SAN FRANCISCO — They looked like strangers on the field wearing red jerseys.
The 49ers, 26-3 losers to the Giants yesterday, didn’t play like their normal selves and by all appearances looked like a rag-tag team not ready to slug it out with Big Blue.
“We didn’t do enough,” subdued Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Put ourselves in a position we couldn’t come back from. More turnovers [three] than we’re accustomed to. Plan-wise, obviously it wasn’t the right one.”
The Giants executed well and earned the victory, but the Niners gave them a giant helping hand with a listless, error-prone performance.
“The Giants came out and played good football,” Niners running back Frank Gore said. “We put ourselves in bad situations and the Giants took advantage of that.”
Oddly, there appeared to be little emotional fire on the field for the Niners, which is strange given that San Francisco was getting a long-awaited rematch of last year’s NFC Championship Game that the Giants won 20-17 in overtime.
“I know a lot was made of it [rematch with the Giants], for sure. I think at the start of the week, obviously, pretty jacked up. But at the same time, it was another game,” Niners quarterback Alex Smith said. “I didn’t feel flat at the beginning of the game. I don’t think anyone did. … When it’s not working and you’re not playing well, it’s not easy to be up.”
It was a myriad of miscues for the 49ers: Smith getting intercepted three times, the offensive line giving up six sacks, the secondary getting torched by Eli Manning and the Giants receiving corps and even faulty special teams play by San Francisco.
“Not our best game,” Harbaugh said. “Tough loss for us and we have to bounce back fast. We have a game coming up Thursday night, and no time to hang the head.”
Credit the Giants for taking the Niners out of their game, but the poor execution and errors by San Francisco were mostly self-inflicted.
“Mental errors,” Niners cornerback Tarell Brown said. “You can’t go out there against a team like that [which] is totally experienced and can make so many plays off of errors.”
The Niners yesterday were an empty suit compared to the team of the first five games this season, which was a confident and competent football team leading the NFC West after having demolished Buffalo 45-3 and the Jets 34-0 in the past two weeks.
“We made it tough on our defense,” Smith said. “Defensively, [the Giants] made some great adjustments. I didn’t get it done in a lot of areas.”