Michael Penix Jr. threw three touchdown passes as the Falcons won 29-20. Kyle Shanahan said Monday he is “pretty optimistic” Christian McCaffrey will be ready for the Raiders on Nov. 8 after the bye.
By Danny Fonoti
The 49ers had turned the ball over six times in their first six games. On Sunday in Atlanta, they did it four times in one afternoon, and their unbeaten start was over.
Michael Penix Jr. threw three touchdown passes, the Falcons scored 13 points off San Francisco’s giveaways, and Atlanta handed the 49ers their first loss of the season, 29-20, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. San Francisco fell to 6-1 heading into its Week 8 bye. Atlanta (3-4) snapped a two-game losing streak.
“Any time you have four turnovers like that and you get zero, it’s real tough to win,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game, according to the Associated Press. “Too sloppy to win.”
McCaffrey’s day, and his diagnosis
The 49ers leaned on Christian McCaffrey from the opening snap. On the first drive he had four carries for 29 yards and two catches for 40, then finished it with a fourth-down leap over the pile from the 1 for a 7-0 lead.
By the second quarter he was on the sideline working a massage gun on his left hamstring, then in the medical tent and eventually the locker room, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The team initially described the injury as a thigh problem. McCaffrey returned for the second half but was limited, finishing with seven carries for 39 yards and six catches for 61 yards on 34 snaps. After the opening drive, he managed 10 rushing yards and 21 receiving yards.
“I was trying to get it going for the whole rest of the game, but it just sucks trying to play like that,” McCaffrey told reporters afterward, saying his leg “just died” on him. “But I know I’ll be all right.”
On Monday, Shanahan said further evaluation showed a mild hamstring strain, according to the team. Asked whether McCaffrey would be available against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 8, the next game after the bye, he said: “We think so, with it just being” a mild strain. “Never know for sure, but we’re pretty optimistic about it. So is he.”
How it slipped away
San Francisco led 14-3 after Kaelon Black, McCaffrey’s backup, broke a 30-yard touchdown run, the first of his career, on the first play of the second quarter. The game turned from there.
Penix’s 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Nick Muse, followed by a missed extra point, made it 14-9. Black then lost a fumble at the Atlanta 29, and the Falcons drove for Nick Folk’s 33-yard field goal on the last play of the half to pull within 14-12. Penix’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Pitts in the third quarter gave Atlanta the lead. Later in the quarter, Jessie Bates III intercepted Brock Purdy at the Atlanta 10, and the Falcons went 90 yards, capped by Penix’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Drake London early in the fourth for a 26-14 edge.
The 49ers’ best chance to answer was erased by replay. A lengthy review overturned Purdy’s apparent 23-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Watkins. Rather than try a 41-yard field goal, Shanahan went for it on fourth-and-10, and Za’Darius Smith sacked Purdy.
“I didn’t think a field goal was going to change much,” Shanahan said Monday. “I also thought we could get that first down. … I thought we needed two touchdowns.”
Purdy’s 1-yard touchdown pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk with 5:05 left made it 26-20, but Eddy Piñeiro pushed the extra point wide left. It was his fourth missed PAT of the season; he is 21 for 25. Because of the miss, Atlanta’s late field goal put the 49ers down by nine instead of eight, out of reach of a single tying score.
The 49ers’ defense forced two late three-and-outs. After one, a shanked Atlanta punt set the 49ers up at their own 47 with about four minutes left, but rookie linebacker Kendal Daniels intercepted Purdy with 2:34 remaining, leading to Folk’s 31-yard field goal. Daniels then recovered a George Kittle fumble in the final minute.
“I still think we could have overcame it, especially at the end with our defense getting those two stops,” Shanahan said Monday.
Penix completed 25 of 34 passes for 213 yards with no interceptions. Purdy was 27 of 40 for 288 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, and was sacked twice. San Francisco outgained Atlanta 400 yards to 295, according to the ESPN box score.
“That’s a great recipe for winning in this league,” Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said.
A receiver room in pieces
Purdy played without the team’s top five wide receivers. Mike Evans (Achilles tendinitis) and Deebo Samuel (hamstring) were inactive, and Ricky Pearsall, De’Zhaun Stribling and Demarcus Robinson were also out. Kittle led the team with eight catches for 88 yards. Watkins had three for 56 and Jacob Cowing three for 38. Veteran Christian Kirk made his season debut without a catch, though Shanahan praised his route running after reviewing the film.
“I thought they did a good job,” Purdy said of the new group, adding, “I thought I saw a lot of really cool things.”
The bye, and the trade deadline
Shanahan said several injured players have a chance to return after the break, including Robinson, though none are guaranteed. The team will hold a field session Tuesday before taking the rest of the week off and returning Monday.
With the trade deadline approaching, Shanahan said general manager John Lynch’s staff is looking for help. “The obvious injury spots to us have been receiver and D-line,” he said. “We are getting a number of those guys back at both positions, but that also doesn’t exclude us from looking into something that would make sense to help us.”
The 49ers return Nov. 8 against the Raiders.
Danny Fonoti covers Bay Area and California sports: the teams, the players, and the business and politics of the games. More from Danny Fonoti
