Niners Nation
Saturday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks will be full of overreactions. Whichever teams win will be prematurely crowned, while the loser will be treated like a team that doesn’t deserve to make the postseason.
Here’s how we believe tonight’s game will go.
There’s nothing that I can tell you that wasn’t already shared during the game preview. These are two of the hottest teams in the NFL and two of the best teams in the league.
If you were ranking the top five units in the NFL, the 49ers offense and Seahawks defense would be listed. However, tonight should come down to the Niners defense and Seattle’s offense. Each unit has struggled since Week 11, despite the competition.
In a one-game sample, give me Robert Saleh over Klint Kubiak. I think Saleh finds a way to muck this game up and keeps Sam Darnold in a rut by throwing different looks at him. The illusion of pressure will make a difference.
Then, for as great as the Seahawks have been defensively this season, the areas where Kyle Shanahan wants to attack are the parts of the field where Seattle is susceptible.
It’s a quarterback league, and tonight we’ll see the difference between Darnold and Brock Purdy in key situations.
If you look at this game logically, it’s difficult to get away from the notion that the Seahawks probably should win.
They have the better defense and arguably the best playmaker in the NFL in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whom most will expect to feast on the 49er secondary.
Yet nothing about this 49ers season has been logical. Right from the moment Jake Tonges caught the game-winner in the corner of the endzone in Seattle in Week 1, it was clear this would not be a normal season for San Francisco.
And there are a few edges for the 49ers in this matchup. Brock Purdy has objectively been a better quarterback than Sam Darnold in recent weeks, while the Seahawks have struggled to run the ball, an issue that should encourage a 49er defense that has done a good job slowing down ground attacks.
The offensive line of Seattle is not as impressive as that of the Bears unit the 49ers faced in Week 17 and, if the likes of Yetur Gross-Matos and Bryce Huff can find and exploit the weaknesses up front, they should be able to force Darnold into the key mistakes that will gift the 49ers victory.
This is a game I’ve gone back and forth against. The storyline lines up for the 49ers. They were seen as an afterthought with the Nick Bosa and Fred Warner injuries, but they are coming in with a six-game win streak. They’ve rattled off some impressive wins in recent weeks, and their offense is the truth.
Plus, all the stars have aligned for them to...
