49ers 28, Falcons 24
San Francisco’s stop unit looked terrible early on, however. Ryan made throws of 13, 16 and 46 yards on the opening drive. He also converted a 3rd-and-10 on the second possession with a 27-yarder. Julio Jones accumulated 100 receiving yards two-thirds of the way through the first quarter. At the end of the period, the Falcons had the 49ers outgained, 182 to minus-2.
It looked like the Falcons, ahead 17-0, would be able to run away with this contest, but as Joe Buck warned, Atlanta was up 20-0 last week and managed to blow the lead. That happened again, as Colin Kaepernick was unstoppable in the second half, going 7-of-9 for 134 yards after the break. Kaepernick didn’t have the unbelievable statistical performance he posted last week, but he did a great job of leading the 49ers back after a sluggish start. He finished 16-of-21 for 233 yards and a touchdown. He did most of his work aerially, rushing just twice for 21 yards.
Kaepernick needs to improve his clock management. He was guilty of two delay-of-game infractions in this contest, including one that allowed Ryan to have a last-second Hail Mary attempt. Kaepernick was also nearly intercepted once in the first quarter.
Ryan threw exclusively to only three players; in fact, a fourth target (Harry Douglas) finally caught a pass when there were seven minutes remaining in regulation. Jones (11-182, 2 TDs), White (7-100) and Tony Gonzalez (8-78, TD) dominated the stat sheet.
Ravens 28, Patriots 13
The first Patriot to go down was Aqib Talib. The mid-season signing had great coverage on Anquan Boldin early on, and that’s why Joe Flacco began the contest just 1-of-6. Talib grabbed his hamstring after an incompletion and then headed to the locker room. He returned to the sidelines, but never saw the field again. Later in the first half, safety Patrick Chung was knocked out after Baltimore’s first touchdown.
Talib and Chung being out made life extremely easy for Flacco, who finished 21-of-36 for 240 yards and three touchdowns. He was 20-of-30 for 223 yards following that slow start, hitting so many key throws. It seemed like Bill Belichick had a great game plan in place for stopping Flacco, but that was thrown out the window when two starters in his secondary went down.
The third injury was to Stevan Ridley, who was knocked out with a concussion during a fierce Bernard Pollard hit. Ridley (18 carries, 70 yards) simply collapsed and lost control of the football as a consequence. The Ravens pounced on it and would go on to score a touchdown to put the game out of reach.
By the way, how happy will Patriot fans be when Pollard retires? He’s already been responsible for tearing the ACLs of Tom Brady and Wes Welker, and he also caused an injury to Rob Gronkowski last year. Now, Ridley was victimized. He’s a monster.
Brady’s overall numbers weren’t bad – 29-of-54, 320 yards, one touchdown and the picks – but he made several uncharacteristic mental mistakes outside of the poor throws. He squandered an opportunity to get into the end zone at the end of the first half when he was too hesitant to take a timeout as the clock was running out. There was finally a stoppage with four seconds remaining, so New England had to settle for a field goal.
I also don’t understand why Brady refused to run on a key fourth down in the final quarter. All he had to do was outrun Haloti Ngata for four yards on a 4th-and-4, but he instead skipped a weak throw to no one in particular. It’s almost as if he quit.
For more thoughts, check out my updated NFL Power Rankings, which will be posted Tuesday morning.
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