The National Football League’s “Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime” matchup between San Francisco and the New York Giants had no Phil Simms-Ronnie Lott helmet-to-helmet staredown (in one of the great “Monday Night Football” games ever, here: Giants vs 49ers MNF regular season 1990 – YouTube), and Lawrence Taylor and Jerry Rice didn’t suit up.
But the San Francisco 49ers did one thing, and did it well: they served notice that the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles have company as the upper class in the NFC.
They’ll settle part of that argument in a few weeks (see more below).
But for now, San Francisco ran its record to 3-0 on Thursday night with a 30-12 wrecking of the New York Giants at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium, the Niners’ first home game this season.
The 49ers didn’t look unstoppable, but they also didn’t have wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, pulled from the game with a shoulder injury he sustained in the Niners’ win at the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday.
San Francisco got a big night from Brock Purdy, who went 25-of-37 for 310 yards and two touchdowns. One of them went to Deebo Samuel, who had six catches for 129 yards and a touchdown, and the other to Ronnie Bell from 9 yards out.
They also had a decent night from tight end George Kittle, who had seven catches for 90 yards.
Oh, and you might have heard that running back Christian McCaffery scored on a 4-yard touchdown in the second quarter, to cap a 73-yard drive. That score was significant, because C-Mac has scored in 12 straight games, including the Niners’ playoff games a year ago. That ties him with legendary 49ers receiver Jerry Rice for the longest straight scoring streak in the 49ers’ franchise history.
And looking ahead a bit: San Fran is off until Sunday, Oct. 1 (10 days!), when they’ll host the Arizona Cardinals (without injured quarterback Kyler Murray). On Oct. 8, they host the Cowboys, who look unstoppable right now – but have been beatable in the last two seasons by San Francisco, who have given them the boot from the playoffs.
After that, road trips follow to Cleveland (Oct. 15) and to Minnesota (Monday, Oct. 23).
