49ers Complete Sweep of New York with Big Win vs Giants

Week 3 - Next man up. That was the motto on Sunday when the 49ers continued their two-week long pilgrimage in East Rutherford, New Jersey, following the numerous injuries the team sustained thru the first two weeks of the season. After recording their first win of the season a week ago at MetLife Stadium against the Jets, Kyle Shanahan's 49ers team was right back at it in the same stadium in Week 3 against the Giants. Something many of Shanahan's players were concerned about after the team suffered multiple key injuries on both sides of the ball due to what many blamed on the newly-installed artificial turf. But after league officials deemed the field safe in the days leading up to the game, the Niners expressed their frustration out on the scoreboard with a good ole shellacking of their opponent. 

Playing on Sunday without starters at a laundry list of positions including: quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight-end, line-backer, cornerback and three defensive-linemen all due to injury, San Francisco was able to showcase their depth as the team received contributions from players all across the board, some for the first time this season. Case in point: rookie wide-out Brandon Aiyuk. Playing in only the second game of his career, the 2020 first-round pick out of Arizona State put a stamp on Sunday's game by hauling in a game-high five receptions for 70-yards. He would also add another 30-yards on the ground to go along with a rushing touchdown, the first of his career. Aiyuk was one of the many 49er players who helped make things easier for backup QB Nick Mullens who made his first start since 2018, getting the nod in place of the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. Mullens who was a hot commodity in the offseason as multiple teams inquired about his services in a possible trade, displayed exactly why coach Shanahan and GM John Lynch made the right decision in keeping him around in case of an emergency. Facing a subpar Giants team that is without their best player in running back Saquon Barkley and under a first-year head coach, the 49ers were still able to have their way despite their decimated roster as Mullens led the charge and took advantage of the opportunity by putting up solid numbers. 

After taking a 3-0 lead on their opening possession, the 49er defense was able to turn a Daniel Jones fumble into another Robbie Gould field goal before New York got on the board with a field goal of their own. Gould failed to give his team a six-point lead when his third field goal attempt was missed wide right, which opened the door for the Giants to tie the game at 6-all following another Graham Gano field goal. But the game wouldn't be close for long as the 49ers finally found the end zone thanks to Jerrick McKinnon's third touchdown in as many weeks for the first time in his career. An interception with just over a minute remaining in the first half by Fred Warner, would allow the 49ers to increase their lead to 16-6 heading into the locker room at halftime. Opening the second half with another Giants field goal, the 49er defense would put their foot down by pitching a shutout the rest of the way. Social distancing themselves from the Giants on the scoreboard, Aiyuk's touchdown on San Francisco's first possession of the second half made it a 23-9 ballgame. With tight-end Jordan Reed missing the entire second half after sustaining ankle and knee injuries in the early going, Mullens distributed the ball to ten different receivers, including fourth-string running back Jeff Wilson Jr. who followed up a turnover on downs forced by the 49er defense, with a 19-yard receiving touchdown to blow the game open, 29-9. 

Wilson Jr. would add to his busy day one possession later by tallying a rushing touchdown to his daily output as San Francisco increased their lead to 36-9. The final nail in the coffin would come in the form of a forced fumble on receiver Darius Slayton as the 49er defense added to their turnover total and held the Giants offense to their first game without a touchdown since Week 15 of the 2018 season. Coach Shanahan's 49ers team dominated the game in all facets, but perhaps none greater than in the time of possession category as the San Francisco offense controlled the tempo by nearly doubling New York's time of possession: 36:44 to 20:16. In fact, the Giant's 7:34 time of possession in the first half was their lowest in a half since 2000. Contributing to that major mismatch was the fact that the 49ers offense did not punt in the entire game for the first time since Week 16 of the 1993 season. By throwing for 343 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions in the dominant win, Nick Mullens tied a franchise record held by the great Joe Montana for tallying at least 220 yards passing in each of his nine career starts. Quite an impressive resume as Mullens entered the game having averaged 285 yards passing per game, a feat that puts him in elite company as only Patrick Mahomes, Andrew Luck and Cam Newton have averaged more through their first eight NFL starts. 

Week 4 Preview - Returning to the Bay Area from the east coast, the 49ers will attempt to log their first home win of the season when they host the Philadelphia Eagles (0-2-1) in front of an empty Levi's Stadium on Sunday Night Football. Coming off a 23-23 tie at home against the Cincinnati Bengals, the combination of quarterback Carson Wentz and head coach Doug Pederson will attempt to right the ship and shake off the funk as they seek their first win of the season in a lowly NFC Eastern Division. However, coach Shanahan has other plans as his team is expected to receive reinforcements on offense with the return of tight-end George Kittle, running back Raheem Mostert and receiver Deebo Samuel. A welcoming sight for whoever is at the quarterback position come Sunday, whether that's Nick Mullens or Jimmy Garoppolo. Keeping pace in the NFC West, the 49ers were able to follow up their Week 1 loss with consecutive wins to improve to 2-1 on the year, while also receiving some help in the division as both the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams suffered their first losses of the season to also fall to 2-1. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks sit atop the division as one of only three unbeaten teams in the NFC thru the first three weeks of the season. 

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Injury-riddled Niners ground Jets in blowout Win

Week 2 - Even before Sunday's game between the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, things have been grim for the defending NFC Champs who have had to deal with multiple key injuries in the first weeks of the 2020-21 NFL season. But nothing would have prepared them for what they would endure in Week 2. In a battle between two teams coming off Week 1 losses and seeking their first win of the season, the 49ers were once again quick to jump out to an early lead on Sunday when running back Raheem Mostert turned the first snap of the ball game into an 80-yard touchdown. It would be one of the few moments enjoyed by the team collectively as the Niners' luck quickly turned once again. After losing their superstar tight-end George Kittle in the first half in Week 1 to a sprained knee that also kept him out of this one, Kyle Shanahan's 49ers endured a myriad of injuries in the first half on Sunday. Perhaps none greater than the injury suffered by second-year defensive-end and last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year: Nick Bosa. During a 13-play drive that ate up 6-minutes and 43-seconds and ended in a Jets field goal, Bosa went down with an apparent left knee injury that required him to be carted off the field. Two plays later, fellow d-lineman and former first-round pick Solomon Thomas would also need to be carted off the field with a similar knee injury. MRI results would confirm what the team had feared for both players -- a torn ACL. Adding insult to injury to a banged up 49er defense that had already ruled out both Dee Ford (neck) and Richard Sherman (calf) in the days leading up to Sunday's game. 

Things on the offensive side wouldn't be a whole lot better as both Jimmy Garoppolo and Raheem Mostert went to the locker room before halftime with ankle and knee injuries respectively. Making matters worse, neither player would return in the second half. While it wasn't apparent when Mostert had suffered his injury, the injury to Garoppolo occurred during San Francisco's second possession of the game on a low-hit sack that brought Jimmy G to his knees. While he would play through it for the remainder of the half after team trainers wrapped extra tape around his ankle, Garoppolo took multiple hits and was shown limping around in obvious discomfort. Even then, he managed to find tight-end Jordan Reed for a pair of passing touchdowns on back-to-back drives in the second quarter. It would be a memorable day for Reed who filling in for injured Kittle, had went a total of 673 days in between touchdowns since his last score on November 2018 with the Washington Redskins. 

Opening the second half with backup QB Nick Mullens under center, the 49ers quickly found themselves in a 3rd and 31 situation before Jerick McKinnon exploded for a 55-yard run that got the 49ers into enemy territory and allowed them to kick a 46-yard Robbie Gould field goal. San Francisco's second drive on offense with Mullens at the quarterback position wouldn't be as lucky as he was intercepted on a tipped-pass intended for McKinnon, which the Jets would turn into another field goal. Any chances the Jets had of pulling off a late comeback were put to bed when McKinnon made a house-call from 16-yards out to give his team a 31-6 lead in the 4th quarter. New York would get a garbage-time touchdown late in the 4th quarter when QB Sam Darnold escaped pressure before finding receiver Braxton Berrios for a 30-yard score to make it a 31-13 final. 

While the 49ers' first win of the season would come at a great cost after losing multiple players to injury, the team saw a much different story play out on third down than the one that left them with a loss in Week 1. Kyle Shanahan's offense converted on 53% of third downs on Sunday, compared to just 18% a week ago. As expected with their starting running back Le'Veon Bell sidelined with a hamstring injury, the Jets went with a steady diet of Frank Gore in the run game as the long-time 49er and the franchise's all-time leader in rushing, carried the ball 21 times for 63-yards on Sunday against his former team. In comparison, San Francisco got 92-yards rushing on 8 carries from Mostert before his injury and another 77-yards on 3 carries from McKinnon in an all-around efficient performance for the 49ers run game. While Sam Darnold passed for 179-yards and a touchdown on 21-of-32 pass attempts, Garoppolo threw for 131-yards and two TD's on 14-of-16 passing before missing the entire second half. Mullens finished the game completing 8-of-11 passes for 71-yards and a pick. 49ers rookie receiver Brandon Aiyuk made his NFL-debut and finished with two receptions for 21-yards, but it was Jordan Reed who stole the show in the 49ers receiving game with 7 catches for 50-yards and 2 TD's, his first multi-TD game since Week 7 of the 2017 season. 

Week 3 - Several 49er players took to Twitter after the game to express their distaste for the newly installed artificial-turf at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium following the numerous injuries suffered in Sunday's win. Whether those complaints fall on deaf ears or not, it's virtually impossible that anything will be done before kickoff in Week 3 as the Niners will return to that very field when they face the New York Giants (0-2). Coming off a loss in Chicago to the Bears, the Giants clawed their way back from a 17-0 halftime deficit before running out of time and falling in regulation, 17-13. Similar to the Niners, the Giants also had a rough day in the injury department on Sunday as they lost their superstar running back Saquon Barkley for the year with a torn ACL, the same injury suffered by Bosa and Thomas. Both teams will be thin at running back when they meet next week, as the 49ers found out on Monday that they'll be without both Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman in Week 3 with knee injuries. Before having to leave Sunday's game, Mostert set another record with his speed. A week after clocking in at a speed of 22.73 mph, the fastest speed by a ball carrier since 2018, Mostert did himself one better by setting another record and reaching 23.1 mph on his game-opening touchdown run, the fastest since 2016. Shanahan and company hope Mostert is just one of the many players they're able to replace as they'll have no other choice than to live by the, "next man up" mantra for at least the next week. As for Jimmy G, it appears the team dodged a bullet and will make a game-time decision on whether backup QB Nick Mullens will need to start in his place or not. 

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