The marquee outside of Levi Stadium will flash the matchup when the Falcons face the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch of the NFC Championship game of just a few short seasons ago.
However, in a tribute to free agency and parity around the NFL, the teams playing Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif., will be mere remnants of the squads that waged a major battle in the Georgia Dome in January 2013 with a bid to the Super Bowl on the line.
Teams used to stay at the top longer, such as the old Green Bay Packers, the Cowboys, Steelers and 49ers. The modern-day Patriots even had a fall before returning to become Super Bowl winners.
“Today’s game is totally different,” Falcons kicker Matt Bryant said. “Just because of free agency and guys moving around and some staying. It’s a whole different beast compared to then.”
The mantra of “10 yards away” would become part of the lasting legacy of former coach Mike Smith’s mostly glorious tenure. On fourth-and-4 from San Francisco’s 10-yard line, quarterback Matt Ryan’s pass intended for Roddy White, who fought through some contact, was incomplete with 1:09 left to play. The Falcons, after holding a 17-0 lead, were defeated 28-24 in the biggest NFL game ever played in Georgia.
But in this new era of the NFL, things change quickly.
The Falcons have only nine of the 53 players who dressed for that game. Only three of them — Julio Jones, White and Ryan — likely will start. Defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux may start, and safety William Moore is injured.
The 49ers, after the trade of tight end Vernon Davis and the benching of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, have just four starters left from that game: left tackle Joe Staley, right guard Alex Boone (who’s now the left guard), linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Navorro Bowman.
“They’re certainly different from a personnel standpoint and some of the defenses that we went against in the past, but that’s kind of one of the constants in the NFL,” Ryan said. “There’s going to be change in personnel year in and year out.”
That game seems like light years ago to Ryan.
“We’re very different from an offensive standpoint,” Ryan said.
The Falcons had been playoff regulars and prepared for the 2013 season as if they were Super Bowl contenders. They successfully talked tight end Tony Gonzalez out of retirement with what was tantamount to a “no-training camp” clause. They signed running back Steven Jackson and defensive end Osi Umenyiora and figured they were reloaded, set to make another Super Bowl run.
But the bottom fell out immediately for the Falcons. A rash of injuries and some dubious personnel decisions led to one of the quicker descents in history of a team to play in a championship game.
The Falcons finished 4-12 in 2013, and after a 6-10 season in 2014, Smith, the coach with the most wins in franchise history, was fired.
The 49ers didn’t fall back to the parity-pack as quickly. They had the hot young coach in Jim Harbaugh, and Kaepernick was thought to have the running and passing skills to revolutionize the game.
The 49ers followed with a 12-4 season and their third consecutive trip to the NFC Championship game, where they were defeated 23-17 by Seattle and its then-defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Then the turmoil begin in 2014, which led to an 8-8 season and Harbaugh leaving for Michigan. Several players retired or were released over a bizarre offseason.
With things in a state of disarray, the 49ers are 2-6 and a former shell of their Super Bowl team.
“The turnover has been tough,” Bowman said. “Just having guys in spots that are not used to the level of play that teams are going to bring to us because of the success that we’ve had over the years. That’s what we have to do, just to get these guys on the same page to see if we can get this thing rolling before the season is over.”
Jim Tomsula has replaced Harbaugh as the head coach.
“None of us have been playing well or coaching well,” Tomsula said. “We are 2-6.”
When he took the job, Tomsula could not have foreseen all of the changes over the offseason, which included the retirements of Patrick Willis, Chris Borland, Anthony Davis and the release of troubled defender Aldon Smith.
“Day to day, minute to minute,” Tomsula said, when asked how he was trying to manage the chaos. “Wake up and go to work. When you get one of those storms, this isn’t one of those storms where you have a choice to sail around in. You’ve got to sail right through it. Lock your jaw and don’t blink.”
However, despite the lopsided scores, Tomsula doesn’t believe that his team is that far from being competitive.
“We’re close,” Tomsula said. “I believe that sincerely. We are going to keep pushing forward.”
It was Jones’ second season in the NFL when the Falcons played the 49ers in the championship game.
“It’s different,” Jones said. “We lost a lot of key players from that team.”
Jones, who has developed into one of the top receivers in the league, thinks the Falcons are on their way back up.
“I feel like we can probably find a way to win a game now, than lose a game,” Jones said. “We play ball that well. We had a good team that year. We weren’t turning the ball over. I feel like if we clean up our turnovers we can have a better team.”
The Falcons have taken note of the 49ers’ rapid decline.
“But we can’t get complacent and look over the 49ers,” Jones said. “They are going to come out and play fast and physical and hit you on every play.”
The differences of the two teams are not lost on the players.
“The NFL football season is about luck and about injuries,” Bryant said. “As far as team turnover, from 2012 to now, both teams have new coaches. There are 10 million different things that can happen, even from one year to the next. So from 2012 to this year, that’s about three seasons, so much has happened …. you are talking about a whole bunch of things that have accumulated.”
