Atlanta Falcons: 4 Observations from 49ers Loss
By John Buhler
The Running Game to Blame
Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the worst rushing performance of the regular season. It turns out the Shanahan ZBS can malfunction in some games. When your star running back averages a yard per carry on the ground, you’re going to have a bad time.
I’ll give credit to the defensive line of the San Francisco 49ers. They played an outstanding game, making it difficult for the Atlanta Falcons’ guards to properly function in the ZBS. It eliminated the threat of running the ball up the middle on dives, draws, and cutbacks.
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The Falcons had to run off tackle on sweeps and tosses to no avail, as the athletic outside linebackers were able to meet Devonta Freeman on the edge and bring him down for a loss of yardage routinely.
While the 49ers were 28th in run defense entering yesterday’s game, that unit looked inspired San Francisco as a whole defensively. Even if they were using backups in the secondary, this defense could help them get on track in 2015.
The problem for the Atlanta Falcons is that an ineffective running game made the offense look like the 2014 unit last year under former OC Dirk Koetter. Shanahan had to abandon the running game almost from the onset.
Though Matt Ryan completed 66% of his passes for over 300 yards, a balanced offense attack would have given the Atlanta Falcons the edge in this game. Poor run blocking marred this game yesterday for the Dirty Birds.
Next: Where is the Pass Rush?