Enemy Reaction 2019: Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers doubleheader

The Carolina Panthers are a bad football team and the Seattle Seahawks were able to beat them on the road. The Atlanta Falcons are a bad football team and the San Francisco 49ers failed to beat them at home.

You are in for a treat today, because this is an Enemy Reaction doubleheader. It’s clear that the Panthers fans at Cat Scratch Reader have checked out on the season, so I’m only posting a couple of screenshot reactions. Seattle’s own win is the undercard to the main event of the evening! You are here for the Niners Nation meltdown after a shocking defeat to Atlanta. For what it’s worth, our buddies at The Falcoholic are also not in the mood to talk too much, so all but one of the game thread screenshots are standalone Niners Nation shots.

Let’s get rolling!

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Seahawks at Panthers

Chris Carson opens the scoring (6-0 SEA)

Russell Wilson finds DK Metcalf for the touchdown (14-0 SEA)

Tyler Lockett uncovered for the touchdown (20-7 SEA)

Kyle Allen throws for a second time to his favorite receiver, K.J. Wright (20-10 SEA, 30-24 SEA Final)

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Falcons at 49ers

Falcons fumble the punt, 49ers recover (13-10 SF)

Kyle Juszczyk recovered the fumble, now he gets the touchdown (19-10 SF)

This game is over?!!!

Defensive pass interference leads to Falcons touchdown (19-17 SF)

George Kittle fumbles out of bounds, falls short of the 1st down and leads to 49ers field goal (22-17 SF)

TOUCHDOWN, AUSTIN HOOPER?! (22-17 SF)

Nope, call reversed! (22-17 SF)

THIS ONE IS A TOUCHDOWN BY JULIO JONES!!! (23-22 ATL)

More anger! (29-22 ATL Final)

Post-Game: Robert Saleh deserves some blame (Peter Panacy, Niner Noise)

Soft coverage in a one-score game with the game on the line against an opponent’s No. 1 threat, when there were few other significant threats against which to defend.

Exactly what coerced Saleh to neglect Jones like this on Sunday is anyone’s guess until otherwise explained is troubling. Sure, the 49ers are dealing with some notable injuries on that side of the ball, and it would have been nicer to see San Francisco’s pass rush perform better in key situations, too.

But Saleh still has to manage what he has at his disposal. He didn’t in Week 15, and Jones took full advantage of it.

Why does it matter? Well, many of the teams the 49ers will face between now and into the postseason boast more weaponry than the Falcons with Jones, meaning the play calling and subsequent execution won’t be able to suffer the kinds of gaffes Saleh was ultimately responsible for during this particular bout.

If it’s a learning point, good. If not, that’s a problem.

Post-Game: Humiliating (Grant Cohn, The Press Democrat)

Humiliating loss.

The 49ers, who aspire to win the Super Bowl this season, lost at home to the four-win Atlanta Falcons Sunday afternoon. Lost 29-22 and gave up two touchdowns in the final five seconds. Afterward, the Falcons, who were eliminated from the playoff race weeks ago, did backflips on the 49ers field.

Humiliating.

“We didn’t come out to play nearly as hard as they did,” rookie defensive end Nick Bosa said bluntly at his locker.

The 49ers were coming off the most difficult three-game stretch in NFL regular-season history — they played three teams with excellent records and beat two of them. Plus, the 49ers have two big upcoming games against division rivals, the Rams and Seahawks. The Falcons were the 49ers’ weakest remaining opponent, and the 49ers still lost. Now, they’ve dropped three of their past six games.

Humiliating for a team that started the season so well.

“I don’t think we played with any type of intensity,” tight end George Kittle said.

Post-Game Video: Sure, I’ll take a wild card if it means beating the Dallas Cowboys (The A-Bomb)

Enemy Preaction: Arizona Cardinals

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Thanks for the helping hand, Dan Quinn!

We can enjoy the 49ers’ failures for now but let that be a warning sign for this weekend. Ever since the 58-0 trouncing in 2012, the Cardinals have historically given the Seahawks tons of problems at CenturyLink Field. Arizona boasts one of the best rushing attacks in the league, as evidenced by Kenyan Drake’s four-TD showing against Cleveland, and Kyler Murray is having a pretty solid rookie season. Their defense is still bad but Chandler Jones is as beastly as ever, with a whopping 15 sacks on the season. The Seahawks took care of Arizona pretty easily back in September, we can only hope a repeat happens this Sunday.

Thanks for reading and go ‘Hawks!