Seahawks defend ‘every blade of grass’ in 13-3 win over 49ers
Published 8:30 am Monday, January 5, 2026
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Yards proved hard to come by for the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday.
While attempting to swipe the NFC West title from Seattle, they gained just 173 yards against the Seahawks, and each one of them was hard-earned.
The Seahawks kept San Francisco, with its genius offensive mind of a head coach and $265 million quarterback, from just about any play of significance while securing the division title and the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed with a 13-3 win on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Unable to put the game away with its offense, Seattle simply put the 49ers offense in its self-titled “Death Zone.”
“We’re gonna defend every blade of grass,” Macdonald said, matter-of-factly, after his team finished the regular season 14-3.
The 49ers (12-5) managed just five first downs through three-plus quarters. They picked up four during one drive as they threatened to get back into the game late in the fourth quarter. That possession ended in the game’s lone turnover — an interception off the hands of San Francisco star running back Christian McCaffrey that landed in the arms of Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas.
“Obviously, they’re a good defense, good front, did a good job with making us go through reads and checking the ball down,” 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy said. “For me, I just wish I could have been a little bit more efficient, and they’re going to make you work for the yards and make you have to convert on third down.”
San Francisco entered Saturday’s game with the same opportunities as Seattle — division title, top seed, and first-round bye entering the playoffs. It became apparent early, though, that the scoring was going to be nearly impossible. A week after scoring 42 points against NFC Central-champion Chicago, the 49ers managed the lowest point total in Shanahan’s nine seasons.
“I mean, it was what we expected just with their defense,” Shanahan said. “We expected to do better than we did, but we knew it was a good defense. We knew that in Week 1 — we knew it from watching tape all week.
We knew it would be a challenge, and they got us in a number of moments, had a couple of opportunities I thought that we missed. And you can’t miss those versus a team like that.”
Other than deploying safety Nick Emmanwori all over the defense as usual, there was nothing unusual about the Seahawks defense on Saturday. No blitzes never witnessed before by humankind. No coverages in the back end that Shanahan and Purdy had never seen before in their lives.
Emmanwori finished with seven tackles, including a tackle for loss. He hit Purdy once, and was in line to commit a serious act of violence before a 49ers player deflected Emmanwori just enough to extend the quarterback’s life.
“We had a good, simple game plan,” Emmanwori told the Emerald City Spectrum. “There wasn’t much to it. We have to go out there and just ball and do what we do — show up when we need to show up and handle business.
Part of Emmanwori’s job was to keep an eye on the 49ers’ beast of a tight end, George Kittle. Though Kittle caught five passes, the receptions resulted in just 29 yards. Part of that came courtesy of a six-yard loss after he was leveled by Emmanwori.
“When you’ve got a really good D-line, and they can all win one-on-one battles from time to time, and then you bring pressure with it,” Kittle said. “They also got a smart secondary. So no, nothing surprising.”
Unable to sustain drives, San Francisco ran just 42 plays, for an average of 4.1 yards. McCaffrey finished with 23 yards on eight carries, the longest of which was five yards. San Francisco managed just 53 yards on the ground as Seattle held an opponent to under 100 yards rushing for the 26th straight time.
Purdy, unable to pick up the slack, completed 19 of 27 passes for 127 yards, an average of 4.7 yards per attempt.
“Those guys, the Niners, they’ve been scoring at will,” said Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who had five tackles. “They haven’t been punting. So, I think for us, we know our style of play, so let’s just go out here and play how we know how to play.”
And after two full regular seasons, it’s clear Macdonald’s team knows how to play.
“We’re here today as the No. 1 seed because of Mike,” Jones said. “Not just the way he calls it, but the community that he’s building in the locker room.
“We play for each other. We fight for each other.”
The 49ers managed one productive drive in the fourth quarter, gaining 64 of their 173 total yards and four of their nine first downs. With the Seahawks hanging onto what turned out to be the final 13-3 score, Seattle performed the one act that was missing from the script — a turnover.
Purdy looked for McCaffrey, who is arguably the best pass-catching running back in NFL history. Thomas, an undrafted Raiders castoff turned Seahawks starting linebacker, did his best to cover the Pro Bowler.
“I’m one on one,” recalled Thomas, who finished with five tackles and two passes defensed, including his first career interception. “I know he’s got an option route on me, and honestly, he probably beats me to the corner. But I think [outside linebacker Boye] Mafe might have gotten a piece of it. He said he did, and that kind of changed the direction of it.
“It hit off his off his back shoulder and bounced right into my hands. God is good. That’s all I have.”
This story originally appeared at www.emeraldcityspectrum.com
