Revisiting The Atlanta Falcons Win Over The San Francisco 49ers

It was less than a day ago that the Atlanta Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers at home. Let’s continue to bask in the glory of this Falcons win for another day while we can!

It was less than 24 hours ago when the Falcons went into the Bay Area to faceoff with the NFC-best 49ers. Coming into the game, the Falcons were huge underdogs, 11 points, but it was evident from the opening of the game that the Falcons were not deterred by the mighty 49ers. I wrote about all of this last night after the massive upset, but let’s get into some of the finer details of the game I didn’t touch on last night.

Coming into the game, it was an obvious mismatch when it came to the Falcons offensive line and the 49ers defensive line. I touched on this on Friday when I previewed the matchup between these two teams. I, like many others, assumed the 49ers, led by Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead, would have a field day with this Falcons offensive line. However, we would all have been wrong. Despite struggling all season, the Falcons offensive line did a great job by holding the 49ers to only two sacks for the game. Matt Ryan did get hit six times, but the two sacks is a big-time performance by the Falcons offensive line.

Speaking of defensive lines and sacks, Vic Beasley recorded his 7th sack of the season yesterday. Don’t look now, but Beasley has a real shot of getting to 10 sacks for the season, something even the most fervent Vic Beasley defenders would have doubted at the start of the season. By getting his 7th sack yesterday, Beasley is having his second-best season as a pro. I don’t think this means the Falcons will resign Vic in the offseason, but good for Vic! He will get paid this offseason after stepping up in his final season under contract.

Matt Ryan had a sub-par day, but with the 49ers defense, that’s happened to most of the quarterbacks that line up against San Francisco. The real star of the Atlanta offense was Julio Jones. Julio finished the day with 13 catches for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns. The two touchdowns broke a streak of nine games when Jones was kept out of the endzone. Julio caught a pass the game-winning touchdown and the pass that took the Falcons offense to the front step of the 49ers redzone on the final drive. It was a classic Julio Jones day that has been few and far between this season.

Yesterday’s game was a wonderful, frustrating game for Falcons fans. Wonderful in the sense that we got to enjoy a vintage Falcons come-from-behind win. Frustrating in the sense that makes a fan wonder where this team was in the first eight weeks of the season. But for now, let’s just enjoy the Falcons win for the win. There haven’t been very many wins this season, so it’s only right to enjoy it when it comes along. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I write about this game this week, but that’s it for today.