What we learned from 49ers dominant win over Falcons

Takeaway No. 4: Ambry Thomas isn’t ready, but…

Part of Atlanta’s modus operandi was to target Niners rookie cornerback Ambry Thomas, making his second start of the year in place of the injured Emmanuel Moseley, as much as possible.

And for the most part, it worked.

Thomas was regularly abused by Falcons pass-catchers Russell Gage and Kyle Pitts, including this impressive toss from Matt Ryan to Gage:

It’ll be a hot trend to throw shade at Thomas, who was wholly unequal to matching up against his competition and didn’t do much of anything to suggest he’s a reliable member of an otherwise questionable San Francisco cornerback room.

However, if we can be fair to Thomas at least a little bit, nearly every one of his targets saw Thomas in decent position to make a play, only lacking the ability to attack the catch point, which was sorely missing.

Thomas wasn’t beaten terribly in footwork, and he largely stayed in stride with his assignments.

That’s a modest improvement, even though the first-year pro who opted out of his 2020 campaign still has a long, long way to go before sniffing a regular starting job.