Five things we learned from Falcons’ 31-13 loss to 49ers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Falcons’ playoffs hopes diminished greatly after a sobering loss to the 49ers on Sunday.

The 49ers, behind the passing of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and hard-charging play of tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Deebo Samuel, trounced the Falcons 31-13 at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.

The 49ers improved to 8-6, while the Falcons, who could not score on three drives inside the 10-yard line, dipped to 6-8.

“That’s probably the difference in the game,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said. “We get the ball, opening kickoff, didn’t punch it in. Thought you got in with (Cordarrelle) Patterson. Credit to them. They stopped us.”

The red zone woes were costly.

“You have to find a way to get into the end zone,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “We knew coming into it that was going to be important for us. I’ll have to take a look at it to see exactly what the issues are. We had our chances.”

Two years ago, in Week 15, the 49ers were upset at home by the Falcons, who were 10.5-point underdogs. This season, in Week 15, the Falcons were 9-point underdogs, but could not pull off the upset.

This game was a referendum on the Falcons’ legitimacy as a playoff team and they failed miserably. The Falcons still have not beaten a team with a winning record, have dropped five games by at least 18 points and had the NFL’s fifth-worst point differential (-108) coming into the game.

The 49ers are now 7-0 this season when Garoppolo has no passes intercepted.

Ryan needed 129 yards to go over the 59,000-yard career mark. He completed 19 of 32 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown, while under heavy duress. He finished with a 92.7 passer rating, was sacked three times and hit 10 times.

Much was made of the Falcons’ 5-2 road record entering the game, but none of those wins came against a team currently in a playoff spot (Giants, Saints, Dolphins, Jaguars and Panthers) and their losses were in blowout fashion (43-3 at Dallas, 48-25 at Tampa Bay).

The Falcons had a chance early, but were never in control of their matchup with the 49ers.

Garoppolo completed 18 of 23 passes for 235 yards and finished with a passer rating of 123.7. Kittle caught six passes for 93 yards and Samuel caught four passes for 60 and added 29 yards rushing on six carries.

49ers running back Jeff Wilson rushed 21 times for 109 yards and a touchdown.

The Falcons were held to 62 yards rushing on 23 attempts.

Here are the five things we learned from this game:

1. Botched opening drive: The Falcons had a chance to jump out to a quick lead after running back Qadree Ollison caused a fumble on the opening kickoff. The ball was recovered by Richie Grant at the 12-yard line. The Falcons appeared to score on a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Cordarrelle Patterson.

After review, the refs ruled his knee was down before the ball crossed the plane of the endzone and overturned the touchdown.

Then the Falcons made some bizarre play calls instead of taking three shots to pound the ball into the endzone from a yard out.

On second down, they called a play-action pass and tossed an incompletion to tight end Lee Smith.

On third down, Patterson was stopped for no gain trying to run behind the right side of the line.

On fourth down, the Falcons went with an empty backfield and tossed an incomplete pass intended for tight end Kyle Pitts.

Smith was asked about his play-calling and why he didn’t run power on three plays to get one yard.

“We consider everything,” Smith said. “You go in there and game plan and you’re always looking for an advantage. Obviously, it comes down to execution and the defense has a say as well. We’ll continue to look at everything.”

Instead of jumping out to a quick lead, the Falcons got nothing.

On their next possession, the Falcons got a 48-yard field goal from Younghoe Koo to take 3-0.

Trying to rally, the Falcons were stopped on the 8-yard line and again on the 1-yard line in the fourth quarter.

In a game they lost by 18 points, they blew golden opportunities that could have possibly added 21 points.

2. Gage touchdown grab: The 49ers tied up the game with a 30-yard field goal from Robbie Gould. After the Falcons were forced to punt, the 49ers scored 6-yard touchdown run by fullback Kyle Juszczyk to make it 10-3.

On the Falcons’ next possession Russell Gage atoned for hit fourth dropped pass of the season by making a spectacular grab on a 20-yard touchdown play where he had to fight through pass interference.

Gage’s grab tied the game at 10-10.

“It was just kind of a simple go ball,” Gage said. “The guy was in simple press, man. We talked about it during the week that these didn’t really get their heads around to play the ball well. Matt did a great job of giving me a chance.”

The 49ers answered with a 10-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Deebo Samuel with 33 seconds left in the first half to take a 17-10 halftime lead.

3. Garoppolo back there reading books: While Ryan was under siege, Garoppolo had enough time in the pocket to read a book before he threw his passes.

He repeatedly gashed the Falcons’ secondary for long gainers.

Garoppolo tossed a 28-yarder to George Kittle, a 36-yarder to Brandon Aiyuk, a 30-yard to Deebo Samuel and another 21-yarder to Samuel in the third quarter that set up Jeff Wilson’s 5-yard touchdown run that put the 49ers up 24-10 with 11:11 left in the third quarter.

In all, the 49ers had five pass plays of 21 yards or more.

The Falcons did not register a sack and had only three quarterback hits.

4. Rushing attack shut down: The Falcons started the third quarter poorly. Ryan, on his third sack, fumbled the ball away. Nick Bosa made his 15th sack of the season and linebacker Fred Warner recovered at the Falcons’ 38-yard line.

The 49ers would score on Wilson’s touchdown to take double digit lead and the Falcons had to scrap the run game.

In the first half, Falcons rushed 13 times for 38 yards. Running backs Patterson and Mike Davis had 12 carries for 31 yards.

The Falcons had rushed for more than 120 yards in each of their past three games and would prefer to have a balanced offense.

Without a running game, the Falcons offensive line could not hold up in obvious passing situations. Ryan was sacked three times and hit nine times.

5. Playoff miracle needed: The Falcons are going to need a miracle to make the playoffs.

Before facing the 49ers, the Falcons had a 12% chance to make the playoffs, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. With a win, the Falcons chances would have improved to 42%.

With the loss, they dropped down to a 2% probability of making the playoffs.

“You never know what could happen,” safety Duron Harmon said. “Weird things happen at the end of the season. But we have to control what we can control and that’s winning the games that we’ve got next.”

The Falcons will face the Detroit Lions at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Lions improved to 2-11-1 with a 30-12 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

“If it’s a chance, it’s a chance,” said linebacker Foye Oluokun, who led the Falcons with 10 tackles. “I don’t really care how small (it is). If there is a chance, you might say that’s it’s improbable. I’ll say there is a chance and that we are going to keep fighting and do our part in order to make the playoffs.”

Unlike the Falcons, the Lions have beaten a team with a winning record.

“We’ve got a Detroit team that beat a good team today,” Harmon said. “So, they are going to be ready to go on Sunday. We just have to play better.”

Credit: ArLuther Lee

Credit: ArLuther Lee

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