What the 49ers are saying after losing to the Falcons
The Niners maligned missed opportunities, including two key dropped passes, after the loss.
The 49ers went to Atlanta with a two-game win streak but left with a lot of questions after losing their Week 6 game to the Falcons 28-14.
San Francisco (3-3) was unable to generate much offense, scoring only in the second quarter, and failed to produce points on a fourth-quarter drive that lasted eight minutes while trailing by two touchdowns.
The Falcons put the Niners in a 14-0 hole when they returned a Jeff Wilson Jr. fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter. The 49ers scored twice quickly on two Jimmy Garoppolo-to-Brandon Aiyuk touchdown passes, but never scored again as Atlanta controlled the ball through the run game.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say after the loss:
Kyle Shanahan
On message to team:
It was pretty easy to talk to them after the game because it’s real obvious what happened. We knew going into this game how that team was built. We knew it would have to be a physical game. We knew we’d have to protect the ball. We didn’t want them to get up because of how they’re wired to run the ball and things like that. Especially going in depleted, we knew we had to come out strong.
On a turning point:
I thought the biggest play in that game was in the second quarter, that third-and-13. We had finally gotten them in a long third down and I don’t know what happened but we got free in the middle and Mariota was allowed to scramble for the first down and he ended up getting a seven-point lead to go in at halftime.
On why they lost:
You put yourself in a hole and you can’t overcome some drops that we missed. I thought we had a big chance on the second play of the half. Next series up, I thought we had a big chance.
On the loss:
They ended up with 40 runs and we and 16. We had three turnovers. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.
On the game flow:
I think they controlled the ball very well and then we got a little behind, I thought we needed to throw to catch up.
On the fourth-quarter drive and moving slowly:
Just knew we had two more times with the ball. We did do a number of no-huddle plays, we mixed it up not doing it too. So we did both. The key is that you can’t come up short on that. We expect to get the ball twice and we’re not going to panic when we feel like we have two more possessions, especially with three timeouts.
On Ward’s injury:
We’re not sure yet. I hope not (serious) but he couldn’t go, which usually is not a good sign, but we gotta see how it is tomorrow.
On McGlinchey’s injury:
He went out, I think he came back in at the end of the second quarter to try to tough it out, and then by the time he came in at halftime and stopped moving a little bit, I think he realized he couldn’t go.
On the offense coming back from 14-point deficits:
I think we had every opportunity to overcome it. I thought we settled that pretty fast in the first half … Hoping to get the ball back (with the score) 14-14 on third-and-13. I thought we had a chance to go score at the end of the half and start with the ball. So in my mind, I’m thinking we have a chance to be up 28-14 the way this is going.
On Kinlaw’s injury:
We’re expecting him to come back. We just gotta see how it reacts here. Hasn’t reacted the way we wanted in the last two weeks, so we didn’t think it was happening fas. So we just made this four-week commitment, especially with the bye week coming up. Hopefully it’ll get better then.
On Garoppolo:
I thought Jimmy did some real good things, especially there in the first half. I thought he was pretty on fire when we were throwing the ball … It would have been I think a huge difference that we came up with two of those deep balls that he threw, and I thought he played a pretty good game.
On Wilson’s day:
He ran hard, as always. He’s gotta be better with the ball right there. We didn’t give him a ton of opportunities. I love some of the things Jeff did, just gotta protect the ball better.
Jimmy Garoppolo
On what went wrong:
We had opportunities all day. We had a lot. We just didn’t take advantage of them. It was self-inflicted wounds, really. Guys were making mistakes. It wasn’t one guy or one position. It starts with myself. We, one after another, kept making mistakes. When you do that, it adds up to a game like this.
We knew what we were going into this game with, who we were going into the game with. That’s just on the offense. Putting up zero points in the second half is not us. We have to go back to the drawing board and get back to our style of football.
On the Falcons’ defense:
They didn’t really change much. Self-inflicted wounds were the story of the day. Those are correctable but you can’t have as many as we had, and you have to overcome it.
On lack of run game:
It starts with them getting the early lead on us. That, obviously, puts the offense in a difficult spot. I understand what Kyle is doing, you have to pass the ball in those situations. But we have to get back to our style: stay ahead of the chains, avoid third downs, convert third downs. That’s our style
On deep shot to McCloud:
That was in the game plan. We had a shot at it. They were playing coverages to give us that look. The safety got a little aggressive. I didn’t really see the pass. I wish we would have hit that one.
On interception on pass to Deebo:
Yeah, I think the ref did too. But I don’t call the penalties. He threw the flag. I don’t know why he picked it up. That was an unfortunate one. We were in a good spot, driving a little bit. You can’t have that.
On first interception:
As a quarterback, it sucks to have on the stat line. But I’m a competitior and trying to get us points. You hate to see it on the stat sheet but we’re trying to win.
On energy and intensity missing?
“That’s tough to say. If we win, maybe it feels different. It was a long week. I’m not trying to make excuses by any means. We have to bring energy regardless of where we play and when we play. If guys are hurt, guys have to step up. It’s the NFL. It’s not easy.”
On high-energy practices
“It’s just a different type of week. We’ve been in West Virginia before. That can’t be an excuse for how we played today. We have to go back to the drawing board, suck it up, watch the film on the flight home, get after it tomorrow, and move on. We’ve got a big one this next week.”
Brandon Aiyuk
On the game:
I think it took us a while to get going. Just too many mistakes starting off the game, turned the ball over early in the game.
On the Falcons’ game:
That’s what we want to do every week. They kind of took our game plan. I’m not sure how many runs they got but they ran the ball really well.
On the week:
I know everybody felt like we were in a good spot, and that’s the recipe, but it didn’t work out that way.
On drops:
We didn’t capitalize on some of the opportunities that we had. I had a drop that could have got us in a better spot, I think second or third down, and I think other guys would tell you the same thing about opportunities they had.
Fred Warner
On playing without so many injured starters:
It does suck. You wish that you’d have your guys out there. But at the same time, I feel like, for me, I put a lot of pressure on myself and the fact that I command the defense, I’m the one who should get all 11 lined up at all times, regardless of who’s out there. Everybody else who’s having to come into the game, they gotta be ready to go no matter what. It’s all about everybody being prepared regardless of the circumstance. Whoever’s out there, we’ve got to make sure we’re playing to our standard.
On facing a team that knows how they will attack:
We knew exactly what they were going to do. And that was the challenge for us on defense, was to stop the run and to dictate that. But I’ve got to give them props for dictating the entire game in the run game. We just didn’t … we were getting knocked back, me included. And we’ve just got to be better up front, in the front seven.
On Ryans’ message to defense in sideline huddle:
He just wanted us to get going. It just wasn’t … it felt soft out there. We weren’t knocking back and that’s on us. That’s completely something that we can control. We knew exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted to run the ball. They ran the ball. We didn’t stop them.
On injuries:
Like I said, it truly does suck. But I mean, the five years I’ve been here, like, this isn’t anything new. I’ve seen it. At some point, you got to adjust and guys got to be ready to go, no matter what the situation. We’ve got to be able to find ways to win, regardless of the circumstance.
On if this is most banged-up he’s seen the team:
I’m not sure. I gotta go back and look. Like I said, no matter what, I’m still trying to make sure that all 11 are on the same page. Just a long season ahead of us. We gotta get better. We’re gonna look at it hard, we’re gonna improve from it and we’re gonna be better from it.
George Kittle
On injuries:
You could use that as an excuse but we’re the San Francisco 49ers. We have a standard that we play at. We play at a very high level, lot of energy, 100 percent effort on every single play. I haven’t watched the tape yet but I don’t know if we gave that today at every single position.
On the offense:
We were down six defensive starters, I think, off the top. We had to put up more points than we did.
On drops:
We had a couple of deep ones that were there for us that we didn’t execute on that were there for us. It doesn’t mess with your psyche but it definitely stalls a drive.