x). While I’m not entirely sure how the Niners choose to play zone read against teams that don’t usually run that concept, it would be smart to have something in place now and get the reps before the quarterbacks get considerably more athletic than Jones.
You could make the argument that every single quarterback we face moving forward—other than Jared Goff, Drew Brees, and maybe Dwayne Haskins—is a bigger run threat than Jones was. That includes Carson Wentz, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Russell Wilson (2x), Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, and Dak Prescott. We’ve struggled thus far against dual-threat quarterbacks. It’s only going to get tougher.
Jason Verrett: After taking over for an injured Ahkello Witherspoon, the veteran got his first start since playing a single healthy game in 2017. Not only did Verrett get through the game healthy, but he played very well as our second and—after Moseley was knocked out—first corner, allowing only nine yards receiving, breaking up a pass, and making a couple key tackles. If he is a starter quality player or better, that would be huge for the depth of our secondary. But for now, congrats to him for simply getting back on the field and having some success after so many years of rehab.
Kyle Nelson WTF: This isn’t defense, but it’s where this section is gonna go. Nine-year veteran and long-time Niner Kyle Nelson had the worst long-snapping game I’ve seen in the NFL in quite some time. He was consistently off the mark, with one bad snap leading to a missed field goal and two snaps being so off they resulted in blown extra point conversion attempts. By the end of the game he was pulled for Justin Skule. Nelson wasn’t injured so it must have been a Markelle Fultzian case of the yips?
In a game where we won by four touchdowns and didn’t attempt a single punt, Nelson’s inaccuracy luckily didn’t matter, but it’s something that needs to get shored up immediately. A blown special teams assignment is the only thing between us and a 3-0 record right now, and games in the near future may come down to those kind of plays.
Misc. Fred Warner continued to cement himself as one of the top linebackers in the league, using film study and a timely pre-snap call out from Jaquiski Tartt to pick off a pass to Engram, and showing his presence versus the run and as a pass rusher… Despite being a part of two zone read pulls, Dion Jordan recovered a fumble and recorded a sack and two QB hits. He may wind up a one-trick pony as a speed rusher off the edge, but if employed the right way, that can still be useful… Fellow edge defender Kerry Hyder tallied a sack and three QB hits. While PFF gave him a low grade on the game, I didn’t notice it on the broadcast. He continued to make his presence felt off the edge… Although he was on the field for 45-of-52 defensive snaps, Kwon Alexander totaled only a single tackle on the day… Dontae Johnson gave up a 23-yard completion then had a bad hold on the very next play, giving me a brief bout of 2017 PTSD. But he broke up a pass two plays later. I’d still prefer if we were healthy enough that he could stick to specials… Marcell Harris played only seven snaps but registered two forced fumbles during that time… both Verrett and McKinnon made their first starts since 2017… former Niner Aldon Smith—now clean and with the Cowboys after years of rehab—tallied four tackles, three sacks, four QB hits, and a pass deflection against the Seahawks on Sunday… Joe Montana and his wife Jennifer stopped a crazy lady from kidnapping their 9 month-old grand daughter from their house in Malibu.
Go Niners 👍🏈