The New York Giants surrendered their third-straight 30-point game in Week 9, as the San Francisco 49ers won 34-24.
Early on, it looked as though the Giants were going to make a game of it. They marched down the field on their first drive to score another game-opening touchdown, then pushed the 49ers to fourth down on their ensuing drive. But San Francisco was able to convert the fourth down and ultimately scored a touchdown on that drive. The Giants didn’t allow the 49ers to be explosive, but they did allow San Francisco to be methodical and efficient.
“Thought we eliminated some explosive plays, which was good,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said. “but four of five in the red zone is tough, and three of those were on third down, and we got picked with the one with McCaffrey on the way back there.”
The Giants made plays on both sides of the ball. However individual efforts on individual plays just wasn’t good enough. And once again, the Giants run defense simply wasn’t up to the task in front of it.
“I wouldn’t say they had a ton of explosives but they ran it and they were pretty productive running the football,” he said. “Longest one was that last one, I think 18 yards, whatever. But you know, four or five, six, average 4.1, 40 carries. We’ve got to do a better job in that area. I don’t think it’s a secret.”
“Team game,” he added. “But certainly got to do better.”
Ultimately, the Giants’ defensive front failed to generate much pressure and allowed holes to be opened. The depleted linebacking corps and secondary failed to fill their gaps or tackle well.
“Yeah, look, nothing was good enough,” Daboll said. “You know, the guys battled but ultimately not good enough.”
The Giants did indeed battle.
Brian Burns came up with his 11th sack of the season, leading to a fumble recovery for Abdul Carter.
“That’s a great play by Burns and Abdul,” Daboll said. “Didn’t come away with points. That was, I wouldn’t say the breaker, but you’d love to have points down there. Didn’t get it done.”
“Kid gives everything he has”
And then, of course, there was Jaxson Dart. Dart went 24 of 33 (72.7 percent) for 191 yards and 2 touchdowns, as well as led the Giants in rushing with 56 yards and a touchdown.
“Kid gives everything he has,” Daboll said. “Competes 60 minutes, makes good decisions. We’ve got to do a good job of finishing plays around him, too. But he battles and I’m proud of him.”
‘Battling’ is an accurate description of how Dart plays the game. Giants fans consistently question why Dart doesn’t slide, or why he hasn’t learned to protect himself. The answer is simple, however: Dart knows how to protect himself, but chooses not to do so.
The rookie simply refuses to fold — whether it’s on a play or on the game as a whole. He took off and ran for a first down on at least three occasions because none of his receivers were able to get open. But each of those attempts resulted also in a big hit, with the biggest coming just before his final touchdown of the game.
“I just saw him coming in,” Daboll said. “He said he’s good — not good, though. He’s a competitor. So when you get these results, it should frustrate you. It should have you, for lack of better terms, not happy.”
It’s likely that Daboll would have used slightly different terminology than “not happy” if he wasn’t censoring himself for the media. But the fact remains that Dart is a consummate competitor who tries to will his team to a win, even if his teammates won’t cooperate. It’s, frankly, impressive just how much Dart has improved since being drafted.
He doesn’t look like a rookie out there, but rather a veteran franchise quarterback. And yet Dart is a rookie — a rookie in an impossible position.
“Jaxson is the leader of our football team,” Daboll said. “I know he’s a rookie and that’s a hard thing to do as a rookie. And the way he competes, you know, people need to feed off of that. Again, there’s plenty of plays out there that we had opportunities to do — and just didn’t get the job done.”
The Giants offense had multiple drops, while the defense had multiple missed tackles and didn’t make plays when they had opportunities.
The Giants found Their Guy in Dart, and now they need to be worthy of him.
