The New York Giants are back in East Rutherford after two straight weeks on the road and are certainly looking to use the friendly atmosphere to get back on the winning track against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
To some extent, the Giants’ chances of running into a few more victories could get better in the second half of the season as the schedule lightens up a smidge the rest of the way.
At the same time, they are in the midst of another round of unforgiving injuries that are starting to test their depth at several positions on the roster that are hard to replace.
To get above the three-game win mark they set in 2024, the Giants are going to have to dig deeper and rely on less experienced players to step up into larger roles alongside the remaining vets and get the job done.
The good news is they have a new face at quarterback, Jaxson Dart, who has shown how strong a young leader he can be in getting his teammates to level up their efforts.
Dart will need to show that leadership once again as New York hopes to get the best of a San Francisco team that has been a shining example of overcoming adversity to maintain success on the gridiron.
The 49ers have been a banged-up franchise this season, but they’ve still been able to do a lot of things well to earn their 5-3 record through the first eight games of their campaign.
If the Giants want to sneak out a win in this matchup, they’ll need to do these three things well to keep up with their latest competition.
Oct 26, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs for a gain during the second half against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. / Sean Thomas-Imagn Images
Following a rough two-game window where they were really beaten down in the trenches, the Giants’ priority in Sunday’s matchup with the 49ers has to be to show up and defend against the run to make life more difficult for the visiting offense.
Making that presence felt has been a huge issue for the Giants’ defense this season, and in the last two games, the numbers have been glaring.
New York has allowed at least 142 yards on the ground to their opponents since Week 6, and that is added onto the five games in which they surrendered over 135 yards to the opposite backfield this year.
Last Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants’ lack of a run response reached its ugliest peak as they allowed the Eagles, led by Saquon Barkley’s 150 rushing yards, to push them down the field for a season-high 276 yards with an average of 8.4 yards per attempt.
Additionally, the Giants’ defense has continued to struggle to wrap up ball carriers at the point of contact. It has resulted in 14 missed tackles on 42 tackle attempts on run plays in the last two contests against Denver and Philadelphia, dropping the franchise to the 30th-ranked unit against that same offensive realm.
Something has to give with the Giants’ inability to put a cap on the damage that opposing teams look to impose on them early on the ground.
They invested too much offseason capital in their defensive line, which includes numerous veteran gap stuffers, such as Dexter Lawrence and Roy Robertson-Harris, for the group to play like barely more than the human versions of a sled.
As they welcome the 49ers to East Rutherford, the good news is that they could finally have a matchup that will help them in that regard.
San Francisco enters Week 9 as the NFL’s third-worst offense in rushing yards, and they average the lowest average of 3.4 yards per carry with three rushing touchdowns on the season.
Given they rely more heavily on their aerial game to move the ball downfield, it’s been a quiet campaign so far for the 49ers backfield led by the All-Pro veteran Christian McCaffrey.
The nine-year pro leads his unit with 490 yards and three touchdowns, and that is way below the production he has amassed at this same point in his first two seasons with the team.
McCaffrey has also dealt with his own injury struggles in recent seasons that have capped his true potential, but he is still a dangerous dual-threat running back who can torch defenses if he gets open and finds some space. In fact, he is just two games removed from collecting his first 100-yard game with 129 yards and two scores against Atlanta, whose run defense has been in the same weight class as the Giants.
With his ability to create plays through both his legs and his hands, the Giants’ defense needs to show up prepared to win the battle on the ground and put the 49ers into tougher situations to throw the football.
Their offensive line ranks in the bottom third of the league in both pass- and run-blocking win rates, and winning the line of scrimmage will be critical to stifling their offense.
Oct 26, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Mac Jones (10) motions after a play during the third quarter against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
While the Giants have their concerns on the run side of things, it’s not looking any less scary for them as they brace for a 49ers’ passing attack that has been even more efficient in the first half of the season.
One of the main reasons for such worry is the Giants’ secondary’s current health entering the matchup.
The team announced that they will be without multiple members of their back end of defense for Sunday’s game, notably both starting perimeter cornerbacks, Paulson Adebo and Cor’Dale Flott, who are dealing with knee and concussion injuries, respectively.
Even so, it hasn’t been a positive stretch for that part of the defense that their recent opponents have tormented.
Other than the injury bug, they’ve become incredibly porous in protecting the middle of the field in the biggest moments of games and have been largely responsible for the Giants allowing the eighth-most passing yards and an average play of 5.9 yards through the first eight weeks.
Beyond those numbers, New York’s secondary has also left a lot to be desired in their respective one-on-one battles with opposing receivers.
Among their main faces since the season started in September, only one has held their matchup to below a 50% reception percentage or tallied more than two forced incompletions.
Those struggles have been a major factor in the Giants’ current total of just four interceptions at the midway point of the season, which ranks 19th in the NFL in that span.
The Giants have also allowed 13 touchdowns through the air and rank 27th in red-zone defense, allowing opponents to add to the scoreboard at a 68.0% rate.
None of those misfortunes is going to fare well against the San Francisco 49ers’ passing offense, which enters Week 9 as a top 5 huddle in both passing attempts and yards, with an average of 259.3 yards per contest, and who will look to control the game in that fashion if the Giants let them.
San Francisco has been without their main signal caller, Brock Purdy, for most of the first half of the season, but with an improved backup in Mac Jones, it has had few problems converting the most important plays to extend drives and maintain possession of the football.
That is why they sit third in the league with an average of 6.3 plays per driveand eighth in time, with just over three minutes of game clock.
Suppose the Giants’ deep secondary doesn’t find ways to tighten up and make life difficult for the 49ers’ arsenal.
In that case, they have a bunch of weapons who have caught a double-digit average catch and can find the separation needed to keep the ball moving on third downs and eventually wear out New York’s defense from being sharper towards the end zone.
Which is what San Francisco should want as they do face a little pushback when it comes to punching in six points inside their opponent’s 20-yard line, ranking 23rd in average points per drive and 21st in redzone scoring percentage (52.0%).
It’s the chunk plays where they find payday the best, and the Giants need to focus on limiting those as much as possible.
But with the health of their secondary and relying on inexperienced reinforcements, as we saw in part of last week’s loss to Philadelphia, that goal could be hairy very quickly, and it will be an uphill battle for the Giants to win.
Oct 26, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean (17) tackles New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) in the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
It should go without saying that this key is always important for leaving NFL football games victorious, but the Giants will face an opponent, the 49ers, who thrive on creating and capitalizing on turnover opportunities.
Through the first eight weeks, San Francisco has been among the league’s best at sniffing out and going the other way with the pigskin.
They have recorded seven total turnovers in that span, which is tied for the league lead, and have forced eight total miscues to give their offense a chance to get back on the field quicker.
That feat is kind of surprising, given the 49ers’ defense ranks 25th among the competition in team pass-rush win rate, with their pressures getting home just 34% of the time.
Still, it’s one of their biggest calling cards and one that they have used to their advantage to help limit opponents’ scoring chances with the eighth-lowest points totals allowed this season.
On the other side of that, the Giants haven’t been perfect in protecting the football. In the last month of the season, they committed six total turnovers, five of which came in their humiliating loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 5, which single-handedly powered that highly avoidable defeat.
In the three weeks since that game, the Giants have cleaned up their act a bit, but we have seen the football get loose a few times, creating a few scares along the way.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has been one of the victims of that issue and justifiably so, as he learns how to not hurt his team and make smart plays at the highest level.
Nevertheless, Dart and company need to do whatever it takes to keep the pigskin in their possession so they can deliver more of the encouraging offensive drives the Giants offense has shown in recent games.
They weren’t in most of the last game against the Eagles last Sunday, but Dart still impressed with his composure in a hostile environment by not coughing up the football once and authoring four scoring drives, including one that he capped off with his own rushing touchdown.
It wasn’t that long ago, against the same Eagles team, that we saw the Giants play another crisp 60 minutes and keep the game clock in their favor with a good aerial attack and a strong rushing complement.
That kept New York on the field longer and led to five touchdowns, never letting the Eagles get near the hump to steal away a huge primetime win.
The Giants need to mimic that against a 49ers team that won’t give them as many solid chances to punch in the important points that will decide the outcome of the contest.
If they don’t maintain possession and go after the scoreboard first and often, it could be a long day of watching the visiting defense celebrate highlight reel moments on their turf.
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