Atlanta Falcons fantasy football outlook after Week 9

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Blaine Gabbert, making his first start for the San Francisco 49ers, was a game-manager in the Niners’ 17-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, keeping things simple while dissecting the Falcons’ defense.

Or maybe his relationship with the 49ers is beyond fix and the Gabbert era officially spells the end of Kaepernick in San Francisco.

Jim Tomsula’s team had just pulled off a hard-to-come-by victory against a contender and still found himself noncommittal about his starting quarterback for the next game.

The Falcons flopped against a patchwork opponent with new faces all over the field, losing consecutive games for the first time all season in Sunday’s 17-16 defeat to the 49ers. “He said they just watched a lot of film and they set the edges on us and wasn’t going to let me go outside and I respect that”.

San Francisco extended its lead to 10-6 on Phil Dawson’s 44-yard field goal with 3:20 left in the half, and the 49ers made it 17-6 when Gabbert fired an 11-yard touchdown pass to Celek with 1:11 showing.

“It was a play we’ve been working on all week, that we’d go to in crunchtime”, Gabbert said.

Gabbert threw a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to Garrett Celek, and the defense stood its ground down the stretch to hold off the Falcons (6-3). The defense allowed running backs Shaun Draughn, who was signed off the street this past week, and Kendall Gaskins, a former practice squad player, to have solid days.

Gabbert was starting for the first time since 2013 in place of the benched Colin Kaepernick. Unfortunately, first-year coach Dan Quinn sent his offense the wrong message as he clearly thought they couldn’t bust in to the endzone from a little over a yard away.

Gabbert’s rare flaws included two interceptions, the final one coming with 7:14 remaining when he tried to hit Vance McDonald, shortly after a fourth-down conversion near midfield. He threw 185 yards on 15 of 25 passing, along with two touchdowns and two interceptions. “We didn’t find a way to get into the end zone”.

In September, Jones became the first Falcon to start a season with three straight 100-yard receiving games and the first player in National Football League history with at least 135 receiving yards in each of his team’s first three games while setting a record for the most receptions three games into a season.

Celek isn’t going to rival Tyler Eifert or Rob Gronkowski for elite status, but he could be a helpful addition as you look to consolidate your roster for a playoff push. Linebacker NaVorro Bowman led the way with seven tackles, including two tackles for loss and a sack. There were a few good play calls, but we just couldn’t get it in. “It feels good to get a win again”. If you want the 49ers to mail the season in and have a better pick, then you hope to see Kaepernick back in the game. “That’s part of the job that goes with it. I kind of had a sequence of how this would go to win the game, and it didn’t work out that way today”. Falcons backup S Robenson Therezie sustained a hamstring injury in the first quarter and did not return. Atlanta’s lone touchdown for the game came from Devonta Freeman on a 17-yard catch in the second quarter.