Field Gulls
If Week 1 was made for overreactions, then the Seattle Seahawks opener was made for Week 1.
Mike Macdonald trusts his defense too much. Kyle Shanahan is cooked after the opening script. Sam Darnold won’t lose you games, nor will he win you any. Brock Purdy got paid and promptly turned back into a pumpkin. Despite all the talent, Riq Woolen is a space cadet. The OL still can’t do its job, not when it matters. Niners remain snakebit for health. Will Seattle ever be able to run the ball in the red zone? Should’ve paid Geno. Maybe DK too. Home-field advantage, schmadvantage. Fire John Schneider.
I’m joking, or mostly joking; okay it’s right-down-the-middle joking now that I reread the paragraph. Still, always good to chuckle a little because as far as defense mechanisms go, humor remains undefeated.
Another defense mechanism? The scheme Macdonald unleashed on a hamstrung 49ers offense. Well, at least after the opening drive ended, a merciless 95-yard affair that culminated in a too-too-easy George Kittle quick-out TD at the goal line that felt as fated as any score ever. I s’pose that in one sense, the Seahawks defense delivered on its promise of 2024, by turning in an three-hour microcosm of last season. Started it off with significant trouble on third downs (check), committed costly penalties (check again), failed to produce turnovers in bunches or at all (triple check) — then mostly solved every problem of their own creation the rest of the way.
Bottom line, the defense did enough to win Week 1. They held the 49ers in neutral at 10 points for 40 consecutive minutes of game play. They picked the formerly charmed QB twice. They even ran Purdy from hash to hash on the eventual game-winning touchdown, which was entirely preventable and probably falls incomplete four out of five times. They put themselves and their teammates in a position to win. They were 2011 Felix Hernandez, roughed up for two unlucky runs in the first, then dominant until a late solo shot, putting in seven strong innings but saddled with the ugly 3-1 loss.
Drives two through eight for the Niners went: punt, punt, missed FG, pick, blocked FG, FG, pick. That’s called handing the ball (hint hint, Klint) to your offense with instructions to put the game away. Instead, the Seahawks turned those six opportunities to run all of 33 plays, score all of three points, and give the ball away once themselves.
It was, to apply all the bluntness deserved, quite the stretch of unwatchable football.
However, at halftime, not all was bleak: Seattle’s pass rushers were winning at the line of scrimmage, and winning big. Per the broadcast, the Seahawks pressured Purdy on 13 of 18 dropbacks in the first half, the highest rate of Brocky’s career. And while the harassment didn’t result immediately in a turnover, it felt like only a matter of time. Or times.
Yes, times. “Unwatchable” is a bit unfair, because Julian Love, Ernest Jones, and...
