49ers Should Have Little Difficulty In Grounding The Falcons

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Now that the Michael Crabtree hysteria has calmed down a bit — at least until he suits up in two weeks at Houston — the San Francisco 49ers and their fans can shift their attention to the trivial matter of Sunday's game versus the 2-1 Atlanta Falcons.

On the surface this looks like a trap game for the local boys.

For one thing, while it's true that the Falcons were NFC West basement-dwellers during the Joe Montana glory days, they no longer reside in our humble little division, and that can't be good.

Last year the 49ers went .500 in the division, but just .400 outside of it, and considering that 10 of 16 are against intra-division foes, that's not where you want to be.

So far this season that trend has played out even more dramatically. 3-0 in the division, 0-1 outside of it, albeit in heartbreaking, last-second fashion at Minnesota.

For another, the Falcons are considered to be pretty good, having gone 11-5 last year with a rookie quarterback in Matt Ryan and a "bowling ball" as 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis described him, in running back Michael Turner.

Then there's the always-thoughtful sportswriter angle; that the distraction of Crabtree's signing will cause the team to lose its focus and not take the Falcons as seriously as they otherwise would have.

Finally, there's the pragmatic school of thought, that in the long run a loss in this game would be far more beneficial than a win.

With the "Bye" coming up on the schedule, a potentially 4-1 team would spend the off week sitting on their fannies and listening to folks tell them how good they are, while a 3-2 team would spend the break frothing at the mouth to avenge themselves.

Or so that theory goes.

49ers coach Mike Singletary dismissed this last notion as patently absurd.

"Our guys understand where we are and that we're not where we want to be," he said.

"We don't even have time to listen to anyone say how great we are, and really I can't even imagine having that conversation with them."

Which sounds all fine and dandy, but let's get to 4-1 first and find out afterward what happens with the team's attitude, just for kicks.

It says here that the 49ers will indeed pull the game out, and not because there is anything so inherently wonderful about them.

Rather, it will be because the Falcons are a comically overrated outfit that doesn't do anything all that well.

Only two teams in the NFL rank no better than 20th in any of the six major team statistical categories: Run, Pass, and Total Offense, and Run, Pass, and Total Defense.

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