Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired coach Raheem Morris in January after a second straight 8-9 season.<\/p>\n
Less than a month later, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hired Morris as San Francisco\u2019s defensive coordinator. Since taking over, Morris has reshaped the 49ers\u2019 defense, regularly using five-man fronts and blitzing linebackers aggressively.<\/p>\n
So far, the changes are working. The 49ers rank fourth in the NFL in scoring defense and fifth in yards allowed per game.<\/p>\n
Morris faces his former team Sunday in Atlanta, where the 49ers will try to improve to 7-0. With several of their wide receivers injured, Shanahan and quarterback Brock Purdy may need to lean on Morris\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n
What should fans expect at Mercedes-Benz Stadium? Here are our predictions:<\/p>\n
Offensive star of the game<\/p>\n
Kawakami: Brandin Cooks. I\u2019m presuming that Mike Evans will either be out or extremely limited (short week, artificial turf, etc.), which should point major 49ers\u2019 receiving responsibility to \u2026 who now? Cooks hasn\u2019t done much in his first few games this season, but he\u2019s a veteran and he actually had a 101-yard outing with the Bills late last season. A few big catches \u2014 maybe a touchdown? \u2014 in this game could be meaningful.<\/p>\n
Lombardi: Christian McCaffrey. The 49ers put together their best rushing performance of the season against Washington \u2014\u00a0they just didn\u2019t showcase the ground game enough down the stretch. That\u2019ll have to change Sunday, especially because the Falcons (No. 3 rush EPA) are so good on the ground. The 49ers will want to hog the ball with their No. 6 attack. Enter CMC and new father Kaelon Black. <\/p>\n
Defensive star of the game<\/p>\n
Kawakami: Osa Odighizuwa. Let\u2019s put Nick Bosa in the Evans Category this week \u2014 if he plays, it\u2019ll be mostly as a cameo. Better to give Bosa extra time off with the beckoning bye. Better to give every recovering headliner that treatment, really. Without Bosa, Odighizuwa has been the 49ers\u2019 most reliable defensive lineman. I\u2019ll guess that he runs his sack streak to three games in a row on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Lombardi: Dre Greenlaw. Fred Warner joked that Greenlaw just had an extra bye week (he was suspended for the Washington game). So the linebacker should be fresh. He and Warner will be strained by Atlanta star Bijan Robinson, who excels in both the run and pass games out of the backfield. But Greenlaw\u2019s presence will also allow Jaden Dugger to move back to a specialty \u201cbig nickel\u201d alignment that should further bolster the 49ers\u2019 pass rush. <\/p>\n
The 49ers\u2019 potential X factor<\/p>\n
Kawakami: Eddy Pi\u00f1eiro revival tour. He sure could use a big moment or two after his three extra-point and three field-goal (albeit all from 50 yards or longer) misses. This game might feel similar to the 49ers\u2019 tense 16-15 victory over Arizona last year, when Pi\u00f1eiro, in his second week with the team, banged in all three FGs tries including the walk-off 35-yarder.<\/p>\n
Lombardi: Christian Kirk. The veteran receiver is in line to make his 49ers debut following a long battle with a calf strain. Don\u2019t sleep on Kirk; he would\u2019ve been the 49ers\u2019 fastest offensive ballcarrier last season. Without him, the 49ers would likely be down their top six receivers. With Kirk, at least they\u2019ll have one of their top six available. Hey, it\u2019s something. <\/p>\n
The key stat to track<\/p>\n
Kawakami: Turnover differential. The 49ers are a middling +1 in turnover differential this season. The Falcons are (yikes!) -7, second-worst mark in the league. The 49ers need to play a clean game in this one, and they\u2019re fully capable of it. I don\u2019t think the Falcons are \u2014 Michael Penix Jr. will put some balls up for grabs.<\/p>\n
Lombardi: Play count and time of possession. This will be a tractor pull. Or one can call it a tug-of-war. Both defenses can keep the ball in front of them and the 49ers\u2019 dearth of outside weapons will feed to the bar-fight style. Since two strong running games will be Sunday\u2019s primary determinants, the rushing attack that has more chances to grind will have the edge. Convert those third downs and stay on the field to win the arm-wrestling match. <\/p>\n
Game prediction<\/p>\n
Kawakami: 49ers 23, Falcons 21. This is an obvious potential trap game for the 49ers, but probably too obvious. Even if the 49ers sit almost every player with an injury question mark and muddle through most of this 10 a.m. body-clock start, I think their proud veterans will squeeze out a victory. <\/p>\n
Lombardi: Falcons 20, 49ers 19. Short week. Early body clock start. Mass receiver injuries and an opponent capable of taking the air out of the 49ers\u2019 pass rush and the game with its rushing attack. The ingredients for an upset are there. The 49ers won\u2019t lose often this season, but they will enter their bye week at 6-1 \u2014\u00a0unless Purdy delivers another sensational special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired coach Raheem Morris in January after a second straight 8-9 season. Less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[879,8757,299,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,127],"class_list":["post-505441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brock-purdy","tag-george-kittle","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}