{"id":508366,"date":"2026-10-26T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/508366\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T13:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:00:47","slug":"49ers-grades-brock-purdys-picks-sloppy-defense-yields-loss-to-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/508366\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers grades: Brock Purdy’s picks, sloppy defense yields loss to Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 Here is how the 49ers (6-1)<\/a> graded in Sunday\u2019s 29-20 loss<\/a> to the host Falcons (3-4):<\/p>\n

PASS OFFENSE: D+<\/p>\n

Brock Purdy<\/a> was intercepted twice to match his season total entering the game, and his second pick foiled the 49ers\u2019 fourth-quarter comeback attempt. Purdy didn\u2019t blame his shell of a receiving corps<\/a>, even though a drop in talent and timing was evident without Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel, Demarcus Robinson, De\u2019Zhaun Stribling and Ricky Pearsall. Purdy understandably peppered George Kittle (eight catches, 88 yards) and Christian McCaffrey (six catches, 61 yards). Jordan Watkins had three catches, but he didn\u2019t secure a touchdown catch (replay reversed it) nor an earlier red zone target. Kyle Juszczyk caught Purdy\u2019s lone touchdown pass, a 1-yarder with 5 minutes left. Nine players were targeted, but Christian Kirk was not among them in his 49ers debut.<\/p>\n

RUN OFFENSE: C-<\/p>\n

Statistically, the 49ers averaged an impressive 5.3 yards per carry, and Christian McCaffrey battled through a leg issue. But Kaelon Black\u2019s first fumble since high school halted the offense\u2019s momentum, and it came on the very snap after Jordan James\u2019 own fumble was recovered by Luke Farrell. Both touchdown runs were impressive, with McCaffrey diving over the pile (and 6-foot-6 Colton McKivitz) and Black running 30 yards through a big hole.<\/p>\n

PASS DEFENSE: D<\/p>\n

The 49ers did not sack or intercept Michael Penix and instead allowed him to throw three touchdown passes. With Upton Stout sidelined by a shoulder injury, Jack Jones became a liability as the No. 3 cornerback and got benched after committing two penalties. Nick Bosa missed his fifth straight game and his absence was never more evident than it was in this game.<\/p>\n

RUN DEFENSE: C+<\/p>\n

Fred Warner tackled Bijan Robinson for a 3-yard loss on third down on the Falcons\u2019 opening possession, but Robinson went on to have a significant impact, as expected. He ran for 63 yards (20 carries) and caught all five of his targets for 59 yards. Warner finished with 13 tackles and Dre Greenlaw had 12.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL TEAMS: D<\/p>\n

Eddy Pi\u00f1eiro missed a fourth-quarter extra-point attempt, and he is 21-of-25 on PATs this season; he had no field-goal attempts this game and is 6-for-9 on the season. Pi\u00f1eiro\u2019s game-opening kickoff was returned 60 yards. Corliss Waitman\u2019s lone punt pinned the Falcons at their 11 in the first quarter. Embattled punt returner Jacob Cowing had two fair catches. None of the five kick returns \u2013 four by James, one apiece by Black and Cowing \u2014 went further than 34 yards.<\/p>\n

COACHING: C-<\/p>\n

Kyle Shanahan had good reason to be upset \u2013 at Osa Odighizuwa for jumping offside on fourth down, at the officials for not allowing the 49ers\u2019 substitution time and at his offense for four turnovers. But \u2026 the first-place 49ers are 6-1 at the bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Here is how the 49ers (6-1) graded in Sunday\u2019s 29-20 loss to the host Falcons (3-4):…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[13734,184,7,949,402,181,752,101,296,103,102,197,198,104,106,105,200,127],"class_list":["post-508366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-49ers-hq","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-football","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-south-bay","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508366","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=508366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}