Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media following the 49ers Week 6 loss about how San Francisco just can’t make as many errors as they made today and expect to win games.
ATLANTA — Jimmy Garoppolo believes the 49ers ultimately beat themselves in their 28-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
No discredit to the Falcons and their ability to stop the 49ers on the field, but Garoppolo knows there were several mistakes that contributed to the offense’s inability to score in the second half.
Garoppolo finished the day completing 29 of his 41 attempts for 296 yards. He threw two touchdowns passes to Brandon Aiyuk and was intercepted twice. His first interception came at the end of the first half on a "Hail Mary” type of pass intended for Deebo Samuel in an attempt to give the 49ers a chance to score before halftime.
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Garoppolo’s second interception occurred at the beginning of the fourth quarter on a tipped pass intended for Samuel and initially both the quarterback and the nearby referee thought there would be a call for defensive pass interference. But there was no foul on the play, and while the Falcons didn't score on the ensuing drive, it took more than four valuable minutes off of the clock.
“Self-inflicted wounds was the story of the day,” Garoppolo said after the game. “Those are correctable, but you can’t have as many as we had out there. When you do have them, you have to overcome it, and we didn’t do that today.”
The Falcons got off to a hot start with a lengthy touchdown drive and on a subsequent scoop-and-score play when Jeff Wilson Jr. fumbled on the 49ers' own 20-yard line. The 49ers fought back, scoring touchdowns on their next two drives but that was the last time they saw the end zone on Sunday.
“Putting up zero points in the second half, that’s not us,” Garoppolo said. “We got to get back to the drawing board, get back to our style of football, and I think rest will take care of itself. We can’t put out a performance like this today.”
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While Garoppolo said the criticism starts with him first, his offensive counterparts made some incredibly crushing mistakes that had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Garoppolo threw a well targeted pass to receiver Ray-Ray McCloud that the receiver couldn’t hold into and later, an equally well-placed pass to tight end Charlie Woerner also was dropped.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, when the 49ers were in their two-minute drill, a perfectly-placed deep pass to Brandon Aiyuk near the sideline was nullified by a holding penalty committed by center Jake Brendel.
“I thought we had a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them,” Garoppolo said. “Self-inflicted mistakes and it wasn’t just one guy or one position. It starts with myself, and I think we just, one after another, kept making mistakes and when you do that, it adds up to a game like this.”
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The 49ers have a long flight home to team headquarters in Santa Clara where they will have to regroup and refocus before the Kansas City Chiefs come to town for a Week 7 matchup at Levi's Stadium.