5 NY Giants to Watch vs. the San Francisco 49ers

The New York Giants’ challenging post-bye week stretch of four games continues this week when they host the San Francisco 49ers, a team that is coming off a hard-fought 27-24 division road win in overtime over the New Orleans Saints.

The Giants, who are stuck in a four-game losing streak, admit that they can’t worry about the standings at this point.

“We have to go out there and get a win before we can worry about any playoffs,” safety Antrel Rolle said this week. “To me right now, if we go to the playoffs, we do; if we don’t, then we don’t.

“It is just a matter of going out there and playing with pride and going out there and showing ourselves more importantly than anybody else what we are capable of once we go out there and play football the way we are taught to play.”

Too bad they didn’t take that approach at the start of the season instead of relaying their confidence through their words, not their play.

You can point to Eagles' week where the Giants’ bravado might have reached its feverish pitch, but in reality, the chest thumping began at the start of the season.

That’s when, during a radio interview with Stephen A. Smith on Sirius XM Mad Dog Sports Radio, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul predicted that the Giants would win the NFC East (h/t Yahoo Sports).

As they have been doing for each of the last two weeks since returning from the bye week—and really the two weeks prior to their bye when they were dealt consecutive losses by the Eagles and Dallas—the Giants are trying to regroup and remember what it takes to play winning football.

Here is a look at the five Giants who figure to have prominent roles in putting an end to the slide that already has many people thinking about next year despite there being a lot of football left.

Running Back Rashad Jennings

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

All systems appear to be a go for running back Rashad Jennings’ return to the lineup after a four-game absence due to a MCL sprain in his left knee.

While that’s the good news, the bad news is that anyone who’s expecting the Giants rushing game to look the way it did during the three-game winning streak when Jennings was in the lineup could be setting themselves up for disappointment.

I asked head coach Tom Coughlin if he anticipated giving Jennings a full workload in his first game back from injury.

He said, “I don’t intend that he would take a full, full load. He and Andre (Williams) will no doubt share the load. I think, after having worked the way he has for a couple of weeks, if we can get to the game and be in the same shape we’re in right now, that he’ll be able to work.”

Of course, it does need to be pointed out that last year the Giants gave Andre Brown more than a full workload when he returned from a broken leg.

However, the two situations can’t really be compared as when Brown returned, the Giants really didn’t have a healthy No. 2 option to help carry the load at the time, which pretty much forced Coughlin to have to overload Brown’s workload.

As was noted in my Giants-49ers breakdown, Jennings has been most productive when he receives at least 15 carries in a game.

While that’s not a lot of carries on paper and is a very realistic goal, remember that he’s likely to have other snaps in which he’s not touching the ball and in which that healing knee of his becomes exposed to the big hit.

Receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

If Giants rookie receiver Odell Beckham finishes Sunday’s game against the 49ers with 100 receiving yards, he will become the first rookie in the franchise’s history to record three consecutive 100-yard performances, according to Michael Eisen of Giants.com.

His first two 100-yard performances, by the way, haven’t come easy, even though the rookie has made it look that way.

Last week in particular, he went against Seattle’s Richard Sherman, one of the best of in the business, and the sixth-best cornerback after 10 weeks of play per Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

How good was Beckham against Sherman? Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Beckham went against Sherman six times, catching four balls for 66 yards, including the big 44-yard gain in which Beckham put a double move on Sherman.

That performance helped Beckham earn Sherman’s respect and has helped his confidence flourish even further.

“It does mean a lot, coming from a guy like that. Just [being able to] be on the field and battling and competing with one of the best in the league, what more could you ask for?” Beckham told reporters this week.

Speaking of the new week, Beckham will have another tough opponent to deal with consisting of the duo of Perrish Cox and Chris Culliver of the San Francisco 49ers. 

Cox, who per PFF has a 59.7 NFL Rating, gave up a season-high 81 receiving yards last week to the Saints’ Marques Colston and Kenny Stills, who combined for 38 of those yards.

That showing, in fact, was Cox’s worst of the 2014 season according to PFF, who graded him with a minus-1.8 in coverage.  

Culliver wasn’t that much better, allowing four out of five passes thrown his way to be completed for 44 yards and a touchdown.

Despite their struggles last week, which also included Cox giving up a touchdown to tight end Jimmy Graham, Beckham still has a high amount of respect for the opponent.

“Both of those guys are great cornerbacks. They have great speed [and are] athletic guys,” Beckham said. 

“It is definitely going to be a great matchup and something I am looking forward to going against the 49ers, one of the premier teams in the league."

Defensive End Jason Pierre-Paul

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

You know the season is on the verge of being lost when one of the hot topics concerning a player in a contract year is his contract.

That’s what it came down to this week with defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who was asked multiple times about whether he desired to remain with the Giants after this season.

After successfully deflecting the question twice, Pierre-Paul was asked a third time, saying, “Honestly and to tell you the truth, I am not worried about my contract. It will take care of itself. To answer your question about being here long-term, it is what it is. If I am here, I am here. If I am not, I am not.”

Coming into this season, Pierre-Paul was one of two players—quarterback Eli Manning being the other—that general manager Jerry Reese identified at the start of training camp as needing to play very well for the Giants to have a chance to be successful.

"There are two guys on our team that have to play really well and it’s Eli Manning and Jason Pierre-Paul," Reese told reporters at the time. "If those guys play well, I think we’ve got a chance to be really good."

Pierre-Paul, who is over his physical ailments that led to a disappointing year for him production wise in 2013, has, for the most part, been solid against the run, his 47 tackles being third on the Giants.

In addition, he is the top run-stopping 4-3 defensive end in the league among those who have taken 75 percent or more of their team’s defensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Where Pierre-Paul has been something of a disappointment as far as the Giants might be concerned, is in the pass-rushing department. This year, he only has 3.5 sacks and 25 quarterback pressures on 305 pass rush plays.

According to PFF’s signature stats outlining the pass-rushing productivity (PRP), of those 4-3 defensive ends that have taken 75 percent or more of their team’s snaps, Pierre-Paul’s 7.9 PRP puts him at 16th (out of 20) and puts him just three slots above teammate Mathias Kiwanuka, who has a 5.2 PRP.

A discussion of Pierre-Paul’s worthiness of a new contract is for another time, but as far as this weekend’s game against the 49ers is concerned, New York is definitely going to want to get better overall production from their 2010 first-round draft pick, whose showing the last two weeks hasn’t been as solid.

Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Pierre-Paul has had two run stops for zero or negative yardage in his last two games. He also has had five quarterback hurries in that same time span.

Head coach Tom Coughlin told reporters that at some point the team needs to see more production out of Pierre-Paul.

“Yeah, he’s working on it. We work with him every week on helping his technique and studying the opponent and knowing when to do what he does,” he said. “We certainly need for it to become that way, yeah.”

There’s no time like the present, right?

Linebackers Spencer Paysinger and Mark Herzlich

Elsa/Getty Images

The Giants linebackers are already missing Jon Beason, who is gone for the year after undergoing surgery on his troublesome toe a few weeks ago.

This week, the unit is going to be without weak-side linebacker Jacquian Williams (concussion), who statistically speaking is their leading tackler.  (We can debate the quality of those tackles at another time.)

Williams is still not right from a concussion that defensive coordinator Perry Fewell told reporters might have initially occurred early in the second quarter in the loss to Seattle.

“When we looked at the film, I think it was when Antrel Rolle recovered the fumble at about the 49-yard line. That’s when we assume that he got hit.”

Williams, who has been an every down linebacker this season for the Giants, has had two poor games in a row in pass coverage, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). He has looked tentative in coverage and has been part of the problem on the run defense.

So with Williams not there to kick around this week, Fewell told reporters that the linebacker’s various roles will fall to Spencer Paysinger, Mark Herzlich and Devon Kennard. 

The idea of using Paysinger is actually intriguing. Last year, remember, he alternated with Williams on the weak side, with Paysinger playing the running downs and Williams handling the sure passing downs for the majority of the season.

The good news is that Paysinger wasn’t that bad against the run. According to the Giants’ 2013-14 season-ending stats distributed to the media, he amassed 73 tackles, putting him seventh on the team, and had five tackles for a loss.

Herzlich, who has a locker right next to Paysinger’s, has done well in limited snaps this year against the run. Per PFF, he has a 5.0 run defense grade based on the 52 run defense snaps taken so far.

Where Herzlich has trouble is when he has to pursue the ball-carrier.  Thus, he will probably see most of his snaps in short yardage and goal-line situations, while Paysinger will handle the longer distances and Kennard, the rookie, will handle the nickel role.

Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

The Giants defense is officially at rock bottom—No. 32 in the league overall and at or near the bottom in most of the major defensive statistics.

The players have done their best to hold their tongues and not point fingers, but with the consensus coming from the locker room that there was a lack of execution and guys not doing their jobs, it’s hard to absolve the coaching from being at the core of the meltdown.

Fewell no doubt realizes that, which is probably why he told reporters that he changed his approach this week.

“We tried to change our approach this week in how we taught it,” he said. “Then we also we worked hard and put a lot of energy and effort into making sure that we explained exactly what the assignments were and we also walked through the different assignments and we’ve just continuously, mentally and physically and verbally, gone through option-football assignments.”

It’s ironic if you think about it. The coaches always talk about the importance of paying attention to the tiniest details, and yet it sounds like the defensive coaching staff might have cut some corners based on what appears to be an assumption that they knew every player was aware of their assignments.

“We’re competitors, man. You play the game to win. You play the game because you love the game,” Fewell said, while also vowing to lead the effort to get the defense “to crawl out” of the league’s basement.

“You play the game to compete,” he said, his voice becoming more defiant. “We’re going to come and we’re going to compete and we’re going to get us a victory on Sunday.”

If they don’t win, then get those “talk is cheap” sound bites ready. 

Advanced statistics courtesy of Pro Football Focus unless otherwise noted (subscription required).

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football and The SportsXchange. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced. Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.