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Fred Warner wasn’t in the huddle or on the sideline, but the injured 49ers linebacker still found a way to fire up his teammates and the crowd at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday night.
With the 49ers trailing 3-0 midway through the second quarter, cameras panned to Warner and his family, sitting in the suite level, where the All-Pro flexed his biceps on the massive video board and urged everyone to “Turn that s— up.”
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Thirteen plays and 80 yards later, the 49ers’ offense made sure Warner’s words were heard loud and clear when Christian McCaffrey punched in a 1-yard touchdown run that gave San Francisco its first lead en route to a 20-10 win.
A dislocated and fractured ankle forced Warner to miss just the second game of his eight-year NFL career, but a defense led by pass rusher Bryce Huff was able to hold up long enough to push the 49ers to 5-2 and keep the team tied atop the NFC West.
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Section 415: After the 49ers’ 4-1 start, what’s a realistic outcome for this season?
A man wearing a black 49ers cap and white NFL shirt speaks, gesturing with his right hand near a microphone. Red and black helmet images frame him.
With Warner and Nick Bosa out for the season and quarterback Brock Purdy missing five of the first seven games due to a toe injury, McCaffrey has been the 49ers’ most important – and most valuable – player. The running back entered Sunday’s matchup averaging a career-low 3.1 yards per carry, but led the team with 46 receptions for 444 yards and three touchdowns, which helped offset injury absences from Brandon Aiyuk, Ricky Pearsall, and Jauan Jennings.
McCaffrey had been limited to fewer than 70 rushing yards in each of the 49ers’ first six games in large part because of a struggling offensive line, but finally broke through against the Falcons with a 129-yard effort on 24 carries.
Despite all of McCaffrey’s success on the ground on Sunday, his biggest contribution to the 49ers’ win still came through the air. With San Francisco facing 3rd down and 13 at the Falcons’ 21-yard line, 49ers quarterback Mac Jones hit McCaffrey for a 17-yard gain to extend its game-sealing drive.
On the very next play, McCaffrey took a handoff from Jones and bulldozed his way into the end zone with a second effort push provided by his offensive line to put the game away.
The 4-yard touchdown run capped off an 11-play, 64-yard drive that took nearly six minutes off the clock and rewarded San Francisco’s inexperienced defense with a lengthy late-game rest.
Robert Saleh’s unit, which held Atlanta to two scores, is without Warner and Nick Bosa for the remainder of the season. It started Sunday’s game without rookie nickel cornerback Upton Stout and pass rusher Yetur Gross-Matos, and before halftime, the 49ers lost second-year corner Renardo Green to a toe injury.
The group has been decimated by injuries and realistically can’t afford to lose any more depth, but against Atlanta, the replacements delivered game-changing plays.
Perhaps the biggest defensive play of the night came on 4th down and 1 at the 49ers’ 35-yard line with just under nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. After Jordan Elliott stuffed Bijan Robinson on a toss play on 3rd and 1, nickel corner Chase Lucas stepped in front of a quick out intended for Drake London and batted the pass down to give the 49ers possession.
That’s when Jones and McCaffrey started the run-heavy touchdown drive. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the all-out effort from Saleh’s defense, which was anchored by Huff for much of the evening.
Three plays after McCaffrey’s second-quarter touchdown, Huff raced past Falcons right tackle Elijah Wilkinson, delivering a crushing blow to quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who fumbled the ball and watched helplessly as rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins fell on it.
The 49ers’ offense couldn’t move the ball much immediately afterward, but the three yards it did gain proved critical when kicker Eddy Piñeiro’s 55-yard field goal barely sailed over the crossbar.
Piñeiro made both of his field goal attempts on Sunday and is now a perfect 17-for-17 to start his 49ers career.
The Falcons had an opportunity to cut into the 49ers’ lead before halftime, but Huff forced his way into the backfield again, looping across the entire offensive line to bring pressure in Penix’s face, forcing him to throw the ball away. The errant toss backfired in spectacular fashion for Atlanta as Penix was assessed an intentional grounding penalty, which carried a 10-second runoff with exactly 10 seconds remaining on the first half game clock.
Instead of taking another shot at the end zone or kicking a field goal, Atlanta’s drive ended without points.
Reporter David Lombardi will update this story after gathering intel from the 49ers’ locker room. For now, here are our early takeaways.
The resurrection of the run game
That was the big-boy touchdown run from McCaffrey heard around the Bay Area — and it meant the world for a 49ers’ offense starved for its usual stabilizing backbone, the run game.
The 49ers finished with 174 yards on 39 carries. McCaffrey had 129 yards on 24 carries — good for 5.4 yards per rush. All those numbers were season-highs.
By halftime, the 49ers had racked up 100 rushing yards on 17 carries. That was a bigger rushing output than any of previous five games.
What changed on Sunday? For starters, the NFL’s biggest leverage piece was back. That’s tight end George Kittle. He’s not yet in great shape, but Kittle’s presence alone made a massive spacing difference for the 49ers. Defenses must respect his explosive receiving ability and he’s a top-notch blocker.
And that, of course, allowed McCaffrey to show that he indeed has not lost a step. His monstrous touchdown was set up by the 3rd-and-13 reception that began with McCaffrey lined up… six yards behind the line of scrimmage. The man is elite.
In the long-term, this resurrection of the run game is a huge win for a 49ers team that had led the league in passing attempts — and QB injuries — through six weeks. The 49ers had entered averaging only 3.1 yards per carry, by far the lowest mark of coach Kyle Shanahan’s tenure.
That number must hover about 4.0 yards per carry for the 49ers offense to be sustainably explosive this season. Against the Falcons, the 49ers registered 4.5 yards per carry.
The 49ers’ defense is a gas can — that can explode in their favor
There is no viable pathway to defensive dominance in 2025, even if the 49ers swing a trade. It’s clear that they’ve simply lost too much and are too young at remaining positions to be a unit that puts offenses into strangleholds for 60 minutes.
But although Atlanta ripped a bevy of big plays, the 49ers — true to 2025 form — were ready in the clutch. Huff’s seismic strip sack in the first half tilted the game in the 49ers’ favor. And then Lucas, filling in for the injured Stout, surged to deflect the ball from London in crunch time.
On the Falcons’ last gasp, the 49ers really started having fun. With no run threat to worry about, Huff and Co. pinned their ears back as they bolted after Penix. He stood no chance at that point. Remember, Huff has the fastest get-off in the NFL — and it shined on Sunday night.