49ers vs. Falcons: Week 15 Preview for San Francisco
By Peter Panacy
Game Information
Despite this bout being an East Coast game, the 49ers and Falcons will kick off at 4:05 p.m. ET on Fox.
To see if the game will broadcast in your area, check out 49ers.com’s game listing.
Fans wishing to stream the game can do so by subscribing to NFL Game Pass.
The days of San Francisco being favored are over now, and Odds Shark lists the Falcons as 13-point favorites over the Niners. And the 40.2 to 10.8 predicted score sounds about right too.
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Why the Falcons Win
Well, they show up.
OK, let’s get more serious. Atlanta doesn’t need its defense to do much. The 49ers are so offensively inept, the Falcons can stay in base formation and simply try to stop Carlos Hyde and the running game as much as possible.
Offensively, there’s little the Niners can do to stop quarterback Matt Ryan and the aerial attack.
Why the 49ers Win
Atlanta would have to have one of those cough-up games we saw the team have last year — a game in which nothing goes right on either side of the ball.
Match that with a better-than-adequate effort from both San Francisco’s offense and defense, and there’s the slightest of chances the 49ers keep it close enough to make it interesting into the fourth quarter.
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And who knows? Maybe kicker Phil Dawson makes up for those two missed field goals that haunted San Francisco a week ago.