Need A Better Second Act
Second-half offensive woes doom 49ers in latest loss
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The second-half offensive woes that have plagued the San Francisco 49ers early this season proved costly when the banged-up defense couldn’t bail them out.
The Niners came up empty on all five drives in the second half on Sunday, leading to a 2814 loss to the Atlanta Falcons that leaves them at .500 six games into the season.
For the season, the 49ers rank sixth worst in the NFL in points per drive (1.20) and yards per play (4.81) after halftime. That’s a big drop from the first half when San Francisco ranks 14th in points per drive (2.06) and fourth in yards per play (6.70).
San Francisco (3-3) has scored six points after halftime in losses to Chicago, Denver and Atlanta.
“I’d say the most common thread, I think is when we struggle on third down,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday. “I feel we struggle to get points and I think that happened definitely in this game and that definitely happened versus Denver, so that could be some more common things. We’re moving the ball decent, but we’re not getting enough points and we have to finish out and capitalize on some of these opportunities and we have to start putting more points on the board.”
The issues on Sunday went from dropped passes, a lack of a running game to penalties and some struggles from Garoppolo.
On the opening drive of the third quarter, Ray-ray Mccloud dropped a deep shot from Garoppolo, turning a scoring opportunity into a three-andout.
Tight end Charlie Woerner dropped a deep pass over the middle on the next drive to lead to another punt.
Garoppolo then threw an interception on the next drive and San Francisco came up empty on a perplexing, clockeating drive of more than eight minutes in the fourth quarter with the Niners trailing by 14 points.
“I thought we had opportunities all day,” Garoppolo said. “I thought we had a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them. Self-inflicted wounds, really.”
WHAT’S WORKING
Pass rush. The Niners managed two more sacks despite Atlanta throwing just 14 passes, extending their streak with at least one sack to 36 games, including the playoffs. That’s the longest active streak and fifth longest in the NFL since 2010. Drake Jackson and Charles Omenihu each had a sack to give the Niners four players with at least three on the season to go with Nick Bosa and Samsom Ebukam.