It was going to take a stellar effort to beat the San Francisco 49ers. They were undefeated and had shrugged off challenges and injuries all season long, with Kyle Shanahan's offense humming and Raheem Morris's defense rolling. After back-to-back weeks where penalties, poor special teams, and simple execution errors doomed the Falcons, it was hard to do more than hope against hope that they had that kind of effort in them.
They did, though. The Falcons were in a hole early—they went down 14-3 at one point—but this team climbed out of it with aplomb, outscoring San Francisco 26-6 the rest of the way. The passing game was terrific, with Michael Penix Jr. slinging it well and throwing two touchdowns, and the ground game was solid enough to get the job done. Special teams finally lumbered to life, with Nick Folk missing an extra point but nailing multiple field goals, and the offense getting a major assist from two nice returns from Zachariah Branch and Khalil Herbert. More than anything else, the defense was spectacular , rallying after their early struggles to force four turnovers, limit the 49ers to just six points after halftime, and close the game out late. It was a whole team effort that delivered a badly needed win, and suddenly these Falcons are very much in the NFC South race again.
We shouldn't overlook just how spectacular this effort was. I wrote last week that the Falcons were dimming our hopes and playing deeply frustrating football, and those kinds of skids are not always easy to climb out of. In this game, the 49ers sold out to stop the Falcons from running the ball and largely bottled up Bijan Robinson, while the Falcons had a couple of tough misses from Penix and unbelievable drops by Jahan Dotson and Drake London. Those errors, paired with the missed Folk extra point, felt like plays that would surely haunt Atlanta, yet the Falcons proved to be ready and willing to ghostbust their recent past. The fact that Shanahan and Morris have been doing stellar work with this team and pressed all the right buttons early meant the Falcons would have to be sharp and adjust on the fly, and they did just that. That required stellar days from coaches and players alike.
We've now seen this team do truly impressive work in three games, passable work en route to losses in two games, and poor work in two more. That's not enough to build a case for this team to be good, bad, or indifferent, really, and evaluating this team's trajectory on a weekly basis has been a fool's errand thus far. What matters to me is that this game was the best evidence yet that there's something more here than mediocrity to work with, and evidence of the uneven but critical progress I wanted in 2026 . We're likely in for more ups and downs, but if the Falcons can start to truly find their footing and string together these kinds of efforts, there may just be something here. I would like that very much.
If nothing else, that was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Let's dive in to the full recap.
Zachariah Branch badly wanted a big play after his rough two-fumble performance last week, and the electric rookie got it. On his first kickoff return of the game, he got a lane with some nice blocking and flew downfield, picking up 61 yards and setting up the Falcons with excellent field position. He was once again only a small factor on offense, but that was great to see after the Bears game.
Michael Penix Jr. missed a couple of throws along the way, but I was struck by how comfortable he looked in this game. Pressure—which came less frequently, thank you offensive line—didn't seem to rattle him as much as in weeks past, and he made multiple great throws on the move in this game. Unlike last week, where Penix fumbled twice and threw multiple turnover-worthy balls that luckily did not turn into interceptions, he was also quite careful with the ball and threw plenty of shorter passes. The result was a fairly pedestrian stat line—25/34 for 213 yards—but also critically three very well-thrown touchdowns and zero turnovers. He's now thrown three touchdowns in back-to-back games, becoming just one of nine Falcons quarterbacks to do so.
Bijan Robinson had one productive run called back, but this was a real grind-it-out game for a player who came into this one as the obvious focal point for the 49ers defense. It's a credit to Bijan that he turned a rough matchup against a team that knew where he was on every single play into a strong day, with just 3.1 yards per carry on the ground (and 63 yards on 20 carries) but another 59 yards on five catches. He remains the most dangerous player the Falcons bring to bear, and occupies attention that creates opportunities for others even on a "quiet" sort of day.
Khalil Herbert has long been a player I liked more than the NFL did, given his limited opportunities past his early years in Chicago. I think he showed why I like him on Sunday, when he nearly dropped a kickoff but still returned it for close to 40 yards, and on a great catch and run early in the game where he nearly scored a touchdown. If the Falcons have to lean on him for a couple of weeks, I think he's very much up to the task.
The inability to turn Kyle Pitts, who has sticky hands, excellent speed, and difficult-to-defend size, into a real red zone threat in years prior was one of the most baffling subplots in a sea of such subplots for the Falcons from 2021-2025. It appears Tommy Rees and Michael Penix Jr. are on their way to solving that particular conundrum, as Pitts has now caught four touchdowns in the past three games and is just one score away from matching his career high for a single season. While Pitts had a relatively quiet day, he had a few important short grabs, none more than the touchdown.
Drake London spent Sunday battling, too, including a brief exit to be checked for a concussion after a helmet-to-helmet hit. He finished with seven catches for 66 yards—both marks led the team, of course—and his first touchdown grab of 2026. He's on track to break his single season receiving yardage mark this year, and that connection with Penix is the stuff of legends.
The line wasn't perfect, especially against the run, but the Falcons got much better pass protection out of this group today from top to bottom and supplemented it with a healthy dose of tight ends staying in to block, resulting in Penix taking zero hits on the day. This team needed to find an answer for pressure given how shaky Penix has been when he's on his back foot, and to the line's credit and Tommy Rees' credit, they found one.
Maason Smith chained together a couple of great plays in the first quarter. After the 49ers picked up a dispiriting first down on a pass to George Kittle, Smith shed his blocker and took a chip from Kaleon Black and still got to Brock Purdy quickly for a sack. On the very next play, he got his hand up and deflected Purdy's pass, which fell harmlessly for an incompletion. The less heralded member of Atlanta's formidable defensive front, Smith has been effective much of the year but didn't have the big plays. That worked, and he followed it up by helping to force a Kaleon Black fumble in the second quarter.
Za'Darius Smith is just a fun player. He's had a couple of costly penalties in recent weeks, which I do find frustrating given his limited snaps, but Smith also is just a very effective pass rusher. After putting up just 1.5 sacks a year ago, he's at 4.5 sacks already in 2026 following a Purdy takedown.
Kendal Daniels is a player I have a lot of belief in, but I wasn't expecting greatness coming into this one given that he was carted off the field just a week ago. Yet greatness is what we got, as Daniels paired some really nice tackling with the biggest play of the entire game, a stupendous interception that saw him reach up to tip a Purdy pass into the air and then intercept it and return it far enough to get the Falcons into field goal range. He then fell on the fumble Jessie Bates forced to seal the result. It was the best game of his young career, which was already off to a promising start, and an unbelievable performance given the injury a week ago.
Jessie Bates had a phenomenal interception in the third quarter of this one. With Brock Purdy rolling, rolling, rolling and finally deciding to throw it out of bounds, Bates had to make a diving interception and have his foot down while maintaining control. It was a poor decision and throw from Purdy, but an absolutely elite play by Bates to get it, keep it, and give Atlanta the ball back. He then sealed the game by punching out the ball after a big George Kittle grab as the 49ers tried to cling to life down nine points. Bates has been a little up and down this year, but this was a vintage performance and evidence enoug hthat he is still one of the league's elite safeties.
You saw this staff adjust effectively to the opponent and the circumstances. Tommy Rees used his tight ends to create chaos and mismatches and found a way to get Nick Muse a touchdown (!) and Charlie Woerner a direct snap first down run while keeping Michael Penix Jr. in rhythm and firing. Jeff Ulbrich was able to find answers for the 49ers run game as the game went on and make Brock Purdy uncomfortable, and Kevin Stefanski managed the clock well outside of a drive late where simple execution problems doomed the Falcons. This was not an easy opponent, and the fact that the gameplan was a good one after the Falcons got knocked down early is encouraging.
The run defense was ugly early. Christian McCaffrey gashed them on the opening drive, and then Kaelon Black ripped off a 30 yard touchdown run and a few good rushes along the way. Those two had 102 yards on just 19 carries in this one, but an injury that knocked McCaffrey out for a while and limited him the rest of the way and fumbles from Black and Jordan James extinguished San Fran's enthusiasm for the run as they fell behind significantly. Given the opponent this is far from a crushing result, but we are going to see capable run games in the weeks ahead, including Bucky Irving next week and Kenneth Walker in three weeks.
Drake London had a nasty drop on a ball that hit him in the hands, but that's something that doesn't happen very often. I'm a little more concerned about Jahan Dotson, who had a similarly bad drop and also appeared to not know what his route was supposed to be on a deep shot from Penix where he pulled up on the route very early. That could've been a miscommunication that was not entirely his fault, but after a couple of really strong weeks, that wasn't Dotson's finest effort. Hopefully he bounces back in Week 8.
I'm glad adjustments were made, but the Falcons did struggle in a way familiar to their effort against the Ravens, where the obvious players to stop were Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers, and Rashod Bateman, and the Falcons struggled with that task. In this one, George Kittle, McCaffrey, Black, and later Jordan Watkins were the only credible, consistent offensive threats, yet the Falcons were on their back foot immediately against McCaffrey and Black and left Kittle and Watkins open far too frequently in the late first half and second half. I'm not suggesting the Falcons didn't have a plan for these guys, but it points to a need for better execution.
Bad snaps happen but I'm going to gently request that Ryan Neuzil not snap the ball over Penix's head again any time soon.
Special teams was a problem again, even if the two great returns and Folk hitting his field goal tries obscured that to some degree. The Falcons missed their first tackle attempt on multiple returns, Folk missed an extra point, and Jake Bailey badly shanked a crucial late punt to give the 49ers field position they most assuredly did not need. The sheer sloppiness and inconsistency in this phase has been a problem all season long, and that could spell trouble for the team again this year, as well as Folk and special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman in particular.
If you want to be extra critical, you could note how many times the Falcons were bailed out by sloppy 49ers penalties. That is part of the game, of course, but it's not particularly repeatable week-to-week, and suggests Atlanta still has work to do to sustain drives in particular without a lucky break here or there. That's very nitpicky, but it's still likely to rear its head at some point this season if the Falcons find themselves dithering on second and third downs.
Splitting this award between Jessie Bates, who caused two huge turnovers, and Kendal Daniels, who was stellar and had a critical turnover (and fumble recovery on a play Bates) of his own. Tremendous game by both players.
This inconsistent, often frustrating team has the talent and ability to beat the NFC's best. You can season that with caveats about San Francisco's injury picture if you'd like, but it's still an impressive achievement that we hope heralds better days ahead.
The Buccaneers, fresh off a bewildering blowout win over the Panthers, are the next team up. The Falcons have been on a quality run against Tampa Bay, but will need to keep that up to come away with a crucial divisional win.
Thatwassogreat.
