NFL Insights: Falcons' Ups and Downs & Seahawks' Dominance

You know, there was another game here. One of the undefeateds went down. Actually, a couple of the undefeateds went down. 29-20, 49ers and Falcons. I can't get a read, Jacob, on this Falcon team. One week I look at them, they're like incredible. Another week they kind of wobble around. Maybe it's just because the quarterback, Michael Penix, is still getting his footing there. But I was pretty shocked there that what Atlanta had done to them, man. And Drake London was a beast in that football game. Yeah, it's funny. I went into this game and I was looking at it and I was saying to myself, I think the Falcons could win this game. And I'll tell you why. Mike Evans's injury is so important to this 49ers team because of all the stacked injuries they have at receiver. Really throughout the first six weeks of the season, Brock Purdy was playing at such a high level, but he had Mike Evans available as his security blanket. We saw in that second half of that game against the Commanders, when Evans went out, they couldn't move the ball nearly as well. So I kind of looked at this and I said, if he doesn't have Evans, this might not go as well as we're hoping. And I know McCaffrey also got banged up in this one. If he had been able to play, maybe they would have been able to move the ball a little bit better. But I think that the Falcons, to your point, they have a lot of talent, but they are inconsistent. I think that speaks to Michael Penix still being a relatively inexperienced quarterback as a third-year passer. But I like his raw skill set. I think there's going to be some growing pains with them. But man, when he can distribute the ball to his weapons like Drake London, like Kyle Pitts, like Bijan Robinson. Man, this Falcons offense is a force to be reckoned with. And Jeff Ulbrich is doing a fantastic job with that defense. They're getting so many sacks despite not really having, they're kind of a no-name pass rush in a way. And I think Jeff Ulbrich is, you know, we talked about Brian Flores getting head coaching lists. I think people are going to look at Jeff Ulbrich and say, man, this guy's a guy we want to bring in for an interview too. Absolutely. How about the Seahawks? Speaking of defense, what the heck was that, man? They took the whooping board out to Kansas City. I mean, in between the 20s, they were waxing that team. Were you surprised the Seahawks put the wood to them like that, Kansas City? I wasn't surprised the Seahawks won, but I was surprised they dominated in such a way. I think they came in with the perfect plan. Mike McDonald said, we're going to take away Kenneth Walker. You guys are going to do that. We're going to make Patrick Mahomes beat us. And Mahomes wasn't necessarily bad during the game, but this was the first time he's had to carry the team this season. And again, he's coming off that major injury. So this just goes to show how important Kenneth Walker's performance is going to be to the Chiefs moving forward. They need him to be at a high level in order for everything to work, at least until Mahomes gets his legs fully under him. Absolutely. And Sam Darnold played a little bit better.