GIANTS 33, 49ers 15

Giants defeat 49ers, 33-15
The Giants today won their fifth consecutive game as a dominant performance by the defense key a 33-15 victory over the 49ers.

By Michael Eisen, Giants.com


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – That 0-2 start certainly seems like a distant memory now, doesn’t it?
The Giants today won their fifth consecutive game as a dominant performance by the defense keyed a 33-15 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Giants Stadium. The Giants are now 5-2 as they prepare to fly to London for next week’s game in Wembley Stadium against the 0-7 Miami Dolphins.
“We’re a team playing well right now,” linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “We’re on a roll.”
But they are hardly complacent.
“We need more people to keep telling us how bad we are,” Pierce said. “We don’t need no pats on our backs. Just be honest. We are a team doing well right now, five in a row. We have to take it one game at a time.”
The 49ers, who were coming off their bye, lost their fourth straight game and fell to 2-4.
The day belonged to the defense, which forced four San Francisco turnovers, the most by the unit since Oct. 26, 2006 at Dallas. The unit scored a touchdown on Osi Umenyiora’s 75-yard return of a Trent Dilfer fumble – one of the Giants’ six sacks of the beleaguered quarterback. The defense also produced takeaways on back-to-back San Francisco snaps in the second quarter, leading to 10 Giants points. Another overpowering series led to a Lawrence Tynes field goal. Pierce’s fourth-quarter interception set up Eli Manning’s three-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey.
The Giants also scored on a Manning touchdown pass to Amani Toomer, who became the franchise leader with 49 career scoring passes, and Brandon Jacobs’ five-yard run. Jacobs rushed for 107 yards.
“I get fired up (when I see the defense make big plays),’ Manning said. “That makes our team better. When our defense is going and getting a fumble returned for a touchdown we get excited. That is what it is all about. When A.P. gets an interception we are telling him to go in there and score. He didn’t and Shockey gets a touchdown catch, so it works out to keep everybody happy. When our defense is playing well it gets the offense fired up, it gets the team going, and I think it helps the whole momentum of the game.”
“It seemed like we really capitalized on a lot of their mistakes,” Mathias Kiwanuka said. “We had a lot of angry guys out there just trying to make plays and get to the ball. When you have that many turnovers it frees you up to do a lot of things. You can get out there and take chances and capitalize”
The 49ers got Dilfer touchdown passes to Arnaz Battle and Darrell Jackson (with 16 seconds remaining in a long-since decided game) and a safety when Moran Norris blocked a punt out of the end zone.
The little mystery that remained in the game evaporated early in the fourth quarter, when Pierce intercepted Dilfer’s pass intended for Battle and returned it 28 yards to the San Francisco five. Four plays later, Manning threw a two-yard scoring pass to Shockey.
“It was a critical play,” Pierce said. “I got myself in a good position to make a play on the ball. Whenever our offense is clicking the way they are clicking we just keep giving them more opportunities to have the ball to score. We are just trying to create turnovers and create havoc, which is good on the part of any defense.”
San Francisco cut its deficit to 26-9 when Norris broke through the line and blocked Jeff Feagles’ punt in the end zone with 8:52 remaining in the third quarter. The ball sailed out of the field of play for a safety.
It was the first blocked punt by a Giants opponent since Dec. 5, 2005, when Washington’s Walt Harris blocked a Feagles punt. Ironically, Harris now plays for the 49ers. A Giants opponent had not recorded a safety since Nov. 24, 2003, when long snapper Carson Dach deliberately snapped the ball out of the end zone at Tampa Bay.
The Giants increased their lead to 26-7 thanks to the best and most exciting in a series of superb plays by the defense, Umenyiora’s 75-yard return for a touchdown of a Dilfer fumble with 12:53 remaining in the third quarter.
On first down from 15-yard line, Dilfer was sacked from behind by Umenyiora, who jarred the ball loose with the force of his hit. He then finished off the grandslam by picking up the ball and racing ahead of the field for the second touchdown of his career.
“I was thinking, ‘I cannot get caught,’” Umenyiora said. “I talk so much trash about how fast I am, I was thinking they better not catch me, or I’ll never hear the end of it. Now (the other defensive linemen) will never hear the end of it. I’m going to talk about this as long as I’m with the Giants.”

BOX SCORE
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/boxscore?game_id=29289&displayPage=tab_box_score&season=2007&week=REG7