The San Francisco 49ers have now lost 10 straight games to the Seattle Seahawks, including the post-season. Coming into this game, everything was against the 49ers due to their ridiculous amount of injuries and entering a known hostile environment.
First Half Summary
The Seahawks utilized their number one run game early and efficiently. Russell Wilson didn’t have to do much and it was clear at halftime. He had three touchdowns by the end of the first half and guess how many pass attempts he had? Six. That’s right, Wilson had half of his attempts be touchdowns. His first incompletion didn’t come until the second quarter, which makes sense because of the low passing attempts.
The 49ers struggled mightily on all aspects of the game. They couldn’t get going much on offense, but later found a groove with backup running back Jeff Wilson. Matt Breida didn’t play much because of his lingering ankle injury, and would later get taken out completely. Wilson was making solid runs after solid runs, and finding nice chunks of yardage on screen plays, until a fumble call went against him and changed the momentum of the game.
On special teams, rookie receiver Richie James muffed a punt and the Seahawks recovered. They would eventually score a touchdown. However, the 49ers drove down the field and got themselves three points thanks to a Robbie Gould field goal to trail 20-3.
Second Half Summary
The second half started terribly for the 49ers. Returner Tyler Lockett stormed down the field for an 85-yard kickoff return. Then, running back Rashaad Penny went virtually untouched for a 20-yard touchdown.
San Francisco didn’t stop fighting, however. They got two touchdowns later in the game through rookie receiver Dante Pettis, who had career high numbers. One touchdown, he found the edge and sprinted in, as the featured image depicts. The next, he ran a deep post towards the middle of the field and went in for a 75-yard catch-and-run score.
Nick Mullens had himself a 414-yard performance today and almost went the whole game without an interception. As the 49ers were in the red zone and about to add another touchdown, he threw to Jeff Wilson too late and Bobby Wagner picked him off and went a long 98 yards for a pick-six. San Francisco drove down the field again to try to make the score a little more respectable, but Mullens was sacked on the final play to seal their inevitable fate.
Positives
Now there was a plethora of bad things to take away from the game, but that’s been the case almost every game this season. Let’s look at some positives to move on with.
Jeff Wilson Jr.: He looks like another solid gem found by the 49ers. It’s to no one’s surprise however, as Kyle Shanahan has developed a reputation for turning running backs into something special. He’s done it with Matt Breida and Raheem Mostert, before Mostert went down with a broken forearm. Wilson had 61 yards on 15 carries today, as Breida aggravated his ankle injury and didn’t play much. Wilson also had eight catches for 73 yards.
Dante Pettis had another solid outing following last weeks performance against Tampa Bay. This week, Pettis posted career highs in catches (5), yards (129!), yards per catch (25.8!), longest catch (75 yards) and touchdowns (2). The rookie showed why he was picked early by Shanahan and company.
DeForest Buckner added to his sack total today, getting Russell Wilson to the ground twice. Buckner now has nine on the season and is aiming to hit double-digits next week against the Denver Broncos.
Rookie safety Marcell Harris got his first start of the season at strong safety, and had his fair shares of good and bad plays. Good: he made stops on running plays, including a goal-line stop. He also got to the back field quite some times. Bad: there was some missed tackles that Harris should’ve had, but the whole team has been plagued with the inability to tackle.
Next Game
The 49ers will host the Denver Broncos in the start of a three game home stretch next Sunday at 1:05 PM PST.
– Sanjesh Singh is the managing editor for the San Francisco 49ers on Full Press Coverage He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @TheSanjeshSingh Follow @FPC_49ers and Facebook.