Rapid Reaction: Seahawks defeat 49ers in ugly game
The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 12-9 on Sunday. This was their eighth straight victory over San Francisco. It was expected that the Seahawks were going to blowout the rebuilding 49ers, but the Seattle offensive struggles continued this week. Russell Wilson put together an 82-yard touchdown drive with seven minutes left in the game to give the Seahawks the lead that won them the game.
The defense made up for the downfalls of the offense, holding the 49ers to only 248 yards of total offense. They gave up some big runs to Carlos Hyde, but shut down the 49ers and held them to only three field goals. Bobby Wagner intercepted Brian Hoyer in the first quarter to set up a Blair Walsh field goal.
MVP: Russell Wilson
As well as the defense played, Wilson was the MVP of this game even with the offensive struggles. Without Wilson putting the offense on his back late in the fourth quarter, Seattle would have lost to a team that will be playing for the first pick in the draft next April. Wilson helped move the team down the field using his feet, rushing for 27 yards on the drive. With the help of a couple runs by Chris Carson and a 20-yard defensive pass interference call to move the ball down the field, Wilson threw a nine-yard touchdown to Paul Richardson to give Seattle a 12-9 lead with just over seven minutes to play in the game. If Wilson had not used his feet to make plays, this drive could have led to another punt, giving San Francisco a chance to ice the game. Wilson’s stat line was not great, 23/39 for 198 yards and a touchdown with 12 carries for 34 yards, but he made the plays when he needed to.
LVP: Darrell Bevell
Even though Bevell is not a player, he qualifies as the least valuable player because of how poor the offense was for a second straight week. For most of the game, the run game was almost nonexistent. The 49ers were all over the receivers in the pass game. The offensive line was better, but still gave the 49ers too many shots at Wilson. If Bevell expects this offense to create points, he needs to be able to get the run game going. It almost seemed like the 49ers knew exactly when a run was coming, and were able to stuff almost every run. The offense generated only 3.5 yards per carry, which is low for a team that wants to be a power running team. The offense is set up around a strong run game, and the entire offense will struggle without a run game. However, they may have found a feature back in Carson. Bevell needs to figure out what is wrong with the offense. Because if he doesn’t, this team could be in for a much more difficult season than what people expected.
Play of the Game
With just over seven minutes left in the game, Seattle was facing a 3rd & 7 at the San Francisco 9-yard line losing by a field goal. Wilson scrambled to the right after the 49ers got internal pressure, but turned back to the left side of the field. As he kept moving towards the sideline, he found Paul Richardson breaking to the front corner of the endzone for a nine-yard touchdown to put the Seahawks in the lead for good. Without Wilson’s scrambling ability, it would have been a sack leading to a potential game-tying kick instead of the game winning touchdown.
Next Up
The 1-1 Seattle Seahawks will travel to Nashville to play against the 1-1 Tennessee Titans on Sunday, September 24th at 1:05 p.m. PST.
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