The San Francisco 49ers are undefeated no more, as they fell 29-20 to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, dropping to 6-1 heading into the bye week.
It was not a pretty game by any means for the 49ers, who dealt with too many penalties and turnovers that took the game out of their hands. Still, it was an outing where San Francisco was quite beaten up, even forcing them to play without the regular number of players on game day.
In the weekly power rankings, the 49ers have been mainstays at the top spot for
weeks. However, after a loss, they’ve finally fallen from the top rank in some places.
Here are the Week 8 NFL Power Rankings and where the 49ers stand among the consensus.
ESPN
Interestingly enough, ESPN’s power rankings is one of the lone spots that kept the 49ers at No. 1, even after the loss.
The Buffalo Bills moved up one spot to No. 2 behind them. So did the Minnesota Vikings to No. 3, while the Kansas City Chiefs fell from No. 2 to No. 4 after losing to the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle, even at 4-3, rounded things out at No. 5.
Rounding out the top ten were the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, and New England Patriots.
FOX Sports
After being at No. 1, FOX Sports’s Ralph Vacciano dropped San Francisco all the way to No. 5 in his latest power rankings.
“I admittedly feel a little bad about dropping the 49ers this far against a Falcons team that has been impressive at times over the past few weeks, especially since I still suspect this is the best team in football — you know, in those rare moments when they’re mostly healthy,” Vacciano wrote.
“But there’s no avoiding the reality that they are incredibly banged up, and they added RB Christian McCaffrey to their injury list with a calf injury. Mostly, though, I’m concerned about this: They’ve turned the ball over eight times in the past three games, including four on Sunday. They’re too good to be that careless with the ball.”
Ahead of the 49ers are the Denver Broncos (No. 4), Kansas City Chiefs (No. 3), Minnesota Vikings (No. 2), and Buffalo Bills (No. 1).
CBS Sports
In Pete Prisco’s power rankings, the 49ers dropped, but not too far, as they moved down to No. 3 after the loss.
“They lost for the first time this season at Atlanta, and it was four turnovers that did them in Sunday,” Prisco wrote. “They head to their bye in need of key players getting healthy when they return.”
Here, only the Minnesota Vikings, who remain undefeated, and the Buffalo Bills were ahead of the 49ers, while the Chiefs and Bengals remained behind San Francisco.
Yahoo Sports
Here, even with the loss, Yahoo Sports’s Frank Schwab still has the 49ers as the No. 1 team in the NFL.
“The bye is coming at a good time for the 49ers. One of the reasons Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel Sr., Nick Bosa and others might have been inactive Sunday was because the bye would give them an extra week of rest before their return. Niners tight end George Kittle was unwilling to use the injuries as an excuse for the loss to the Falcons.”
“It’s the NFL, injuries happen,” Kittle told NBC Sports Bay Area. “It’s just how much depth do you have, how many vets do you have that can stay healthy that can like continue to keep the elevation, like the standard of play up, you know, that’s all that really matters.”
Overall, the Niners are still considered, at worst, a top-five team with their rough loss on Sunday, and now get the bye week to regroup and regain some key pieces from injury.
