Who would have thought a Blaine Gabbert-led 49ers team could beat the Falcons? Gabbert apparently did.
A confident-looking Gabbert led the 49ers’ offense effectively today in San Francisco, engineering an impressive 17-16 win over the favored Falcons. Gabbert’s numbers only looked OK, but he was better than the numbers suggest, as the 49ers’ receivers dropped several good passes. Gabbert looked good, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t keep the starting quarterback job over Colin Kaepernick.
The Falcons drop to 6-3 and have looked very unimpressive for the last month after starting the season 5-0. Coach Dan Quinn will face plenty of criticism for his decision to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal with the Falcons trailing 17-13 late in the fourth quarter. The Falcons never got the ball back after that.
Although Atlanta is still in good position to compete for a wild-card berth in the NFC, the Falcons have to be concerned with the way they’ve played in recent weeks. Atlanta does not look like a good football team right now.
The 49ers aren’t a good football team either, and they don’t have a good quarterback. But right now, Gabbert looks better than Kaepernick.