Niners Face a Giant Opponent: Themselves

San Francisco needs to work out the kinks in their own offense and defense to have any chance of beating New York Sunday night

The New York Giants are next up for the 49ers, in a Sunday night matchup on national television.

But the real opponent for the 49ers is … the 49ers.

After opening the season with a victory over the Minnesota Vikings, the Niners have dropped three straight games and, in doing so, have watched their quarterback seemingly come apart at the seams.

Colin Kaepernick has become a giant question mark. After regressing in 2014, he’s taken three more giant steps backward over the past three games after looking solid in Week 1.

This season, Kaepernick is 72-of-116 for 727 yards and two touchdowns, but has been intercepted five times.  His quarterback rating of 67.7 is far worse than his 86.4 of 2014 – which in turn was lower than his 91.6 in 2013 and his 98.3 in 2012.

If the 1-3 49ers have any hope of turning their season around in 2015, the 49ers offense and Kaepernick in particular are going to show Sunday night that they can shake off the problems of the past few weeks and operate efficiently against a 2-2 Giants team.

Oddsmakers don’t believe they can, making New York a 7-point favorite.

Can the 49ers help Kaepernick turn things around? At this point, it seems like a tall order.

After throwing two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns early in the loss to Arizona two weeks ago, Kaepernick hardly threw downfield at all in a 17-3 loss to the Packers this past Sunday. He seemed intent on not making a mistake, rather than challenging downfield with his strong arm. Wide receiver Torrey Smith – the deep threat the team has long needed – had just two catches. This week, Kaepernick again took the blame for the offensive ineptitude.

“I put our team in a bad situation in the Arizona game,” Kaepernick told the media. “I wasn’t going to allow that to happen again. It did cost us (vs. Green Bay), yes. But that’s something I can correct moving forward.”

Many outside the organization don’t believe that can happen.

Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, now an analyst for CBS, said of Sunday’s matchup: “I’m taking the Giants for one reason and one reason only. Colin Kaepernick is a mess. They’ve ruined that kid.”

Columnist Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group said Kaepernick’s regression is a reflection of the incompetence of the organization. Wrote Kawakami: “Everything the 49ers have done for the last year has been almost exactly the wrong thing for Colin Kaepernick, who is a walking, talking, wobbling example of mismanagement and utter confusion.”

Steven Ruiz of USA Today this week took a look at old tapes of Kaepernick and says his troubles obviously have become the focal point of the team’s problems.

“It’s gotten so bad, there are actually San Francisco 49ers fans calling for Blaine Gabbert” to start, he wrote. But he also wrote that the problem is not all about him.

“Kaepernick has not regressed,” wrote Ruiz. “He has stagnated, while the rest of the tam has gotten worse around him.” Added Ruiz: “If you want the ‘old’ Kaepernick back, give him the right supporting cast. You’re not going to find it in San Francisco, though.”

So, as San Francisco gets set to play the Giants Sunday night, the team’s biggest opponent is itself. Can the offensive line open holes for Carlos Hyde and the running game? Can it give Kaepernick time to get comfortable and pick out receivers? Can the defense mount a pass rush against Eli Manning? Can the secondary put the clamps on Giants receivers?

So far, the 49ers have had trouble doing all of the above consistently. They need to re-discover that opening-week-victory rhythm Sunday night, or this season will spiral totally out of control.

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