Niners Nation
The regular season is over, and the San Francisco 49ers will be the No. 6 seed in the NFC after losing a tough game to the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday, with the NFC West title and the No. 1 seed on the line.
After an improbable run, which included a six-game win streak and some outside luck, the 49ers had a huge chance to boost their playoff odds with the regular-season finale against Seattle, but it was going to be a tough matchup that required a lot to go well.
In the end, San Francisco’s offense was shut down, the defense had a couple too many issues, and the game was not nearly as close as the 13-3 final score indicated.
Here are three quick takeaways from the 49ers 13-3 loss to the Seahawks on Saturday.
Offense can’t deliver when needed
The 49ers offense has been the story of the second half, as they were averaging 35.5 points per game since Brock Purdy’s return, which was the most of any team in the NFL during that stretch.
For the 49ers to win, their offense was going to have to score points to overcome the defensive mishaps, and they just couldn’t. Without Trent Williams, the 49ers just couldn’t run the ball and had to go away from it really early in the game because the early-down rushes were just too inefficient.
San Francisco ran the ball just eight times with its running backs, as opposed to 32 dropbacks, and you can rarely ever be effective offensively with that big of a disparity. I didn’t think Austen Pleasants, Trent Williams’s backup, did a bad job by any means, but the run game is different when the latter is in the ballgame.
Seattle clearly felt confident it could defend the run with its front at a high level, playing exclusively in nickel to take away the 49ers’ explosive pass game, which worked to fruition. The 49ers were also beat at the line of scrimmage offensively, which I said was the biggest matchup to watch and the ultimate reason why I picked Seattle to win.
Without Williams, and maybe even with him, it was going to be a difficult, difficult challenge to contain such a talented Seahawks offensive line. Brock Purdy faced quite a bit of pressure, which altered his decision-making and led to a number of tough plays. And, of course, we saw the lack of movement in the run game as well.
On that note, one of my keys revolved around the 49ers quarterback, as he was going to have to find a way to elevate this team with how San Francisco’s defense was playing against a really tough Seattle defense. Purdy just couldn’t do that enough on Saturday. The Seahawks bottled up the passing game without Ricky Pearsall, and Purdy averaged just 4.7 yards per carry. He also had a brutal interception at a key point in the fourth quarter when a Christian McCaffrey bobble went to the opposite team.
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