49ers: Notes from Week 15 loss to the Atlanta Falcons

The best team in the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers, had its first bad showing of 2019 with a home loss as 10.5 point favorites with the season winding down and home-field advantage paramount.

It was a rough outing for the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday as they went down at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons in a 29-22 affair that saw the ‘Dirty Birds’ take the lead late in the fourth quarter on two goal-line scores, one of which was waived off.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed a trend in this 49ers defense the past two weeks, and it’s not a good one. They gave up nearly 50 points last week to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

This time out, they gave up 19 points in the fourth quarter to Matt Ryan and a Falcons team without two of its top three receivers from the beginning of the year in Mohamed Sanu and Calvin Ridley — a team that also has one of the worst rushing offenses and offensive lines in the league.

Now I get it, there was no Richard Sherman, Jaquiski Tartt, or K’Waun Williams in the secondary this week, but at the same time, you’re the number two defense in the league for a reason, and I don’t think they’ve played like it these past two weeks.

As we come down the stretch, I worry about whether this team has the closing strength to go on a potential Super Bowl run. They now get the Rams at home and then travel to Seattle on the last day of the season.

Those are two games they could very well lose, and if they do, they’ll drop to 11-5 and go to (probably) Dallas for a playoff game as the number five seed in the NFC.

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Yes, an easier opponent for them in their first playoff game, but at the same time, it would be a slight drop off from where their aspirations were just last week when they beat the Saints and moved to 11-2.

The way their defense is playing right now is not going to beat Russell Wilson on the road for, potentially, the NFC West crown and number one seed. The way their defense is playing right now is not going to do a repeat job of what they did last time to Jared Goff and the Rams, who can still throw the ball on any team in football.

Hopefully, they come back these next two weeks and step up to head into January with momentum.

But if these last two games are foreshadowing what’s to come from a playoff 49ers team, I’d have to say I don’t think this year will end well for them, as great as they’ve been this entire year.

You have to at least split these last two regular-season games if you’re the 49ers if you want any sort of head of steam going into the postseason.

A few weeks ago when I briefly went through the remaining schedule of the Niners, I had them losing next week to the Rams and winning at Seattle in Week 17. Now, I’m not sure if they’ll win either.

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Props to the Falcons for pulling this victory out and for winning 4 of their last 6 since their bye. Dan Quinn is still in a lot of trouble at the head coaching position, but this team has shown resilience and an ability to still win games.