The once-proud San Francisco 49ers are now in dark, dark football place.
The Super Bowl titles are a distant memory. The team has won just once this season. It appears ownership picked the wrong person to side with in the very public Trent Baalke-Jim Harbaugh power struggle back in 2014.
San Francisco (1-12) faces the Falcons (8-5) on Sunday at the Georgia Dome, the 49ers on a franchise-record 12-game losing streak and heavy underdogs again.
“You just have to stand up and fight again,” said San Francisco coach Chip Kelly, who is not expecting any sympathy.
The 49ers are coming off a 23-17 overtime loss to the New York Jets, when Kelly’s decision to go for it on a fourth-and-2 in OT backfired. The team’s lone victory was a season-opening 28-0 win over the Los Angeles Rams, who have since fired coach Jeff Fisher.
“We’re all frustrated and we’re all trying to figure out what the solution is so we can go play the Atlanta Falcons,” Kelly said.
The 49ers are 0-6 on the road, averaging just 16.2 points in those games. Quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick have both been equally ineffective.
Locked in their fight for the NFC South title with Tampa Bay, the Falcons have no time for pity with just three games left in the regular season.
“This is where experience helps,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said Tuesday on his weekly radio show. “The veteran guys have to let our young guys know (to) throw the records out at this time of the year. It doesn’t make a difference. It’s about us. It’s about how well we can play and get better from what we did last week.”
The Falcons are coming off a 42-14 shellacking of the Rams. Starting wide receiver Julio Jones (turf toe) and Mohamed Sanu (groin) did not play and Jones will not practice on Wednesday. But Ryan plans to make sure the team doesn’t overlook the NFC’s worst team.
“The other thing we have to realize is that any team in this league can come in and put it on you,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to prepare ourselves at a championship level.”
The 49ers offense has been led by running back Carlos Hyde, who’s rushed for 879 yards with six rushing touchdowns. His193-yard rushing effort last Sunday was wasted against the Jets.
Wide receiver Jeremy Kerley leads the team with 48 receptions for 516 yards and three touchdowns. Tight end Vance McDonald, who leads the team with four touchdowns catches, was placed on injured reserve on Monday and will miss the rest of the season.
“We need to convert and keep drives alive,” Kelly said.
The 49ers’ defense, gutted through injuries, has played the most snaps in the league while Kelly’s uptempo offense has sputtered.
“We’re not snapping the ball very fast,” Kelly said. “It’s not like we are playing fast football right now. It’s just a matter of making plays when have to make plays.”
After facing the Falcons in the NFC championship game in 2012, the 49ers didn’t immediately slip to this level. They went 12-4 in 2013 and returned to the playoffs before they started back-sliding. After going 8-8 in 2014, Harbaugh was replaced following continued clashes with the front office and Baalke, the general manager.
They tried to rebuild their defense through the draft and have failed. The defense is on pace to establish franchise records for allowing the most points (488 points), yards (6,645) and rushing yards allowed (2,732) in a season. The previous marks were 453 points in 1999, 6,259 yards in 205 and 2,363 rushing yards in 1978.
“Their 3-4 defense gives you a lot of different looks,” Ryan said. “That’s the one thing that I’ve seen from them from watching film early. They’ll give you a lot of different looks with the front seven, a lot of different pressures. When it comes to a defense like this, it comes down to us knowing our rules and being on top of our game plan.”
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