That was the kind of complementary football that Kyle Shanahan always references. The offense ran the ball 39 times. The defense held the opposition to under 300 yards. And Eddy Pineiro was 2-for-2, and good from 55. There were plenty of performances that stood out on Sunday Night Football. Let’s talk about them.
Winners
Christian McCaffrey
McCaffrey produced 13 first downs, including the game-sealing reception on third down to ice the game. He forced seven missed tackles, and that number is higher since some sites only count those when contact is made. McCaffrey didn’t just have a season high in 10+ yards against Atlanta. Coming into Week 7, he had six rushes of 10+ yards on the season. On Sunday night, McCaffrey had seven.
McCaffrey had as many first downs (5) as every other pass catcher on the roster. His 72 receiving yards were nearly as many as everyone else (80), too. The 49ers needed a herculean effort from their best player, and they got it.
Tatum Bethune
Ten tackles for Bethune, with four of those being run stops. And that still doesn’t paint the picture for how much he impacted the game. Bethune had a couple of late blitzes, one where he ran over Bijan Robinson for a quarterback hit, which forced errant passes. Michael Penix doesn’t target the middle of the field, which helped Bethune in coverage, but he flew around all night and gave his best Fred Warner impression.
Bijan Robinson only had 40 yards with a 28.6 success rate, which was his second-lowest mark of his career. He only had three rushes of five or more yards. The defensive line gets a ton of credit for that, but it felt like Bethune was the chief reason for the Falcons’ struggles on the ground.
Chase Lucas
Robert Saleh didn’t enter this game thinking he’d play Lucas exclusively. The rotations initially were between Luke Gifford, Lucas, and Jason Pinnock. Eventually, Saleh scrapped that decision to use big nickel or base packages and rolled with Lucas. That paid decision paid off instantly.
Lucas had the defensive play of the game after he undercut a Drake London route on fourth down. He had a QB hit on 2nd & 9 that eventually led to a punt. Lucas looked like the same player he did in the preseason.
Matt Hennessy
Whenever you can still function on offense when you lose your center, you’re doing something right. Jake Brendel potentially has a pulled hamstring, yet the offense didn’t miss a beat with Hennessy. During the offseason, I wondered why Hennessy never got looks at guard. His number was called against the Falcons, and to the naked eye, there weren’t any obvious mistakes. That’s not easy coming in cold off the bench.
George Kittle
How can a player who didn’t record a single catch be a winner? I’m glad you asked. On McCaffrey’s final touchdown, the replay showed Kittle blocking a defensive lineman to the ground. The 49ers ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries with Kittle in the game. Moreover, the offense averaged 1.4 yards before contact per carry. Coming into Week 7, the Niners were a bottom-five team in that statistic, sitting at 0.69 yards before contact per carry. Without Kittle, the Niners’ running game looked like it had recently. On six carries, they had 12 yards, averaging -2.1 yards before contact per carry.
Kittle’s impact in the game was massive, despite not touching the ball.
Losers
The non-McCaffrey pass catchers
Mac Jones threw the ball well enough for the non-McCaffrey pass catchers to have closer to 180 yards receiving, not 80. Demarcus Robinson’s drop on third down to begin the fourth quarter could have been catastrophic. In 2024, that drop leads to a loss.
Jauan Jennings had a ball go through his hands for Jones’ first interception. Jennings failed to get two feet in bounds on another third down, which might have led Kyle Shanahan to go for it.
Eventually, at some point, a team is going to take McCaffrey away. The Falcons were down a linebacker, making it easier to throw underneath. When that time comes, the rest of the pass catchers will need to step up. In their limited opportunities in Week 7, that wasn’t the case.
Jason Pinnock
The idea of getting better in coverage without Fred Warner so you want to use a safety in his spot makes sense, in theory. Then you realize who that safety is. Pinnock played 22 snaps, and the Falcons found him early and often. Technically, Pinnock only allowed three receptions (on three targets) for 39 yards. But there was another screen where Pinnock essentially died on contact and let the ball carrier to pick up YAC.
The 49ers have an apparent style in which they play. You see it with Bethune and Lucas — two players who hadn’t stepped on the field. You don’t with Pinnock, and it costs the team every time.
Winners
It’s tough to point the finger and find many losers when you hold a team with a winning record to ten points. The 49ers played a relatively clean game. They only committed three penalties, one of those wasn’t close to a penalty, and the lone turnover was fluky.
Deommodore Lenoir
Lenoir hasn’t been tested down the field all that much this season. He was on Sunday night, and made the Falcons pay each time. We can put an asterisk next to the defensive pass interference that Lenoir was flagged for. He was playing football. On the other five plays Lenoir was targeted, he allowed one reception for nine yards.
Bryce Huff
Huff continues to be everything and more of what the team hoped for when they traded for him. He had a sack and six pressures, and once the Niners had the lead, Huff was wearing the Falcons’ right tackle out.
Huff’s 19.4 QB pressure rate was the second-highest it’s been all season. Every one of his pressures felt impactful. Penix did not complete a single one of his nine passes under pressure, which were the most attempts without a completion of any quarterback since 2023. Huff was the primary reason for that.
Eddy Pineiro
Pineiro bailed out Jones toward the end of the first half with a 55-yard field goal. Jones nearly had a back-breaking turnover that would’ve given the Falcons the ball with enough time remaining on the clock to add points. Instead, Pineiro’s kick would’ve been good from 60.
Darrell Luter
Luter gave up a 38-yard pass on a double move toward the end of the half. In my mind, double moves are a way of you admitting that you don’t believe your receivers can get open on the typical routes, so you need to use trickery.
One play should not make or break how you view a player. Luter gave up another first down later in the game, but to say he played poorly would be ignoring everything else he did.
Luter’s nine targets nearly doubled any other player on the Niners. That makes sense, as the backup cornerback always has a bullseye on their back.
On seven of Luter’s other targets, he allowed 23 yards. Not to mention his activity in the run game. Luter had five tackles and two stops. He even blitzed once. Depending on how long Renardo Green misses — Kyle Shanahan said Green may have turf toe — Luter proved that he can play the 49ers’ style of football if need be.