Week 10 ends with a primetime duel of the disappointed: While the New York Giants now see no alternative to the upheaval, the San Francisco 49ers are struggling because of their injury pitch. Can Odell pick Beckham and Co. San Francisco apart? Or is there another surprise from Niners backup quarterback Nick Mullens? This is discussed in the SPOX Coin Toss. The game can be seen live on DAZN in the night from 2.15 a.m. on Tuesday to Tuesday!
mySPOX-User bkg86: What promised a top match with stars like Jimmy Garoppolo, Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley before the season, is now the duel of the third and second worst team in the league. This is problematic to frightening, especially for the G-Men, because while Garappolo is injured and the 49ers are now playing with their third quarterback, all the major players are in New York. The ones that are still over. After all, they obviously switched to rebuild mode and with Eli Apple and especially Damon Harrison two regular players were traded to other teams.
If you look at the statistics, the Giants in the vast majority of cases are not to be found at the bottom. In the passing offense you are even 13th in the upper midfield. Here’s the first reason why New York wins the game, because the Bay Area team have only two interceptions on their credit side this season and are in the pass defense in the lower third of the league.
Here the Giants with Beckham, Shepard, Engram and Barkley attack the Secondary. Especially Barkley should be played more over the pass, also in the screen game; because San Francisco’s run defense is more than solid, while the offensive line of the Giants still has big problems in the run blocking.
Not without reason Big Blue is the second worst team in Total Rushing Yards, although they have invested the second pick in Saquon Barkley. Barkley already has some Big Plays – if you take them out, the Run Game of the Giants is, like in the last years, the league’s bottom again.
If you don’t succeed with Big Plays, the four-time Super Bowl Champion must hope for a better day from Eli Manning. The tight games, as in Carolina, were lost, among other things, by partly absurd interceptions from Manning. In the Red Zone they are the second worst team in the league with 40 percent touchdowns on Red Zone trips. So as a Giants fan you should hope that big plays from players like Beckham and Barkley will lead directly to touchdowns.
If you look at the table situation, you could almost think that both teams could live with a defeat to peck into the top 3 in the draft. Here I see another “bonus” for the Giants: In contrast to Kyle Shanahan, who lost his franchise quarterback early for this season and was supposed to be in the saddle for a 2-16 season, Giants head coach Pat Shurmur can’t afford such a season, with the availability of all superstars.
In contrast to San Francisco, you are more dependent on a good pick for a new QB. But I think Shurmur will take more risks for a win, while Shanahan is more interested in the overall development of his team. Tanking or not, this must be discussed in this game. Gladly in the comments.
In a duel of the disappointed, in my opinion the individual class wins in the end on the skill positions, especially wide receivers. For the close 3-point victory of the Giants the sporadic top players in the defense like Olivier Vernon and Landon Collins, as well as kicker Rosas contribute to it. If, yes, if Eli doesn’t have one of his days again.
Adrian Franke (SPOX): The Giants have the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback, they have one of the best wide receivers, one of the best young running backs and a promising young tight end in their ranks – but would anybody be surprised if San Francisco finally brought the better passing game onto the grass in this game? With an Undrafted Free Agent quarterback in his second NFL launch?
Probably not, and that is due to two core elements: Niners coach Kyle Shanahan with his skills as scheme-master and play-caller on the one hand, as well as an overall very solid offensive line, which has to do with the harmless pass-rush of the Giants on the other hand.
This opens the door for all the things Shanahan wants to do offensively. The 49ers still have a very good run game because they link their run formations and run personnel groupings so closely with their own passing game and especially the play action passing game. San Francisco should be able to run against the Giants and then attack them with the running backs of New York’s linebackers in the passing game; against the Raiders almost half of Nick Mullens’ passes came via play action.
Keyword Mullens: There is no question that with this Raiders defense last week he had the most grateful starting debut matchup one could wish for in the NFL. Nevertheless, you have to understand the plays, apply them to the appropriate defense and go through your reads correctly. Mullens did all this, the release was fluid and fast and his reads were precise; it’s no coincidence that Shanahan quickly settled on Mullens as the starter via C.J. Beathard.
In this respect, a season that was largely lost in sporting terms has become a little more interesting for Niners fans – at least you can see what the young quarterback has to offer, even if there will of course be serious mistakes on the other side of the spectrum. And you can still enjoy George Kittle, who is currently one of the most dangerous tight ends of the league and who should also cause considerable problems for the Giants.
And the defense? The Niners have an average pass rush, but are good enough to dominate a fragile offensive line; most recently also admired against the Raiders. DeForest Buckner in the centre is a permanent danger anyway, but Cassius Marsh and Arik Armstead have also been able to create relatively constant pressure over the last few weeks.
It’s no secret that the Giants have one of the league’s most vulnerable offensive lines – as well as the fact that Eli Manning has huge problems coping with the pass rush. At the same time San Francisco defends the run solidly, and so one can ask the Giants once more the question: does New York manage to exploit the matchup advantages of their own weapons against the opponent’s coverage?