Loud chants of “defense” rang out at MetLife Stadium a few times on Sunday when Robert Saleh’s 49ers unit was on the field.
“Are we in San Francisco?” a Giants fan texted the Daily News, noting that he was “surrounded” by Niners fans in his 100-level seats.
It felt that way. And not just because of how many red jerseys dotted the stands.
The other reason was because the Giants made the Niners feel right at home for most of their third straight defeat, a disgusting 34-24 loss.
Mac Jones completed all 14 of his first half passes and threw two touchdown passes. Christian McCaffrey erupted for 173 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns.
The Niners’ Brian Robinson Jr. (five carries, 53 yards, one touchdown) became the second straight backup running back to gallop over the Giants defense — after the Eagles’ Tank Bigsby put up 104 rushing yards on nine carries last week in Philadelphia.
And the Giants (2-7) slipped further into the NFL’s basement. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll now have a 5-21 record in their last 26 games as Giants GM and head coach and a 3-18 mark in their last 21.
In addition, Daboll left Dart in the game during garbage time, and the Giants quarterback looked like he was in pain after getting tattooed in the open field by the Niners’ Tatum Bethune in the game’s final minutes.
That’s why a fan paid a plane to fly over the stadium before the game with the message: “Mr. Mara, Enough is Enough, Clean House.”
The Giants were booed off the field at halftime down, 17-7, after kicker Graham Gano missed a 45-yard field goal attempt with 15 seconds to play.
Rookie Abdul Carter recovered a Jones fumble forced by Brian Burns to give Dart’s offense the ball back at the 49ers’ 27 yard line with 33 seconds to play.
But Dart and the offense failed to execute, and Gano’s miss continued the Giants’ weekly, monthly and annual kicking problems that have become a microcosm of their broken operation.
The fans weren’t just booing Gano, though. They were booing the whole team’s performance.
Jones, the 49ers’ quarterback, was a perfect 14 of 14 passing for 143 yards and two touchdown passes in the first half.
Dart and the Giants, meanwhile, managed only 98 net yards of offense, the lowest first half total allowed by Saleh’s defense all season.
Dart had opened the game with a 10-play, 64-yard drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Theo Johnson with 10:50 remaining in the first quarter.
But after that, the Giants offense sputtered to four straight punts and the missed field goal before trudging into the locker room.
Jones and the Niners, meanwhile, answered Dart’s opening game touchdown immediately with a 12-play, 68-yard drive and a 5-yard Jones touchdown pass to McCaffrey.
That knotted the game 7-7 at the 4:16 mark of the first.
Then Shanahan’s offense marched right down the field again on their second drive after a Giant three and out.
Jauan Jennings made Giants seventh-round rookie corner Korie Black fall down and caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jones.
That capped an 8-play, 80-yard drive that lasted only four minutes and three seconds.
The Niners averaged 6.1 yards per play on offense in the half, and they added a 54-yard Pineiro field goal with 1:55 to play in the second quarter for the 17-7 halftime lead.
Shanahan got too cute on the pass play call that resulted in Burns’ strip sack at the end of the half, but the Giants aren’t good enough to make their opponents pay for mistakes.
They’re too busy making their own.
