With San Francisco starting Blaine Gabbert at quarterback, the 2-6 49ers will lean heavily on their rushing attack.
Linebacker Paul Worrilow, who leads the Falcons in tackles, will have to most embody coach Dan Quinn’s fast and physical style of play.
“It’s mostly about us,” Worrilow said. “We want to go in and we want to play well. This game is going to be another challenge for us to go out there and play our best ball.”
The 49ers are ailing at running back. Carlos Hyde is their leading rusher with 470 yards on 115 carries, but they signed Pierre Thomas and Shaun Draughn this past week. Hyde is out with a foot injury and will not play.
“Pierre is a guy that we’ve seen before,” Worrilow said. “We definitely have to get into the film. (Kendall) Gaskins is a guy I think they used last week. He’s a bigger, physical guy. They have some guys.”
The Falcons aren’t expecting the 49ers to change much of their scheme with a new quarterback.
“We know what they do as an offense,” Worrilow said. “It will be a matter of what challenges they are going to bring to us after seeing maybe things we’ve been exposed on.”
The defense isn’t motivated by alleged comments that the 49ers wanted to start Gabbert against a “weak Atlanta defense.”
“That’s more people talk about that being bulletin board material, but it never really happens in a football locker room,” Worrilow said. “All that really matters is being ready for the game. That’s strictly it.”
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