3 takeaways from Giants' loss to 49ers
Dexter Lawrence II #97 of the New York Giants walks off the field after a game against the San Francisco 49ers at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 2, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Brian Daboll’s 60th game as Giants coach felt similar to too many others on his watch.
The Giants’ 34-24 loss to the 49ers on Sunday dropped his record to 20-39-1 since he was hired in 2022.
Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ third straight loss:
1. A poor end to the first half
The Giants should have gone into halftime with positive momentum after Brian Burns’ sack led to a fumble recovered by Abdul Carter with 33 seconds left. Instead, the Giants fumbled their chance right back. Three plays, zero yards and a missed 45-yard field goal by Graham Gano kept the 49ers in front 17-7.
“You’d love to have points down there,” Daboll said. “Didn’t get it done.”
It was a mood-killer as fans booed the Giants off the field at the break. But it’s another example of missed opportunities for a team that has too many of them.
Theo Johnson dropped a third-down pass right before Burns’ sack. Darius Slayton couldn’t haul in a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and might have suffered an injury on the play. Trailing 20-10 in the third quarter, the Giants elected to kick a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line.
All those things add up to a team that’s wasting chances and falling deeper into a hole of its own creation.
2. Dexter Lawrence had a quiet response after noisy week
Lawrence had the chance to make a statement after being called out by Giants legend and current radio analyst Carl Banks. Yet in a game in which the Giants wore uniforms honoring Banks’ era, Lawrence hardly was heard from.
He had one tackle for loss in the first quarter but didn’t have much luck with his usual diet of double-teams. Fellow defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches had a sack, but Lawrence still does not have a full sack this season.
To be fair, Lawrence wasn’t why the 49ers’ offense overpowered the Giants. Poor tackling affected the run defense. Mac Jones averaged 9.8 yards per attempt while playing what felt like a game of catch with his wide receivers.
“We didn’t make the plays that came to us, and it showed,” Lawrence said.
3. Visitors take over MetLife Stadium
A sea of red-clad 49ers fans started forming around the lower sections of MetLife Stadium leading up to kickoff. By halftime, they were such a factor that it sounded as if the game were being played in Santa Clara, California.
“That was interesting,” Jaxson Dart said. “I’ve never played at a home game where I felt like it was kind of lopsided in that department.”
If the Giants don’t turn things around, it will become more common. It’s one thing for rival NFC East fans to travel, and it’s somewhat understandable if fans of a non-divisional East Coast team do it. But when it happens with a West Coast team, it signals that fans are checking out or frustrated with the team’s direction.
Before the game, a fan commissioned a plane with a banner that read “Mr. Mara. Enough is Enough. Clean House.”
If the 2-7 Giants continue to lose and visiting fans keep flocking to MetLife Stadium, perhaps Giants president/CEO John Mara will be driven to do just that.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
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