While the 49ers have their own troubles running the football, the New York Giants’ defense has been among the NFL’s worst at stopping opponents on the ground.

Does that mean coach Kyle Shanahan will emphasize the run game during the scripted portion of San Francisco’s matchup against New York on Sunday at MetLife Stadium?

“Yeah, to a degree,” Shanahan told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco on “49ers Game Plan.” “That’s a part of what the openers are. But also, what you see in the openers, offensively and defensively, you also know that people are doing that to set things up and adjust as the games go, so there’s never a consistent answer. You always have to be playing that cat and mouse game. When you look into people’s numbers and stuff, it can excite you. You see opportunities and things like that, but I also can show numbers that say it’s very tough to do it too.

“I know that they ran for 250 yards last week versus [Philadelphia], which really makes 5.7 come to life. But two weeks before that, they played in Philly, and I think it was two yards per carry and held them to 80 yards. It’s give or break. When you look at averages and stuff, it can be over a couple of games, but by no means do I think that these guys can’t stop the run.”

The Giants’ defensive front has no shortage of stars, with four first-round draft picks in Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence.

While New York currently ranks 32nd in average yards per carry allowed (5.7), Shanahan isn’t overlooking the talented group his team will face on Sunday.

“They have some really good players there. It is hit or miss in what they do,” Shanahan told Maicco. “They could wreak some havoc. [In] Houston I thought we had a really good chance to run the ball. We didn’t get those run calls. We didn’t stay out there enough. We didn’t do great on third down. They controlled the clock, so you end up having, statistically, at least yards wise, your worst yards of the season.

“But when it came to guys hitting our back, we had our best game statistically at running the ball because we didn’t have much of them which meant they were blocked when we had them. Stats can skew a lot of things, especially when it comes to running the ball. It all depends on how it plays out.”

Shanahan also emphasized the importance of a game script determining how often a team is able to run the ball, rather than it being a preconcieved number chosen beforehand.

“You look at our Atlanta game where we ran the ball the best. We got 39 runs. 14 of those came in the last two drives and with a two-score lead,” Shanahan said. “And we were unbelievable on third down, which ends up changing the entire game for you. You look at [Giants QB] Jaxson Dart’s wins. I believe that in all of his wins they’ve had over 30 runs. Why is that? Is it just because they are running the ball well, or is it because of a lot of other things that came into play. Those are all the things that you look at as a coach.”

The 49ers have averaged just 3.4 yards per carry during the 2025 NFL season, by far the lowest number since Shanahan became the coach in 2017.

Shanahan highlighted one key area that can breathe life into San Francisco’s stagnant rushing attack.

“The one thing I know that can really help us is to break some long ones,” Shanahan said. “The long ones have to do with getting more guys up there. You want them to stop the run if you want the long one because then you get through them and there’s nowhere else. You can sometimes run more consistently, if they’re not loading the box, but you’re never going to really get a long one because there’s four guys in the secondary collapsing.

“You can have a block low, but you’re not getting past seven to eight yards. So many things go into that, but I know we need to run the ball. That would help us a ton [by] taking some pressure off key people. That’s the goal every week, but I expect to do it this week.”

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