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The San Francisco 49ers suffered a devastating loss on Sunday, falling to the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 29-22.
While the 49ers still clinched a playoff berth even in defeat, they fell out of first place in the NFC West and may have seen their dreams of notching a first-round bye—something that appeared to be a foregone conclusion several weeks ago—collapse.
San Francisco was drilled for 19 fourth-quarter points by the Falcons, with 12 of those points coming during the final two seconds.
First, Julio Jones caught a touchdown pass with two ticks remaining, and after Atlanta failed the two-point conversion, but the Falcons kicked off to the 49ers, who tried some lateral shenanigans before an awry toss led to Atlanta recovering a loose ball and punching it into the end zone as time expired.
Yeah; that's a painful way to lose, to say the least.
And to make matters worse, it was in San Francisco.
Since beginning the season 8-0, the Niners have gone just 3-3 to fall to 11-3, and while that is still a very impressive record, the 49ers are obviously not finishing in strong fashion.
Many were skeptical on San Francisco earlier in the year when it was drilling teams, and those concerns are starting to shove their way to the forefront in recent weeks.
So, what did we learn about the Niners on Sunday?
While you can't really just look at one individual game and draw a whole bunch of conclusions from it, what happened on Sunday was rather consistent with what has been occurring throughout the entire second half of the season in the Bay.
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The difference is, the 49ers weren't losing to one of the NFL's best teams this time around; they were losing to an incredibly disappointing Falcons club that is now just 5-9 on the year.
Jimmy Garoppolo suggested that a lack of energy may have been the reason for San Francisco's clumsy loss, and if that's the case, that is pretty worrisome, considering there is no reason this squad should be coasting.
The Niners have accomplished very little to this point. No one expected them to be this good, so they should still have plenty of juice left to continue proving the doubters wrong in the closing stretch.
If malaise is really why the 49ers lost this past weekend, then you really have to wonder about the mental state of the team in general, because San Francisco is not the New England Patriots. The Niners don't have a whole bunch of Super Bowls in their back pocket, and they aren't playing in a division that they win every year.
Not only can the 49ers not afford to coast, they haven't earned the right to do it yet.
In an NFC West that includes a Seattle Seahawks team led by a proven quarterback in Russell Wilson, San Francisco needs every win it can get, especially against inferior clubs, and at home, no less.
Now, the Seahawks are in first place in the division and are in the driver's seat with a Week 16 matchup versus the Arizona Cardinals and a Week 17 showdown with these 49ers on tap.
That is not something San Francisco imagined a few weeks ago, and it might be too late for the Niners to reverse their course.
