"Ten yards. That's how close 49ers cornerback Nate Clements got to scoring a win-sealing touchdown with 90 seconds left. Fifty yards. That's how far Falcons cornerback Roddy White ran from behind Clements before he punched the ball out of his unlocked arm for a turnover. And 0-4. That's the 49ers' record after their gassed defense did nothing to stop the Falcons from marching to a game-winning field goal with two seconds left for a 16-14 victory Sunday at the Georgia Dome. "We are our own worst enemy," inside linebacker Patrick Willis said. "It's things we're doing to ourselves that's killing us. "The day we can find out how to overcome ourselves will be the day we turn this around." Sunday was not that day, which makes it no different than any other day of the 0-4 season. When the 49ers are bad, they are blowout bad, which is bad enough. But even when they're good, they're still not good enough to win. Blame a 49ers offense that played shutout football for the final 50 minutes, 57 seconds. This, after new offensive coordinator Mike Johnson called the team's first game-opening touchdown drive since Game 15 of the 2008 season. Single out quarterback Alex Smith for throwing two interceptions on the Atlanta half of the field - one foolish jumper-like screen near the end of the first half, and one in which he got fooled by a trap defense early in the second half. Accuse the offensive line for letting Smith get pressured into an intentional grounding that knocked the 49ers out of field-goal range late in the fourth quarter, keeping the Falcons within a field goal's reach. Ultimately, the 49ers' defense failed to make a 14-0 first quarter lead stick." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/04/SP5L1FNQ9K.DTL
