The first time the San Francisco 49ers faced the Seattle Seahawks this season, they opened the year with a 17-13 victory. The rematch didn't come until Week 18, with the NFC's No. 1 seed on the line—and the result was far different.
Seattle handled San Francisco 13-3 at Levi's Stadium, earning home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. Now, the Seahawks will host the 49ers on Saturday night at Lumen Field with a trip to the NFC Championship Game at stake.
On Wednesday, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh addressed reporters and reflected on that loss from less than two weeks ago. While encouraged by stretches of his unit's performance, Saleh pinpointed one area that must improve if San Francisco is going to avoid a postseason exit.
"We need to do better on third down, which means we need to do better on first and second down in terms of limiting the leaky yardage that we allowed," Saleh said. "It felt like after the first quarter, we settled in and played the run game very well.
"There were a couple of plays early in the game, obviously the third-and-two that went for 30 yards, the third-and-17 that inflated the numbers more than we would've liked. But overall, felt like we really settled in the last three quarters with regard to the run game."
The Seahawks enter the NFC West playoff rematch as seven-point favorites, the largest spread of the weekend despite the 49ers coming off a road win over the defending Super Bowl champions.
The line is understandable. San Francisco limps into the game, having been hit hard by injuries throughout the season, and lost another key contributor on Sunday when All-Pro tight end George Kittle suffered a torn Achilles. They also face a short turnaround, while well-rested Seattle is coming off a first-round bye.
Saleh was also asked about the challenges and advantages of facing the same opponent again on a short turnaround.
"There's not a lot of new information," Saleh explained. "Obviously, we were their last game, so you take what you have. They've had two weeks to kind of self-scout and come up with new things, so there are going to be some things that we have not seen and that they have not shown on tape. That's the benefit of having the number one seed.
"But, at the same time, when it's a division opponent, you know them, the players know each other, they know how they feel, they know the blocking. There's just a familiarity. So, it's always going to come down to a couple of plays that decide the game."
Offensively, the 49ers will need to produce far more than the three points they managed in the Week 18 loss. Still, Saleh believes the path to victory starts with getting off the field on third down.
"What we weren't very happy about was our third-down performance," Saleh said. "And that's where, in every game, when you could look at it, when offense is struggling on third down, and defense is struggling on third down, you're going to end up in a situation where they're hogging the ball, and it's going to be hard to score.
"We were fortunate that we only gave up 13 points, and we're going to have to play a lot better to keep it that way."
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