The San Francisco 49ers defeated the New York Giants 27-20 in a battle of two teams jockeying for playoff position. The 49ers are now 8-1, in first place in the NFC West and the Giants are 6-3 and in first place in the NFC East.
The 49ers have been re-made this year under new head coach Jim Harbaugh to focus on an aggressive, stingy defense and a hard-running offense, much has the Giants have been known for years. But both teams seemed to have a pass-first mentality on Sunday, and both moved the ball well behind quarterbacks that have been flirting with elite status this year. Neither team reached 100 yards rushing.
The game was a defensive battle for the first three quarters, and turned into a shootout in the fourth. Late in the third quarter, the score was 12-6 Niners, as they were winning a battle of all field goals. The Giants took the lead late in the third with a 13-yard TD pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham.
The 49ers fought back early in the fourth quarter, scoring two touchdowns in less than a minute, when they had failed to get in the end zone in the first 47 minutes. The first was a 31-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Vernon Davis on a blown coverage, ending with Davis leaping into the end zone. After getting the ball back on a Manning interception by Carlos Rogers, the 49ers scored again on a 17-yard run by Kendall Walker.
Rogers had two interceptions in the game, as the 49ers defense stood strong when they had to. “I just walked off the field with joy inside. Right now, we’re 8-1,” Rogers said after the game.
While Harbaugh has been a popular pick for coach-of-the-year, he was quick to give the credit to the team, in typical Harbaugh drama. “I don’t take any credit. It’s these men. These mighty, strong men,” Harbaugh said. “They deserve the credit.”
As far as the elite quarterbacks, Giants quarterback Eli Manning has already won a Super Bowl, but is typically not mentioned in the same breath as “elite” quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees. He said over the summer that he considered himself at that elite level and he has been making a strong case this year. Manning has been averaging 300 yards per game, and has the 5th best QB efficiency in the league at 98.8. He was 26 of 40 for 311 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs on Sunday.
Going into this season, most people considered 49ers quarterback Alex Smith to be on the verge of being out of a job, but Harbaugh believed in him, even saying earlier this week that he thought Smith is an elite quarterback as well. Smith hasn’t been putting up huge numbers, averaging only 183 yards per game, but he has been playing mistake-free football and had the fewest interceptions in the league going into this game. He finished the night 19 of 30 for 242 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT, but the interception was on a perfectly thrown ball that bounced off Ted Ginn’s hands as he looked to run before pulling down the catch.
“Now teams know what Alex can do under pressure,” TE Delanie Walker said. “We felt like this was a playoff-caliber game and he came through for us.”
“It was a big win for us. As we continue to win we’re getting on a bigger stage, and that’s exactly what we want, we want to continue to climb and get on bigger stages,” Smith said.
“That’s it. You’re as good as your record, and you’re as good as your last game. And we beat a really good football team.”
