The Seattle Seahawks might be having a rough season, but it’s good that the San Francisco 49ers, now back at the bottom of the NFC West, are there to lend a helping hand, simply rolling out the red carpet and losing at home 20-3 to the Seahawks.
Embarrassing might be the right word for the offensive ineptitude shown by the 49ers offense, although it had a lot to do with the Seahawks defense. The 49ers got 8 first downs the entire game, finishing with only 142 yards of offense. The Seahawks even turned the ball over twice, and still managed to have over 38 minutes of possession. While their offense was sluggish as always, the defense made the 49ers look like a team that doesn’t even belong in the same league.
The 49ers scored 3 points off of a 76-yard drive that resulted in a field goal. The rest? Bradley Pinion getting to punt. Nine times. The Seahawks weren’t exactly smooth offensively with Wilson’s two interceptions, but with the Niners simply incapable of moving the chains, it really didn’t matter. Colin Kaepernick finished with 13-of-24 for 124 yards and didn’t go off running even once. Reggie Bush and Carlos Hyde combined for 61 yards on 15 carries.
The Seahawks tried to see this win as a return to formidable defense, and hopefully their winning ways, improving to 3-4 and winning on the road for the first time after four consecutive losses. Marshawn Lynch had his best performance of the season with 122 yards and a touchdown to open the game, leading the group that got 176 yards on the ground. Wilson did complete 18-of-24 passes for 235 yards and threw one touchdown pass to Tyler Lockett at the end of the first half. When that one connected, it was quite obvious the 49ers were done.
Their fans didn’t seem to think they were going to win, with plenty leaving early. Last year at Thanksgiving it was a very similar scene in Santa Clara with the Seahawks winning 19-3 and CEO Jed York apologized on Twitter in the waning moments by saying: “This performance wasn’t acceptable. I apologize for that.” No one was eating chicken at the end of this game like we saw last year from Richard Sherman, but it felt like once more these two rivals are no longer in the same class of football execution.
Just how bad things are at San Francisco? The fact that this wasn’t very surprising means how low they’ve fallen in such a quick time. Talk of moving Colin Kaepernick to the bench for Blaine Gabbert makes no sense. Kaepernick might not be scorching the field, but he has had good games this season, and this is more of an offensive line (Kaepernick sacked six times), coordinators and poor wide receivers problems. Gabbert in no way is the answer to any quarterback problem around the league.
So while the 49ers seem to be well on their way to one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s history, the Seahawks try to build on the confidence this win pulsates through the team to pick up their season and set it back on the right track. They once again couldn’t really score points in the fourth quarter; just three through a Steven Hauschka field goal. But unlike the last two weeks and generally this season, it didn’t cost them the game. No one was threatening to take away their lead.