SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- For as ugly, sluggish and disappointing as the San Francisco 49ers' loss to the Atlanta Falcons was on Sunday, there were a couple of pieces of good news to take away -- even if the team wasn't up for hearing them in the moments after the loss.

First, the Niners clinched a playoff berth. In itself, that's a good thing for any team, especially one that hasn't been to the postseason since 2013.

Second, and perhaps more important, the 49ers still remain in total control of their positioning in the NFC playoff picture as they head into the final two weeks. If they can beat the Los Angeles Rams at home and then the Seattle Seahawks on the road the following week, the Niners will still be NFC West division champions, hold the No. 1 seed in the NFC and have home-field advantage in the playoffs.

In those regards, Sunday's loss to lowly Atlanta, which entered Sunday at 4-9, doesn't mean much. In the bigger picture, it should serve as an alarming reminder that nothing is to be taken for granted and as the games get bigger and mean more, there's no time to take your foot off the gas.

"If we don't play at our level, like we played last week or like we played all season, anybody can get beat on any Sunday," tight end George Kittle said. "And we definitely have to play better. I don't think that we played at any type of intensity like we've been playing all year, and we've got to figure that out."

"I hope our team learns from this game that if we don't bring the intensity then we will be [headed to] a quick season ending."

At 11-3, the 49ers are sitting at the No. 5 spot in the NFC playoffs and would have to hit the road for a wild-card game if the season ended today. Of course, it doesn't, but the Niners now have little margin for error over the next two weeks, lest they want to find themselves on the bumpiest road possible toward a Super Bowl bid.

Before Sunday, San Francisco had just completed the toughest three-game stretch for any team this late in the season in the Super Bowl era, playing three straight teams with an .800 or better winning percentage. The Niners proved capable of slugging it out against the best of the best, obliterating the Green Bay Packers at home before losing on a last-second field goal at Baltimore and outlasting the New Orleans Saints in a high-octane shootout that left both teams nursing a variety of injuries.

As the Niners learned against the Falcons, every team is battling attrition at this point and the teams that go on deep postseason runs are often the ones who best handle themselves in those big games, even when they aren't at full strength.

"This loss doesn't define our season going forward," left tackle Joe Staley said. "This isn't something that is going to linger in this locker room. It is a bad loss, and credit to them. Obviously, we would love to be sitting here with a win. It would be a different story. We are going to learn from this, we are going to own it and then have one hell of a week of practice, and that is all we can do."

There are a handful of paths remaining for the Niners as they angle for the division crown and top spot in the NFC. If the Niners stumble against the Rams next week, their chances to win the division actually won’t go away, though it would put a bye and a top-two seed in peril. A San Francisco loss combined with a Seahawks win in Week 16 would still leave the Niners needing to win in Seattle to win the division, which would remain possible via the strength of victory tiebreaker.

But the simplest scenario to understand is also the hardest to execute: beating the Rams and Seahawks in the next two weeks. Do that and the road to the Super Bowl runs through Levi's Stadium.

"When it's in your control, it's a good feeling," Kittle said. "You don't have to rely on anybody else to lose. It's our first time in the position. ... I think we'll definitely be back to that, and hopefully this lights a little bit of a fire under us."