They hype machine promoted Thursday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks as a showcase for the resurgent NFC West Division.
Ray McDonald lost his helmet on this play and can only watch as the rest of the 49ers defense stops Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch. (sfgate.com)
The Niners, Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals entered Week 7 play at 4-2 with the St. Louis Rams just a tick back at 3-3. Combined, they are 12-6 against the rest of the NFL.
This is a division resurrected through exceptional defenses, outstanding running games and measured quarterback play.
What San Francisco’s 13-6 victory over the Seattle proved to us was just how much the superiority of these defenses can render the offenses comically powerless.
While the 49ers were piling up big statistics against the dregs of the AFC, they have been fully exposed in losses to the NFC’s Vikings, Giants and now Seahawks for just how subpar their offense can be.
If not for Frank Gore’s 182 yards rushing and receiving, the 49ers would be left with simply Alex Smith. His 14-of-23 passing performance for a measly 140 yards (89 yards without Gore), is magnified by a miserable red-zone interception thrown directly at Seattle cornerback Brandon Browner standing just inside the goal line.
A 49ers offense that was in full gear in rolling for 621 yards two weeks ago against Buffalo, managed just 18 first downs and 313 yards. Perennial Pro Bowl tight end Vernon Davis, limited to a quiet three-catch game in Sunday’s thumping by the Giants, had zero catches and zero targets against the Seahawks. That’s ZERO as in NONE, NADA, NULL.
Yes, the team that won Thursday’s game has a some warts on offense that need more than a few drops of CompoundW before the Oct. 29 Monday nighter against an Arizona Cardinals defense that is every bit as good as the Seahawks.
Ah, the Seahawks. Right.
Speaking of offensive warts, let’s examine theirs:
- 13 first downs
- 254 total yards
- 122 yards passing
- 9 pass completions
- 38.7 quarterback rating
We want to ride the warm & fuzzy Russell Wilson bandwagon. We do. We really, really do. But then this?
The diminutive rookie quarterback completed just 9 of 23 passes.
In the second half, Wilson’s offense had 25 plays and gained 74 yards. Those five possessions ended in three punts, an interception and, um, on downs.
About that. Facing fourth and 17 from the Seattle 4 with 56 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of a seven-point game, Wilson, throwing from deep in his end zone, completed a pass to Ben Obomanu for 16 yards. Seattle was penalized for a chop block in the end zone which, by rule, nullifies the completion and awards a safety to the defense.
But, to the October Surprise horror of every gambler holding a ticket with the 49ers -7.5, San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh declined the penalty and elected to take possession with a one-score game rather than subject his team to an onside kick and the chaos that could follow. Rather than a 15-6 final, Smith kneeled down the final two snaps of the Niners’ 13-6 win.
In a statistical aside: As a result of Harbaugh’s decision, Wilson got credit for that 16-yard completion to Obomanu. Had the penalty been accepted, Wilson’s totals would have been 8 for 22 for 106 yards. (We refuse to do the math to figure out just how far that change would have dropped the QB rating.)
To Wilson’s credit, he did have at least five passes dropped, including a first-quarter flat-footed perfect rainbow onto Robert Turbin’s hands alone on the sideline for a certain touchdown. Oops!
(The NFL Network gave us a wonderful close-up of Turbin’s neon green gloves that look so cool in HD, a vision that would have been missed had he actually caught the football.)
Wilson drove the Seahawks into San Francisco territory four times in 10 possessions. Three of those came on Seattle’s opening three drives and resulted in two Steven Hauschka field goals and a 51-yard attempt that sailed left.
The last time was the opening drive of the third quarter when facing, a fourth-and-2 from the San Francisco 43, Coach Pete Carroll elected to punt and let his defense protect a 6-3 lead.
It wasn’t as if Wilson had momentum and was leading a march against the 49ers defense. Hardly. The Seahawks had tried to punt on a fourth-and-2 earlier in the drive but a Niners penalty advanced the ball to the Seattle 49 and forced Wilson to attempt four more snaps. Those included two incomplete passes around a nifty eight-yard run by Marshawn Lynch and another punt.
Smith took over on his 14 and began a drive that would change the outcome of this game.
A 49ers offense that managed just six first downs, 115 yards, and four punts in five first-half possessions, including three second-quarter three-and-outs, went 81 yards in 10 plays, gaining seven first downs over 6:20 for the game’s only touchdown.
The score came on a Smith pass to Delanie Walker, who tight roped the sideline and stepped around the pylon into the end zone so subtly that the official right on top of the play failed to signal touchdown. Without getting into all the ugly genuflecting that followed, eventually sanity prevailed and the 49ers were ahead to stay.
The drive was a rare offensive work of art for this game, as Smith put the Seahawks D on their heels from the first snap and never let up.
It began with middle screens to Gore for 15 yards and then to Kendall Hunter for 11. Then it was a Gore run off left guard for 6, another screen to him for 12, Gore up the gut for 11 and right back there for 3 more.
Frank Gore found plenty of room to run in the second half of Thursday’s night game against the Seattle Seahawks. (sfgate.com)
The interior of the San Francisco offensive line — guards Mike Iupati and Alex Boone and center Jonathan Goodwin — were dominating the Seahawks now, allowing Gore and Hunter to gash out big chucks of Candlestick Park turf.
Only once in the drive did Smith face a third down and it came on third and 9 from the Seattle 25 where he found Michael Crabtree for 10. One more Gore run, off left tackle Joe Staley this time, got the Niners down to the 12 before the touchdown and a 10-6 San Francisco lead with 4:29 left in the quarter.
For a game thoroughly dominated by defense, this is when the 49ers would release the hounds to prey on the skittish Wilson and his pop-gun playmates. Four snaps into Seattle’s possession, 49ers safety Dashon Goldson intercepted an under-pressure Wilson flutterball and Seattle wouldn’t see the ball again until the fourth quarter.
A 37-yard Gore burst through the middle following Goldson’s pick set the 49ers up for more points. But Browner, a step inside the end zone, was happy to catch Smith’s poorly aimed pass on third and 7. Davis, in his only memorable sighting of the night, inexplicably tackled Browner forward and Seattle took possession at the 3, down four points with nearly 12 minutes left in the game.
Wilson had pulled two previous games from defeat, a stat the NFL Network folks were giddy to get up in this perfect moment. Could this inexplicably be a third? Against this defense? In San Francisco’s antiquated shrine of heroes, no less?
Not without help. And Lance Easley was nowhere to be found (at least not on the field in zebra stripes with a whistle and a sideways sense of the rules).
Seattle went three-and-out when Wilson’s third-down screen to Lynch was dropped. Punt.
Another heavy dose of Gore and Hunter behind Iupati, Goodwin and Boone resulted in the second of two David Akers field goals and a 13-6 San Francisco lead with 5:24 left.
Wilson would get 10 more snaps over two possessions against the 49ers defense and his offense would gain all of 18 yards.
There would be no miracle comeback against Patrick Willis and Justin Smith, Aldon Smith and NaVarro Bowman, Carlos Rogers, Tarell Brown, Chris Culliver, Donte Whitner, Ray McDonald, Ahmad Brooks, et al.
In the battle between perhaps game’s best two defenses, the 49ers offense sucked one drive less.
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