The 49ers are banged up, winless and have been outscored 93-30 over the past three games.
Yet San Francisco goes into Sunday’s game against the New York Giants with a realistic chance to give first-year head coach Kyle Shanahan his first victory. The Giants are 1-7 and have been blitzed in consecutive games the past two weeks, losing 24-7 to Seattle and 51-17 to the Rams. The Giants have the 30th-ranked defense in the NFL and the 28th-ranked offense -- even worse than the 49ers' units.
San Francisco rookie linebacker Reuben Foster, who played a full game for the first time as a pro last week in the loss to Arizona – and was unused to losing at the University of Alabama – says the 49ers will keep working to get better.
“You have to take it as a man, knowing you’re 0-9,” said Foster, who was in on a team-high 14 tackles vs. Arizona. “You’ve got to go back to the drawing board. You’ve got to keep going. I’ll be darned if I let this team go down or the coaches let this team go down. We’ve still got will. We’ve still got fight. Don’t count us out. It’s 0-9, but not for long.”
The Giants, too, are hungry for a victory. Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who has led his team to two Super Bowl titles, is set to start his 208th consecutive regular-season game and isn’t used to being on a team trying to get out of the cellar. He says both the 49ers and Giants will play all-out Sunday because both “need a win.”
Kickoff is set for 1:25 p.m. Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
