Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers are facing off against the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday in the NFC Divisional Round, hoping to make it back to the conference championship game after missing out with a down year in 2024.
The 49ers have had quite the year, battling through serious injuries en route to a 13-5 record, most recently beating the Philadelphia Eagles in the wildcard round of the playoffs last weekend.
Now, they’re back on the road, facing a team that just beat them pretty considerably two weeks ago, with their season on the line. How can the 49ers change their fortunes and pull off the victory this time around?
3rd downs
It all starts with third downs for the 49ers in this one. San Francisco was dominated on third downs in the game two weeks ago, and that allowed Seattle to fully control the pace of the game, wearing down the defense.
San Francisco was dominated in time of possession (37:48 vs. 22:12), and had the ball for only 10:40 of the first half as Seattle looked like it would cruise to a victory. Overall, the Seahawks had drives of 12, 10, 9, 11, and 16 plays, all possible by converting on third downs.
The Seahawks finished the game a respectable 6-of-13 on third downs. The 49ers were a paltry 2-of-9. That’s far different from their mark in the regular season, where they led the NFL in third down conversation rate at 49.8 percent.
Seattle, on the other hand, did better than their 39.8 percent regular-season rate, which ranked only 16th in the NFL.
The 49ers have to bridge the gap with time of possession. That doesn’t mean they need longer drives, but it’s hard to get explosives on this Seattle defense. It does mean that they need to be better on third down, though.
Run game
Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said it this week: the 49ers are going to have to run the ball. In Week 18, without Trent Williams, the Seahawks played a ton of two-high shells and were exclusively in nickel, daring the 49ers to run the ball. And San Francisco couldn’t do it.
The 49ers averaged just 3.2 yards per carry on first and second down, with their longest run from a running back being six yards. So they didn’t get any explosives and weren’t consistently moving the ball well at all on the ground. That essentially took out the running game for San Francisco with the inefficiency, making them one-dimensional offensively, which limited the offense.
The 49ers had been running the ball well in the weeks heading into Week 18, but they also struggled to do so in the wildcard round, with Christian McCaffrey going for just 48 yards on 15 carries. Something will have to change for San Francisco there.
They also need to be better at limiting Seattle’s run game. A big part of the time-of-possession battle was Seattle’s ability to run the ball well, especially early in the game. They ended up going...
