To say the San Francisco 49ers were defeated by the Seattle Seahawks on Thanksgiving night by a score of 19-3 is an understatement. They were beat up in every phase of the game as Seattle left no doubt who the better team was.
San Francisco struggled in every phase of the game. The offense could not get out of its own way, and a series right before the half epitomized their struggles not only in this game but all season. With fifty seconds remaining before the half and with only one timeout they started with the ball on their own 20 yard line. The first play was a short throw underneath to Michael Crabtree for eight yards. It then took them twenty five seconds to get to the line of scrimmage for the next play. That's terrible. There's no way it should take that long to get a play off. On the next play Colin Kaepernick scrambled, and instead of trying to get out of bounds he was tackled in the field of play causing them to use their final timeout. Just a clueless series all around.
The defense played well early on, forcing Seattle into back to back three and outs to start the game. The problem is that they followed those up with three straight scoring drives of 40+ yards. A break down in coverage led to the only touchdown of the night, but they were able to stand tall deep in the red zone on the other two possessions to force field goals. It was more of the same in the second half as the defense just could not get off the field, allowing Seattle to control the clock with three drives of 10 or more plays which covered 52+ yards. The only Seattle possession in the second half that did not result in points ended when the Seahawks went for it on fourth down in the closing moments of the game.
The special teams units did their part in the loss as well. Early in the second quarter the 49ers punt team downed an Andy Lee punt at the Seattle 9 yard line, but the play was wiped out by an ineligible man down field. On the re-kick Seattle returned the ball to the 40 yard line, a 31 yard change in field position. Later in the same quarter Perrish Cox would turn the ball over when he fumbled on a punt return.
Total team failure.
Let's get to the answers for the 5 burning questions that I asked on Wednesday.
1) Can Colin Kaepernick get it together against the Seahawks? - No. Kaepernick struggled from the start, and never could get into a groove and his 36.7 rating was the second worse of his career behind only his 20.1 from a season ago against you guessed it, Seattle. Kaepernick was 0-10 with 2 interceptions on throws of 10+ yards. Terrible.
For Kaepernick, Seattle is his kryptonite just as Dallas was for Steve Young and the Bill Parcells led New York Giants was for Joe Montana.
2) Will Frank Gore carry the load? - No. The 49ers run game was shut down. Gore was able to manage only 28 yards on 10 carries. Carlos Hyde gained 19 yards on 5 carries, 12 of those yards coming on one run.
3) Can the 49ers defense contain Marshawn Lynch? - No. Lynch eclipsed the 100 yard mark for the fifth time in his last seven meetings with the 49ers, going for 104 yards on 20 carries. He became the fourth back this that the 49ers defense have allowed to go over 100 yards this season.
4) Will Vernon Davis show up? - No. The 49ers tight end was targeted only twice and caught them both for 13 yards.
5) Make Russell Wilson beat them from the pocket? - No. Wilson made the 49ers defense look like Rocky Balboa during the scene when he was chasing the chicken. No play better demonstrated this than a 3rd and 9 from the Seahawks 36 yard line early in the second quarter. Vic Fangio dialed up a blitz and Dontae Johnson had a clear run at Wilson, who sidestepped the rookie defensive back and weaved his way through the 49ers defensive front before finding Tony Moeaki all alone in the right flat. Moeaki took the ball the rest of the way for a 63 yard completion to the 49ers 1 yard line.
Prediction Time:
49ers 16 Seahawks 14
Notes:
* The 49ers defense netted a -5.4 overall grade from ProFootballFocus. Their second lowest grade of the season. The offense netted a -8.6.
* The 49ers offense did not cross it's own 40 yard line until the final play of the first half, a garbage time 13 yard completion to Stevie Johnson.
* The 49ers run defense has given up over 135 yards in 3 of their last 4 games: 136 vs New Orleans, 136 vs Washington, and 157 vs Seattle.