SANTA CLARA — Time to send out a search party. The 49ers were hopeful of having re-established their run-first identity only to have it disappear in their disappointing loss to Houston in Week 8.
Much of it had to do with falling behind and failing to convert first downs as well as allowing the Houston Texans to move the sticks at will and possess the ball for 41:22, the second most in the Kyle Shanahan era beginning in 2017.
The week after the 49ers were feeling pretty self-satisfied by narrowly missing Shanahan’s stated goal of 40 runs with 39 rushes for 174 yards in a 20-10 win over Atlanta, they ran it just 10 times for 35 yards in their 26-15 loss to Houston.
“Each game, you never know what’s going to happen,” 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey said Wednesday. “Each day is about getting better, having emotional stamina and mental stamina to withstand the year. And that means when you win, you forget about it and move on, and when you lose, you correct the mistakes and move on.”
It’s been a slog for McCaffrey all year other than his 29-carry, 124-yard game against the Falcons. He bottomed out against the Texans with eight carries for 25 yards. Brian Robinson, who had a season high nine rushes for 36 yards against Atlanta, never carried the ball against Houston as the 49ers had just 44 snaps on offense.
Game circumstance dictated the minimal rushing attempts — tying a 2009 game against Green Bay for the fewest in franchise history — and there’s little doubt it’s been stressed they need to get back to where they were before a week prior.
In theory, that’s where the Giants come in. They’re ranked No. 30 in the NFL against the run at 148.9 yards per game, and are coming off a game in which the Philadelphia Eagles rushed for 276 yards on 33 carries with two backs over 100 yards. Saquon Barkley opened the game with a 65-yard touchdown run and had 150 yards on 14 carries, with Tank Bigsby adding 104 on nine attempts.
“We need to do a better job on run defense, no doubt about it,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said.
As usual, McCaffrey will be the chess piece the Giants will hope to contain whether he’s running out of the backfield or catching passes as a checkdown or split wide.
“He’s a mismatch in the passing game, a mismatch in the running game,” Daboll said. “They run a wide variety of run schemes. He can run them all. They put him on a wide variety of routes, receiver routes that receivers would run, running backs.”
If the 49ers are expecting to get back to some smash-mouth football against New York, they’re not about to brag about it beforehand. Nose tackle Dexter Lawrence has been named to the Pro Bowl each of the last three seasons and inside linebacker Bobby Okereke is a solid run defender as well.
Lawrence, however, was called out by former Giants linebacker and radio analyst Carl Banks, who said on podcast, “Dexter Lawrence, nobody respects you anymore.”
Lawrence called Banks “delusional” in retort — there’s a soap opera in New York/New Jersey every minute — Giants defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches came to his defense.
“Don’t let the numbers lie to you,” Nunez-Roches said. “Because even though some things may not pop up statistically or on the stat sheet, guys are still worried about Dex. The way they block Dex is different from how they’ll block us or other D-linemen. When they see him out there, he’s still a threat. They still know they have to keep him covered up. They still know they have to double, triple or seal him off for certain things. So, yes, he’s still a weapon.”
And as Shanahan points out, the Giants have been more inconsistent than consistently bad defending the run.
“We’ll see what happens Sunday,” Shanahan said. “I know they gave up 275 yards last week which will skew anything pretty bad. I think they gave up 75 to the same team (actually 73) two weeks before that.
“Obviously if guys get out of a gap and we’ve got a chance to make them pay, we’d love to get those big ones. We’re challenging the hell out of our guys to run the ball. We’ve got an opportunity every week to do it and hopefully we can do a better job this week.”
Nunez-Roches pointed to fundamentals and and defenders being in the right spot against the run as the biggest problem.
“Know where you fit, know where your next guy is, so you know where to deploy,: Nunez-Roches said. “It’s 11-man football. You’re depending on someone else to do you’re job so you can do your job well. It’s everybody being where they need to be and then make the plays that come to you.”
The 49ers have just three rushing touchdowns, 1-yard runs by McCaffrey against Tampa Bay and Atlanta and a 4-yard run against Atlanta. They’re averaging just 3.4 yards per carry, with McCaffrey the leading rusher with a 3.5 average (140 rushes, 490 yards).
McCaffrey isn’t looking at MetLife Stadium and the Giants’ defense as any kind of soft touch.
“I think they’re a hell of a defense,” McCaffrey said. “You look at their front, the way they fly to the ball, they’ve got a lot of potential each play to wreak havoc. It will be our job to do what we’ve got to do, make sure we’re straining every play and get it rolling.”
Along the offensive line, the 49ers will again start Matt Hennessey with Jake Brendel out with a hamstring strain. At left guard, Ben Bartch began his practice window off injured reserve and could be available to rejoin the starting lineup in place of rookie Connor Colby depending on how he fares at practice during the week.