Well, after three weeks, the Giants certainly know this:
They know what it looks like to be a genuine Super Bowl contender, a member of the NFL elite. They’ve gotten a good, up-close look at two of the teams that seem almost certain to have a say in who’s going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. No mystery there.
The Giants already know about the Cowboys. Eleven days later, they finally seem to have rid themselves of the tire tracks up and down their uniforms that Dallas left behind in that 40-0 annihilation that kicked off the season. The Cowboys backed that up by steamrolling the Jets, too, a week later.
Now, Giants know all about the 49ers, too. The Niners didn’t roll an army of SUVs over them the way the Cowboys did, but there was little question about how good San Francisco is, and can be, following a deliberate and systematic dismantling of the Giants on Thursday night inside Levi’s Stadium.
The final score was 30-12 and the pathway to get there was a bit more competitive than the massacre two weeks ago. But if the Giants fancy themselves anything other than bottom-of-the-bracket playoff fodder — and they sure seem to believe they can be — they now are as aware as anyone else in football what, exactly, that entails. They’ve seen the Cowboys. They’ve seen the 49ers.
They are nowhere near that level now.
Daniel Jones looks on dejectedly during the fourth quarter of the Giants’ 30-12 loss to the 49ers. Charles Wenzelberg/New York PostBut there are 15 weeks to try to get there.
Fifteen weeks to prove they belong.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said. “But I have a lot of confidence in the guys in that room. We’ve got to get it going starting next week.”
It was a curious game. The Giants badly wanted to control the ball, keep it away from San Francisco’s remarkable skill players, emulate the game-plan another Giants team made famous in Super Bowl XXV in 1991. Instead it was exactly the opposite: the 49ers had an almost 2-to-1 advantage in possession time (39:10-to-20:50), rolled up 441 yards to the Giants’ anemic 150, had 26 first downs to the Giants’ 10.
And yet there was a moment — fleeting and decidedly brief — when the Giants made the 71,593 inside the stadium take pause. Matt Breida — playing in place of Saquon Barkley — had bulled his way into the end zone from 8 yards out, pulling the Giants within 17-12 with five minutes gone in the third quarter.
The Giants went for two. Four days earlier, when they made that epic comeback against the Cardinals, they were able to do whatever they wanted as they mounted their charge. But that was the Cardinals. These were the Niners. They swallowed Daniel Jones whole. The building rocked on its foundation. And San Francisco never looked back.
Disappointed Giants fans watch the action during the fourth quarter of their team’s loss to the 49ers. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post“It comes down to making plays,” Daboll said. “That’s a heck of a football team. They did a lot of good stuff.”
The Giants did keep the 49ers’ pinball-machine offense about as well in check as can be reasonably expected; they just couldn’t get off the field on third downs. Their offense was conservative and controlled, understanding that the quickest way to a Dallas redux would be playing loose and sloppy with the ball. But they also never dialed up anything that might’ve truly tested the Niners’ D.
The result was … well, it’s what you would have expected. The Giants aren’t near the 49ers’ or the Cowboys’ class right now. Except for the final 30 minutes last Sunday at Arizona, they haven’t yet been in anyone’s class. Tough start to the schedule. It happens. Now they will get as big a rest as you can get without a bye, 11 days off before they host the Seahawks a week from Monday at MetLife. The pathway to the place where the Cowboys and Niners reside will begin then.
Brian Daboll gives an animated reaction during a play in the third quarter of the Giants’ loss. Charles Wenzelberg/New York PostBecause it has to begin sometime.
“We’ve got to continue building,” said Kayvon Thibodeaux, who recorded the Giants’ first sack of the season (they still don’t have a takeaway). “We had a few spurts of qualities we want to have but we have to keep building.”
Said Dexter Lawrence: “We just have to keep playing. It’s all you can do.”
They still have those 15 weeks. Fifteen weeks to get better. Fifteen weeks to close the gap between themselves and the teams that occupy the NFL’s upper echelon. Fifteen weeks to catch up — and keep up — with the likes of the Cowboys and 49ers. Keep playing. It’s all they can do.
