Give the 12th man an assist in this ugly loss

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 14, 2006

SEATTLE – The well-oiled brainiacs in the stands started tossing stuff onto the field with about 91/2 minutes left Thursday night and the Seahawks quickly fading into oblivion.

The first soft-drink lob (with ice) came from the south end of Qwest Field onto the end zone, when the Seahawks rolled over on two straight short-yardage plays that resulted in San Francisco taking possession.

The punch line was that Seattle still was in striking distance, behind just 10-7. That would change quickly. The 49ers scored two more touchdowns and made them look as easy as their first of three TDs in the quarter. That one came at the end of an 11-play, 90-yard drive that gave San Francisco its first and only lead it needed.

The only reason Seahawk loyalists didn’t turn the stadium floor into a trash receptacle was that by the time it really got ugly, attendance was in the low four digits.

The true outrage was how willing the Seahawks yielded to the 49ers, who remind no one of any of the NFL’s powerhouses of the last decade.

“We have no identity right now,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said, before he corrected himself. “Inconsistency is our identity.”

Space doesn’t permit a list of everything the Seahawks did and didn’t do. They began mediocre, descended into appalling and quickly dove into disaster.

It was a classic example of allowing a supposedly inferior team hang around too long. Seattle had a 7-3 halftime lead. It should have been at least 21-3.

“We gave them enough opportunities for them to be in the game,” Seattle linebacker Julian Peterson said.

Now, at 8-6 with a two-game losing streak, Seattle is looking at the No. 4 NFC seed in the eye – if that. The Seahawks’ only saving grace is the dismal competition their NFC West rivals offer.

Surely, the 6-8 49ers couldn’t catch them and ease them out of the playoffs … or could they?

The way Seattle is playing, don’t count it out.

“This is awful,” Seattle defensive end Bryce Fisher said. “Teams that lose in December, if they’re lucky to get into January, lose very early in January.”

How to explain why Kelly Herndon bounced off Alex Smith and throw him for a big loss? Instead, it was Smith who did the throwing, first tossing Herndon off him and then lobbing the ball to Frank Gore for a 20-yard touchdown that gave the 49ers a 17-7 advantage with 4:01 to go.

It was at that time when a booing (formerly) partisan crowd broke for the exits as if threatened by a post-game Yoko Ono-Britney Spears duet.

Those who left missed the cherry on the sundae. After Matt Hasselbeck threw his second interception, the Seahawk defense rolled out a red carpet to the end zone.

The obviousness to which the Seattle “stoppers” quit at that point and appeared to enjoy watching Gore rip it apart play after play rivaled only Smith’s scoring play.

Smith faked a handoff to Gore, who was immediately mobbed by Seahawks far too accustomed to that act. But it wasn’t Gore who had the ball, but Smith, who jogged into the end zone so easily he could have set the ball on the turf, belted out three verses of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and still scored before anyone in blue even spotted him.

It was a fitting ending to a wretched effort.

“We’re going through a tough spot,” Holmgren said. “We have two weeks to try and figure it out. But if we don’t get a little bit better than we have played the last couple of weeks, then it’s going to be rough.”

They’d best not stop at “a little better.”

The well-oiled brainiacs are just getting their throwing arms warmed up.