ATLANTA — It felt like two entirely different games in the same afternoon for both Matt Ryan and the 49ers’ defense.
After torching San Francisco in the first half of the NFC Championship Game to the tune of 271 yards and three touchdowns through the air, Ryan gave more ammunition to his legion of skeptics in the second half as the Niners rallied for a 28-24 victory over the Falcons at the Georgia Dome.
But if that counts as another playoff choke by the Atlanta quarterback, the fingerprints of San Francisco’s defense could be found all over his his neck.
Led by linebacker Patrick Willis and a pass rush that seemed to find a second wind in the second half, the 49ers made the red-hot Ryan suddenly look average after building a 17-0 lead in the game’s first 15 minutes and then pounced on his mistakes.
The bottom line was stark: San Francisco’s defense pitched a shutout in the second half after carrying a 24-14 deficit into intermission.
“We felt that pressure [after falling behind by 17 points], but as we say in our locker room, when there’s pressure, we give more pressure right back,” Niners safety Donte Whitner said. “We sucked it up and got the job done.”
San Francisco’s most impressive defensive adjustment came against wide receiver Julio Jones, who had battered the 49ers with a first-half line that looked like a misprint — seven catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
Jones was having his way with veteran cornerback Tarell Brown, including a 46-yard TD grab on the opening possession — the longest scoring pass allowed all season by the 49ers, but San Francisco adjusted and gave Brown plenty of help in the second half.
As a result, Jones managed just four catches for a very harmless 47 yards in the second half while Colin Kaepernick and the Niners’ offense heated up.
The Falcons credited San Francisco defensive coordinator Vic Fangio for adjusting his scheme after halftime, but Niners defensive end Aldon Smith — who had a key recovery of a muffed Ryan snap in San Francisco territory late in the third quarter — credited his defense’s fortitude.
“It’s all about believing in who’s on your team,” Smith said. “We could have pushed the panic button, but we believe in each other and we know what we’re capable of. We got ourselves together at halftime.”
The turning point for San Francisco’s defense appeared to come midway through the third quarter, when Ryan — who had played a flawless game to that point — was picked off by Niners cornerback Chris Culliver at the 49er 38 moments after the Niners had cut the Atlanta lead to 24-21.
Ryan started to feel heat on practically every dropback after that, and he played like it. He ended up throwing for just 125 yards after the 271-yard first half, and Ryan’s fourth-down incompletion at the San Francisco 10 that all but ended the game seemed to encapsulate his second half.
“To win in the playoffs, you have to make the plays on third down and fourth down in the red zone,” said Ryan, who fell to 1-4 in the postseason. “We didn’t make them. We just didn’t make those plays.”