49ers game grades, analysis from Week 15 trap loss to Falcons

The San Francisco 49ers suffered their third loss of the season, this time to the Atlanta Falcons 29-22 in the waning seconds. Niner Noise grades out the all-around effort.

When the 2019 NFL schedule was released, one might have figured the San Francisco 49ers‘ easiest opponent over their final six contests would have been the Atlanta Falcons.

And as things turned out, that assumption was a good one. The Falcons entered their Week 15 road bout with the Niners at 4-9, facing off against head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad poised to clinch a playoff berth for the first time since the 2013 season.

Well, San Francisco clinched a playoff berth in Week 15. But not because of a victory.

No, instead the 49ers suffered an ugly, uninspiring 29-22 loss to the Falcons on Sunday in what could easily be the definition of a trap game.

Now at 11-3, the Niners are again out of the NFC West lead, and the prospects for a top-two seed in the conference just got far more precarious. Instead of handling their business against an inferior opponent, the 49ers let the Falcons hang around long enough, ultimately falling victim to yet another late-game drive culminating in a loss for San Francisco.

“I wouldn’t say it was one specific thing,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo told reporters after the game. “I think it was just things going wrong, us not making plays when we needed to, just little things like that here and there that throughout the course of a game, they add up.”

Pretty much.

The Niners made a number of small mistakes, which added up over the course of the game. Yes, there were things that went well throughout. But there were a number of problematic spots, too.

Niner Noise takes a deeper look at what happened, evaluating each position group and dishing out game grades for the effort.

Sadly, they’re not all too pretty.