Stat corner: Falcons’ short-yardage woes

FLOWERY BRANCH -- The Falcons’ problems in short-yardage situations were a major issue Sunday against San Francisco.

They were 1-of-7 in short-yardage plays in the 31-13 loss that greatly diminished their playoff chances.

On the season, the Falcons are 11-of-18 (61%) in third-and-1 situations and 5-of-12 (41.7%) in fourth-and-1 situations.

“You’ve got to win those downs, and there’s a lot that goes into it,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said.

The Falcons have tried everything from changing the count, to spreading teams out, running jet sweeps and pitch-outs.

The only successful play against the 49ers was the simple quarterback sneak, but the Falcons don’t want to regularly put quarterback Matt Ryan’s shoulder in harm’s way.

The concept of snapping the ball backward into a shotgun formation away from the goal seems anti-football. The Falcons pitched the ball to Cordarelle Patterson seven yards from the one yard they needed to gain against the 49ers. He was dropped for a loss.

“I understand,” Ryan said. “You don’t want to take the ball further away from where you’re at. But we’ve scored plenty of touchdowns from the ‘gun. Thrown plenty of them from the ‘gun down there on the 1-yard line. I think there are successful ways to do it from multiple different looks.”

Ryan doesn’t appear to have a preference of running power plays or finesse plays in short-yardage situations.

“In my experience, we’ve had success doing it both ways,” Ryan said.