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At 1-3 www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com , the New York Giants haven’t been good enough so far in the 2018 NFL season. If you look, though, there are some things to feel good about.One of those has been the steady improvement of the offensive line, with coach Pat Shurmur telling WFAN on Tuesday that he felt Sunday against the New Orleans Saints “the offensive line as a unit played their best game.”On Wednesday, Shurmur singled out rookie left guard Will Hernandez, the team’s second-round pick, and second-year right tackle Chad Wheeler, starting his second game after taking over at right tackle for Ereck Flowers, for praise.After allowing two pressures in each of the first two games, Hernandez has not been responsible for a quarterback pressure in the past two games. His pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of 88.2 was his best of the season.“Part of it is just playing more and more. Some people say you need 5,000 snaps before you get into it, he [Hernandez] didn’t have the benefit of that,” Shurmur said. ‘He’s getting better. I think it was his best game, still has his mistakes but I think all in all, it was his best game, which is good, so we hope it just continues to go like it is.”Hernandez does feel like he has gotten better.“I feel like I’ve definitely been improving. I want to keep getting better because I’m not satisfied with that performance [vs. New Orleans],” he said. “I want to keep building on what I did good and keep getting better at the stuff I didn’t do so good.”Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY SportsHernandez said he has definitely learned the value of playing with leverage at the NFL level.“I’ve always felt like I played too tall New York Giants T-Shirt ,” he said. “Sometimes I’ve been able to get away with it in college. Here I quickly learned that good leverage and good technique is the best way to go.”After giving up three sacks to J.J. Watt in his first start, Wheeler gave up four pressures vs. the Saints but kept Cameron Jordan out of the sack column.“I think he [Wheeler] played better this game than he did last game,” Shurmur said. “The thing I appreciate about him is, he walks around pretty quiet sort of Monday through Saturday, but on game day, you can see the emotions and you can see him playing hard and competing, and he works hard in practice. “For a guy that plays with emotion and then he works hard and he competes, then he’ll continue to get better because he has a good skillset. Just like Will, we’re hopeful that he has a better game than he did last week. He’s going to get another tough matchup, so we’ll see how he does.”Looking on the Saints game on Wednesday, Wheeler didn’t want to hear about what he did well.“Just didn’t open up enough holes, didn’t pass block well enough, coulda done a lot of things better,” he said. “You’ve gotta be hard on yourself, especially being an undrafted free agent. You’re always going to have that chip on your shoulder. Never going to feel like you’re good enough. Honestly when you start feeling like you’re good enough that’s when you get humbled in this league.”An improving group?Both players indicated that they feel like the much-maligned line, including new center John Greco, has been getting better.“As a group I feel like we’re coming together,” Wheeler said. “Just doing the little things New York Giants Hats , just do simple better. We don’t have to re-invent the wheel or try to be Supermen out there. You’ve just gotta do your job and hope the guy next to you is doing his.”Hernandez agreed:“I feel like we’ve been improving as a group and we’re going to keep improving, but we’ve got to step it up,” he said. “We don’t want to keep improving little by little every game. We want to improve as fast as we can.” Nick Mullens remembers getting the phone call from Archie Manning inviting him to the prestigious Manning Passing Academy two summers ago.Mullens savored the chance to take part in the four-day clinic run by Archie and his two NFL quarterback sons, Eli and Peyton. Mullens especially relished the opportunity to watch Eli Manning take part in some of the drills."To see how he moves in the pocket, he has very quick feet and is just very smooth," Mullens said. "I definitely remember just sitting there and watching him throw. I took that all in."Mullens now will get another chance to see Manning up close when he makes his second career start for the San Francisco 49ers (2-7) on Monday night against Manning and the New York Giants (1-7).Mullens is coming off a scintillating debut, completing 16 of 22 passes for 262 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions for a 151.9 passer rating in a 34-3 victory over the Oakland Raiders. That's the highest rating since the merger for a player in his debut with at least 20 attempts.Things might not be as easy now that the Giants have an idea of what Mullens can do."I think they're going to be like, 'Oh crap. This guy is good,'" running back Matt Breida said. "I think they'll put more people back there to cover because of the throws he made and can do."While Mullens is just getting started, Manning is nearing the end of his career as he plays his 15th season for a team that is struggling mightily. New York has lost five straight games and the questions are mounting about how much longer the two-time Super Bowl MVP Manning has as quarterback."I think there's urgency to get things going, for sure," Manning said. "We got to get some wins. We got to get going, and everybody wants it. The team needs it, for the morale and for just the hard work and everything we put in. Just need to reap the benefits of the work, and feel good about what we're doing."Here are some other things to watch:SPLENDID SAQUONRookie Saquon Barkley has been a rare bright spot for the struggling Giants, topping 100 yards from scrimmage in seven of his first eight games. Barkley has been a bit hit and miss with 16 runs for negative yards, tied for fifth worst in the league New York Giants Hoodie , and 11 plays that gained at least 20, which is tied for second most among running backs. Barkley is just the ninth player to gain at least 1,000 yards from scrimmage in the first eight games of his rookie season."I'm not one of those guys that says, let me see my stats, let me see how much I ran for this or that. I just play," he said. "I'm not going to stand here and lie, I am very active on social media, so there's fan pages of me and I can go on Instagram or even on my explore page and they just happen to pop up. I've seen predictions of what I'm capable of doing, but it means nothing to me."PRESSURE POINTThe struggling pass rush for the 49ers broke through in a big way last week with eight sacks against Oakland. Cassius Marsh led the way with a career-best 2 陆, and Dekoda Watson had 1 1/2 in his first game after coming off IR. San Francisco had eight sacks in a game only once in the previous two decades, doing it against the Rams in 2009.KITTLE'S CATCHESSan Francisco tight end George Kittle has been a big-play threat all season. He had a 71-yard catch and run last week against the Raiders, making him the first tight end since Rich Caster in 1972 to have two 70-yard catches in the same season. Kittle ranks second among all tight ends with 692 yards receiving and is second to Barkley among all players with 496 yards after the catch.STRUGGLING FRANCHISESTwenty-eight years after these franchises met in the best matchup in "Monday Night Football" history, they now play in one of the worst. Back in 1990, the 49ers beat the Giants 7-3 in a matchup of 10-1 teams that provided the highest winning percentage ever for a Monday night game played after Halloween. The teams come into this meeting with a combined winning percentage of .176, the second lowest for a Monday night game played Nov. 1 or later. The lowest combined winning percentage is .167 for a matchup of the New York Jets (3-9) and the Chargers (1-11) in 1975 that featured Hall of Fame QBs Joe Namath and Dan Fouts.