Hard to believe, but the Giants’ mess got worse.
They lost to the winless 0-9 San Francisco 49ers, 31-21, with their last seven points coming in a meaningless final minute. The 49ers looked like the Joe Montana-led team of the past as they racked up 477 yards of total offense.
Like Montana, C.J. Beathard was barely touched by the Giants all afternoon, crisply and smoothly throwing for 288 yards with a pair of touchdown passes, one in which Janoris Jenkins wasn’t exhorting much effort to catch Marquis Goodwin on an 83-yard touchdown pass. Yes, it was 83 yards, and was the 10th play of 30-more yards by the 49ers at the time.
This was a quarterback who previously was sacked 14 times.
This was a team was ranked 30th in scoring (15.9) points per game entering the game.
This was a team even the 1-8 Giants should have beat.
They were right there at halftime, staying within striking distance trailing 17-14 and looking ripe to take their second win of the season.
However, like it has been over the past several weeks, any success was short lived.
They marched down the field on the opening drive on the second half only to have Aldrick Rosas miss a 34-yard field goal that could have possibly swung some momentum their way.
Instead, most of the Giants looked disinterested the rest of the way. Eli Manning, Sterling Shepard, Orleans Darkwa, and Evan Engram showed up to play on the offensive side of the ball. Jonathan Casillas looked engaged on defense, making a stellar play when he tipped a ball and then intercepted it. But Casillas was beat in a foot race for a touchdown.
For the most part, the Giants’ secondary thought they were trying to cover Jerry Rice.
The fourth quarter seemed like an eternity for the Giants, as their death knell had a steady beat over the final 15 minutes.
Head coach Ben McAdoo said he wasn’t embarrassed and wouldn’t give any explanation about his team’s performance only to reiterate that he would “correct the tape.”
Veteran offensive lineman Justin Pugh thought otherwise when he stated that “It doesn’t get much worse losing to an 0-9 team.”
McAdoo may get fired this week, but the Giants apparently will wait until after the season to clean house. Former Falcons’ head coach Mike Smith, who was considered a very viable candidate two years ago, continues to gain ground as a frontrunning replacement.
McAdoo also refused to acknowledge that he needs to motivate players ironically stating that “They’re pro football players. They need to be self-motivated. Everybody gets a paycheck this week, and we need to go out and play that way.”
McAdoo and some Giants’ players likely won’t be getting too many checks in the future.