Two clutch stops was enough to make even the most pessimistic Falcons fan begin to believe. It was enough for safety Thomas DeCoud.
“I felt after those two stops, I felt like the ball was starting to bounce in our direction,” he said.
The San Francisco 49ers, though, had more in store, finally wrenching away the lead and the game with a 38-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. Tasked with bottling up the magic of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the Falcons made him a non-factor in the running game. But they couldn’t deliver enough in a game where the offense failed to provide points in the final 30 minutes.
“I think we did a good job on the quarterback running game and that was definitely one of our focuses coming in, but overall we didn’t get the job done,” defensive tackle Corey Peters said. “Twenty-eight points is too much.”
A week after he ran for 181 yards against the Green Bay Packers, an NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback, Kaepernick ran just twice for 21 yards. The attention paid to him, though, had a cost in the secondary. He completed 16 of 21 passes, his second-highest completion percentage (76.2 percent) since becoming the starter in the 10th game of the regular season. His 127.7 passer rating was also his second highest.
The Falcons sacked Kaepernick just once and could only produce one turnover.
“They made more plays than we did, is what it came down to,” linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said.
In the third quarter, San Francisco drew to 24-21 on their first drive of the second half, a seven-play, 82-yard drive in which the 49ers never faced a third down. A comeback reminiscent of Seattle’s rally on the Falcons a week ago seemed to loom. That sense only strengthened when quarterback Matt Ryan’s interception gave San Francisco the ball on its 44-yard line. However, safety William Moore stalled out the 49ers with a deflection of a Kaepernick pass to force a field-goal attempt, which kicker David Akers missed, hitting the left upright so squarely that it shook like a tuning fork.
The defense was cornered again when Ryan’s fumble of a shotgun snap set up the 49ers on their 37. The Falcons appeared to have forced a three-and-out after a third-down Kaepernick incompletion. However, defensive end Cliff Matthews, in leaping to bat down the pass, inadvertently hit Kaepernick in the head as he came down for a roughing penalty and a first down.
“I knew I hit him in the facemask, but as soon as I saw the flag, I knew exactly what the call was,” he said.
The drive continued to the Falcons 5, where Moore delivered again. Wide receiver Michael Crabtree caught a pass and lunged for the goal line, but cornerback Dunta Robinson held him up, yanking the ball loose and Moore finished him off, knocking the ball out for a fumble that linebacker Stephen Nicholas recovered. Another crisis averted.
But the Falcons finally gave way after a three-and-out gave the 49ers the ball back on the Falcons 38. San Francisco was in the end zone in just six plays, finishing with a nine-yard touchdown run by running back Frank Gore off a read-option play. Gore topped it off by doing the “Dirty Bird” in the end zone.
“They split us like the Red Sea, that side (of the defense) where we had man coverage,” DeCoud said. “It was just a great play on their half. They just caught us in a call that was perfect for the call that they had.”
