49ers film room: What's wrong with the 49ers offense? Clues from the Falcons game

The adjustments are there. The execution is not.

The 49ers offense went stagnant again in a brutal loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, 28-14 in Atlanta on the road for the second straight week. Despite the numerous missing starters on defense, this game felt winnable until it did not, and those moments where it felt unwinnable did not occur with the team down 14-0 early in the first quarter. The 49ers battled their way back to tie the game with two quick scoring drives before Atlanta went into halftime up 21-14.

Then, the slow bleed began. In the second half, the 49ers offense fell flat on its face, scoring zero points where the culprit seemed to be an overall lack of execution. Two dropped passes took away the possibility of putting points on the board, penalties killed other explosive pass plays, and an 8-minute fourth quarter drive netted 100 yards and zero points.

Nothing the Falcons did on defense was anything the 49ers have not seen before. In fact, quite the contrary. The play calling was on point. It was the player execution that killed them. And while players need to be held accountable undoubtedly for their mistakes, Kyle Shanahan, as the head coach is also responsible for the product on the field as he is the leader of the organization and it is on him and his coaching staff to correct the issues before Kansas City.

First half play calling

Outside of a Jeff Wilson fumble, on their second drive in the first quarter, the 49ers were able to stay on script and found success with plays that built off of one another, adding layers of deception and new ways to run old school concepts. In the first half, they faced primarily single high safety coverages, cover-3 and cover-1, and were able to pick apart the underneath zones and fire zone blitzes the Falcons sent at them on their two scoring drives.

One way they did this was by running plays that followed a sequence of steps, not in so much as how they were designed, and there are surface level similarities, but in what they were able to get the defense to do.

First play, 1st quarter, 1st-and-10 @ SF 11, 1:21 remaining

The 49ers are in 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) and motion George Kittle over to the right slot. Jimmy Garoppolo is in the shotgun with Wilson offset to his right.

The play call is a run-pass option bubble swing to Kittle. The 49ers have relied on bubble screen passes in recent weeks and this play is window dressed to look like a screen pass with Deebo Samuel motioning over to block the corner.

The Falcons are in cover-2 with the corner to the field side playing the cloud force corner that Deebo is responsible for blocking. As Deebo motions over, the cloud corner comes up to a press position to be the force player anticipating a quick pass to the flat in his zone.

Garoppolo has a pass read on the RPO and is reading the leverage of outside linebacker Troy Andersen’s (No. 44) movement toward the run or pass. Andersen steps toward the box while reading his run cues so Garoppolo pulls out of the run and throws to Kittle on the edge.

This immediately puts the offense at a 3-on-2 advantage but Andersen recovers quick enough to defeat the block of Brandon Aiyuk as the safety also comes up in support. The play still goes for six yards and now the Falcons have seen the associated pattern distribution of the receivers.

Second play, 2nd quarter, 1st-and-10 @ ATL 41, 13:40 remaining

By now, the fake screen/smoke routes by the offense are causing some hesitation and pulling defenders out of windows so they can get downhill to cover the quick screens.

On this play, a classic Bill Walsh west coast offense staple curl/flat or “hank”, Shanahan pairs the smoke routes on the outside in the flat with curl routes by the inside receivers. The play is being run out of a 11F personnel (one fullback, one tight end).

The Falcons are in cover-3 running another fire zone from the right side.

The play is a simple read for Garoppolo. Read the rotation of the weak safety. The safety flies down to the flat to cover the smoke route because the outside linebacker on that side adds to the rush. The rotation plus the pass rush opens a window for Garoppolo to hit the deep curl route to Aiyuk.

Third play, 2nd quarter, 1st-and-10 @ ATL 29, 12:59 remaining

The offense is now in 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end) and are operating out of the shotgun. Deebo motions over to the right to create a trips formation to the field.

The play call is a screen and go and looks similar to how the blocking looked on the play above with a receiver releasing horizontally before taking off vertically.

The Falcons defense is running a 3-under/3-deep fire zone with a blitz coming off the offense’s right edge.

Garoppolo takes the snap and immediately, an underneath defender jumps the fake screen route knowing that when he sees it, he will probably see the inside receiver widen to try and block him.

Aiyuk widens then continues up the seam but the linebacker is leveraging the throw from the inside and there’s no window. The pass rush starts to get home so Garoppolo scrambles and finds Kittle for a quick dump off on the check-down and Kittle goes for 12 yards.

Second half execution

The play calling was sound in the second half even with the Falcons adjusting to a more 2-deep safety coverage shell, at least until the 8-minute fourth quarter drive when Shanahan showed no urgency to get downfield after a series of setbacks by the offense.

The Falcons predominantly played cover-2, tampa-2, quarters, cover-6, cover-8, etc., in the second half and Shanahan had answers for all of it but the players on the field could not execute.

Dropped passes

Two huge dropped passes took explosive plays off the stat sheet and likely took points off the board. At least one of them might have been a touchdown if not for a small but costly receiver error before the receiver even touched the ball.

First drop, 3rd quarter, 2nd-and-10 @ SF 30, 14:49 remaining

On the second play of the second half for the 49ers, head coach Kyle Shanahan dialed up a shot play on a concept called “Blazer Burst.” Ray Ray McCloud is the receiver running the blazer post. Opposite of him, there is a dagger concept with a dagger route and a deep over route.

The play is a good quarters coverage beater, which is what the Falcons are in. The blazer post lifts the corner and safety while the dagger concept occupies the opposite hash safety so he cannot zone off into the post. Garoppolo may have had the crosser open but he liked what he saw with McCloud having about two yards of separation from the defenders chasing him.

The pass play was doomed before McCloud ever touched the pass. He stumbles a bit deep downfield and flails his arms before eventually getting his fingertips on the ball before it hits the ground. That stumble cost him valuable timing on the route and slowed him down just enough for the pass to be out of reach.

Second drop, 3rd quarter, 2nd-and-6 @ SF 44, 6:59 remaining

The second drop was by tight end Charlie Woerner (No. 89) down the seam between the cover-6 safeties on a levels concept. The two outside receivers are running a levels concept with Woerner running a seam route down the hash. 

The Falcons are in cover-6, quarters to the passing strength, cover-2 to the weak side. The Falcons are rolling their coverage to Kittle on this play where Kittle is the number two receiver in the trips.

The quarter flat defender reroutes Kittle with the safety over the top, leaving Woerner wide open down the seam. In this coverage, the middle hook defender should have run with Woerner down the seam but instead he stayed in the middle of the field. Garoppolo placed the pass right in his hands but Woerner was unable to bring it in.

Offensive line issues

The offensive line issues have been a problem every week, which was to be expected with three new starters at the guard positions and at center. That’s to be expected. Both are inexperienced players with Spencer Burford being a rookie and Aaron Banks not playing at all since the 2021 preseason. Center Jake Brendel is the new face at center too and has had his fair share of issues, including penalties.

Like this one here: an ineligible man downfield, setting the offense back five yards.

Or Brendel and Aaron Banks blocking no one on this screen pass to Deebo, who probably rips off a big yards after catch if they can block the defenders in space. Instead, Banks cannot get there and Brendel appears to be jogging to nowhere.

The Falcons are running a fire zone blitz off the offenses left edge and the play call is a screen right behind it. This should have been a bigger play.

Or this one, getting flagged for holding while the offense rips off a completed 39-yard explosive pass on a nicely designed receiver throwback across the field.

Later on this same drive, Brendel received a 5-yard false start penalty once the 49ers finally crossed mid field almost five minutes after the drive started.

8-minute fourth quarter drive

The infamous eight minute drive by the 49ers has been questioned at length all week by observers and they are not wrong. It was not a Shanahan master-class overall in game management. The play calling was great. There were several play calls throughout the second half that seemed to be called knowing they were going to get certain coverages with certain personnel groups on the field.

That’s not the issue. Several of the above plays were called in that drive. But it took nearly five minutes to get across the 50 yard line and the drive started with just over nine minutes left in the game. It took nearly three minutes to get past their own 20 yard line. It was here that some urgency and tempo was needed. Yet, there was none.

At the end of the drive, they were stalled on the Falcons 18 yard line because they could not pick up one yard in three plays. Those last two plays on that drive were a run to the edge and an incomplete pass. Garoppolo could have picked up the first down on a sneak.

This is a season long trend for the 49ers right now too. There is no urgency when they are trailing. Per Football Outsiders pace/time stats, the 49ers ranked 29th in seconds per play when trailing by six points, 15th when trailing by seven or more, and 29th overall in seconds per play. Shanahan has to correct this.

Outlook

His position coaches need to correct the player mistakes above. The addition of Christian McCaffrey at the 11th hour in the week of preparation will most likely be the spark that this offense needs to get back on track and score some points but some of these trends will continue to be alarming if they do not get corrected and could still hold this offense back.

The addition of McCaffrey also let the 49ers truly get just their best skill position players on the field instead of relying on unreliable options like Woerner, McCloud, and other receivers like Jauan Jennings. That should also fix at least the receiver/skill position problems with drops and a lack of a downfield threat that doesn’t drop passes.

The next few weeks are going to be wild. The pieces are fully in place for this unit to be a much more explosive unit and much less mistake-riddled.