Niners Nation
Every game is a big game, but divisional games matter more. They just do. The magnitude of the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks rivalry took a bit of a nosedive last year. Thankfully, much has changed for both teams since the previous meeting.
The year is 2092, and as much as football will evolve by then, it’ll still come down to stopping the run and running the ball. Christian McCaffrey’s absence was felt on many levels, but his red zone efficiency and nose for the end zone propelled the Niners’ 2023 offense to unseen levels. They were one of the most prolific offenses of the century. When you take an MVP-caliber player away, your rushing attack is going to call off a cliff. Shocking, I know.
Stopping the run has been an issue for San Francisco since DeMeco Ryans left. You can point to injuries and personnel, but the attitude hasn’t been there. We are about to find out how quickly Robert Saleh injects attitude and violence into his unit. Let’s start on that side of the ball as we preview Week 1 between the 49ers and the Seahawks.
Seattle fell for a collegiate offensive coordinator who had an NFL quarterback and three NFL receivers. Oh, and NFL offensive linemen. That same coordinator is back in the college ranks after a one-year stint in the league. If you’re not a college football fan, the coordinator we’re referring to had all offseason to come up with a game plan against an unranked opponent coming off a 2-win season.
How did he fare? After scoring a touchdown on the first drive, Alabama didn’t score again until the fourth quarter. Moreover, they had zero identity in the running game. That was a glaring issue for the Seahawks last season.
Out with Ryan Grubb, in with old friend, Klint Kubiak. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan believes we’ll see an offense that we’re used to watching every Sunday:
“I think there’s some similarities. It’s always different how you adjust to your players, but I know they’re going to be a balanced team that wants to put Sam in some good situations and give that ball to their good running backs. Then it usually comes down to third down, so it’s real similar to us. There’s window dressing that’s different, but the way that they want a game to go, I think it’s going to be very similar to how we want it to go.”
Some may chalk it up to “It’s just the preseason,” but it’s almost as if Kubiak was trolling Grubb’s 2024 offense the way Seattle was on the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to running the ball. Last year, the Seahawks threw the ball at the fourth-highest rate in the NFL. And it’s not as if they were a 3-12 team always playing catch-up. Not even close! They were a 10-win team.
Geno Smith lined up in the shotgun over 76 percent...
