Field Gulls
Thirteen seconds to victory.
The Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers played out the remaining 59:47, out of sportsmanship, and also because Fox had sold a boatload of ads. But the Niners would never reach seven points and the Seahawks would never look back. The objects in the rear view mirror would only get smaller and smaller. One of the league’s great rivalries would tip in one direction for the foreseeable future.
Seattle 41, San Francisco 6 was an ass-kicking, and that’s being polite. For once, a game was exactly as close as the score indicated. There was a punishing relentless to how the hosts joined pedal to metal, from the opening kick sure, but also with those back-to-back-breaking touchdowns off the feet of Kenneth Walker III.
Seattle 41, San Francisco 6 was a one-score game in the blink of an eye, a two-score game shortly thereafter, a three-score game at half, a four-score game midway through the third and a five-score game in the fourth, where it found its final resting place. (Much like the 49ers’ season.) At no point were the Niners going to win this game on this day in this stadium against this version of the Hawks.
Seattle 41, San Francisco 6 was such a back-alley beatdown that the Niners never reached the red zone. The only pass Brock Purdy threw into the end zone was a Hail Mary. Of the five (?!) plays San Fran ran after halftime in Seattle territory, two ended with the ball in Seahawks hands.
Speaking of, out of half, having deferred (oops), there was a brief window when Kyle Shanahan’s Band of Backups might steal a touchdown and get back in it. No, Leonard Williams was quite uninterested in that timeline.
Maybe later in the quarter? Purdy, bless his little heart, gave it the ol’ college try and then some.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks picked the divisional round of the mothertruckin’ playoffs to rediscover their ability to finish drives. Four touchdowns on six red zone trips. Walker THE THIRD got in the end zone for THE THIRD TIME. Do you believe that to be coincidence? Jaxon Smith-Njigba paid homage to 12-flag raiser Doug Baldwin with a beautiful piece of footwork in the corner of the end zone.
Coincidence? What if I told you the Seahawks have won two postseason games by 35 points exactly, this one and the other one that should be easy to remember. Coincidence, my oblique.
We could list the turnovers one by one as well, but this was the kind of game where if you walk to the concession stand/bathroom you’ve missed another takeaway, or fourth-down stop, or K9 touchie. The sequence doesn’t matter that much: good things kept happening for the Hawks, inversely proportional to the Niners, who had probably hoped to see Drew Lock under center. Well, be careful what you wish for.
San Fran was pressed into six giveaways, three via fumble or interception and three more on fourth downs that never had a...
