Kurtenbach: The ‘urgent’ 49ers passed a key test against the Giants with ruthless execution

Sunday’s 49ers win over the Giants shouldn’t be considered a significant accomplishment.

This was hardly a seismic victory that proves San Francisco is destined for postseason glory and is poised to play in a Super Bowl the Bay is hosting come February.

No, Sunday’s win was merely the Niners doing what every playoff-worthy outfit should do when facing a pathetic, bottom-feeding opponent: take its lunch money and walk away.

Make no mistake about it: Sunday’s 34-24 win in the swamps of New Jersey against the New York Giants was the ultimate referendum on the 49ers’ season.

Why? Because the Giants are a disaster. Tactically, philosophically, and politically, that franchise is a mess. They have a rookie quarterback, a receiver room that looks like a community college roster, an underperforming defensive line, and a secondary that couldn’t stop a grandma with a walker.

If the 49ers — even with their prodigious, perpetually growing injury list — failed to handle this business, the whole season was over. Finished. They don’t even make flags that red.

But the Niners did handle business, controlling every aspect of this eminently forgettable game. Special teams had flash plays, the defense played better than its personnel would have suggested, and the offense was a machine of efficiency.

The Niners passed the test with ease.

Literally.

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Quarterback Mac Jones was perfect in the first half Sunday, completing 14-of-14 for 143 yards and two touchdowns. It was a ruthlessly executed start that provided the Niners the upper hand in the second half, despite some defensive woes.

It also established a blueprint for how the Niners can continue to win games despite what is clearly a curse — or some paranormal phenomenon — that has left the Niners as the league’s most-injured team yet again.

Because here is the brutal, undeniable truth: The dreams of the 49ers playing a Super Bowl at home are out of reach. Nobody can suspend enough disbelief to say a team without Fred Warner and Nick Bosa is going to win multiple playoff games against the elites. It’s an impossibility.

But this squad still has every reason to expect to be playing on the second weekend in January, provided they adhere to the single, most basic, most unglamorous blueprint they have left: They must be a run-first team.

The Niners are playing with off-the-street free agents, rookies, and dollar-store pickups up and down their defensive line, and they might be adding a few more before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, particularly after rookie defensive tackle Mykel Williams’ knee injury, suffered in the fourth quarter Sunday. Pair a line that is last in the NFL in pressure rate with a secondary that has shown clear breakdowns in both communication and coverage all season — with Sunday’s game being no exception — and the Niners know they have to score roughly 30 points per game to win moving forward.

Moreso, they’ll have to do it with the ground game leading the way. We saw what happened in Houston last week, when the Niners fell behind early and abandoned the run — a bad situation became worse.

Control the ball by running the ball, and that brings a time-of-possession advantage and typically cleaner windows in which to throw the ball.

None of this is advanced-level football theory. In fact, it might be considered elementary.

But this Niners team is in no position to reinvent modern offense. Elementary will do for now.

Sunday, it worked quite well.

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On the fourth-quarter drive that gave San Francisco a 27-10 lead, the Niners threw the ball on first down, gained 13 yards, and then didn’t throw the ball again.

Eight straight runs, 63 yards, complete domination.

Shanahan was practically giggling about it postgame:

“It’s very fun. It’s awesome.” Shanahan said of the drive. “It’s so tempting — the whole time you’re like ‘man, can you do it again and get away with it? Maybe we should do a play action or something off of it. No, screw it, we’ll just keep running it.’”

“The guys came through, and that’s one of the most enjoyable drives you can go on… all run plays.”

So expect McCaffrey to touch the ball 33 times, like he did Sunday, every game from this point onwards.

Brian Robinson, McCaffrey’s backup, is going to have a role in this offense, too. He ran the ball five times for 53 yards and a touchdown Sunday.

The Niners’ offensive line is going to have to continue to find ways to merge gap and zone blocking — they’ve done a great job of that in two of the last three weeks.

And whichever quarterback is under the center — be that backup Mac Jones, who started his seventh game Sunday, or Brock Purdy, whose return is considered imminent (next week or the following), as he recovers from a turf-toe injury — needs to be precise and timely with their throws, like Jones was on Sunday.

“This is a big one for us. You really have to look at this game like a playoff game, almost,” Jones said. “We definitely answered the bell.”

“This team’s pretty urgent right now,” McCaffrey, the team’s bellcow back, said. “It’s been good to come back from losses with big wins.”

The Niners’ dreams of playing in the Super Bowl at their home field might be out of reach given the battered and bruised state of their roster — no one can suspend enough disbelief to say a team without Fred Warner and Nick Bosa is going to win multiple playoff games — but Sunday was a reminder that this squad has a long way to go before reaching rock-bottom.

And if this team can keep carrying the rock, they have every reason to believe, or rather expect, to be playing in real playoff games, not just ones imagined.