Deebo Samuel fuels 49ers' win over shorthanded Giants - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers pulled out a 30-12 victory over the New York Giants on Thursday night, and while the 49ers may not have looked unbeatable, they did more than enough to handle a banged-up opponent.

The Giants kept hanging around until the fourth quarter, when the Niners put it away late. Here's what to know about each team's performance:

It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't as easy as the final score might indicate, but the 49ers took care of business.

On a short week, the Niners, without injured receiver Brandon Aiyuk (shoulder), labored through the win. While the Giants were short-handed in their second game of a West Coast swing, there's no need for the 49ers to apologize for another victory as San Francisco moved to 3-0 for just the second time in the past 25 years.

But if this win taught anything, it's that Aiyuk's value to the Niners should not be discounted. The Giants entered this game having blitzed more than any team in the league since the start of 2022. They lived up to that reputation, relentlessly sending extra rushers at 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.

Those blitzes were effective in the first half, not only in pressuring Purdy but in causing him to be off target and forcing Niners coach Kyle Shanahan to resort to more screens and quick passes instead of the intermediate routes he often prefers.

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That is where Aiyuk would have made a difference. Dating to the start of last season, Aiyuk has 50 catches (tied for 8th in the NFL) for 679 yards