SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The operation slowed through their No. 1 offensive weapon. The offensive line secured run lanes for him. Their quarterback scrambled when he had to, but relied on his playmakers to do the heavy lifting. When they got in the red zone, they punched it in.
Their defense caused havoc. The front provided ample pressure. The secondary, sticky coverage. They capitalized on turnovers.
Special teams picked up some points when called on here and there.
At the end of four quarters, they were the team that executed best.
The Atlanta Falcons hoped they would be the team I'm describing above.
What's interesting was these facets are what won the day. They are the things that won the San Francisco 49ers the game against the Falcons on "Sunday Night Football."
The 49ers played — and executed — the game the Falcons wanted to.
The Falcons wanted Bijan Robinson to have 200 yards from scrimmage. Not Christian McCaffrey.
They wanted to average 4.5 yards per carry and surpass 150 rushing yards. Not the 49ers.
The Falcons wanted the more even split of run-to-pass ratio.
They wanted disruption on defense, too. To keep their opponent with a less-than-50% third-down conversion rate. But the Falcons were 5-of-11 (45%) on third down, not 9-of-15 (60%) like the 49ers.
The Falcons wanted to be the ones talking about the youth movement of their defense, not the 49ers and the performance they got from their five rookie starters and four second-year players.
Atlanta wanted to be the ones with the ones above .500 on the year. But that is reserved for San Francisco right now. Just like the win on Sunday night was, too.
The Falcons were not without their opportunities to win. The prevailing comment postgame maybe came from Michael Penix Jr. when the starting quarterback said the Falcons are too good to not figure out why they can't punch the ball into the end zone more consistently.
"We have too many good players on this team to not find a way," Penix said.
And he's right. This offense and the pieces that make it up should not be the 28th scoring offense. They know that.
The defense still sits at the top of the charts following the allowance of McCaffrey to run free. They are second in total defense instead of first.
But the platitudes of "should" and "want-to" don't often win games at this level. Execution does.
And on Sunday night, the 49ers actually executed the Falcons' game plan better than the Falcons did themselves.
Take a look inside the Atlanta Falcons' locker room during Week 7 against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium.
