SAN FRANCISCO – To be frank, the Seattle Seahawks’ run defense got gored again on Sunday.
San Francisco’s Frank Gore became the third opposing running back to run all over the Seahawks this season, following in the footsteps of guys like Chester Taylor of Minnesota and Larry Johnson of Kansas City. Gore’s 212 rushing yards were a 49ers team record and the third-highest total ever allowed by a Seattle defense.
“He made plays,” said Seahawks safety Jordan Babineaux, who failed to bring down Gore on several occasions. “He’s a good back. I don’t know if it was the type of runs they were doing or what, but whatever he was doing was successful.”
Gore might not be a household name, but that might change soon. He currently leads the NFC with 1,043 rushing yards and has gone over the century mark in three of his past four games. He’s also the first 49ers running back in eight years to record back-to-back 100-yard games.
“He’s a great back, and he appears to be headed for some really fine things, but that’s still probably a little too many,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said of Gore’s 212 rushing yards.
Because Gore is the third opposing running back to go over 150 yards on Seattle this season – Taylor had 169 on Oct. 22, and Johnson had 155 the following week – the Seahawks were more concerned with what they were doing wrong than what the 49ers’ second-year running back was doing right.
Like Taylor and Johnson before him, Gore took advantage of Seattle’s over-pursuit and relied on change of direction as well as his patient running style.
“We made mistakes waiting for Gore to come to us rather than going after him,” defensive end Bryce Fisher said. “You’ve got to be aggressive against a very good runner like Gore.”
Defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said pursuit – not over-pursuit – was the biggest problem.
“We need to do a better job of getting more people to the ball,” Bernard said. “With a back like that, it’s hard to tackle him one-on-one, especially if he gets into the secondary. We needed to do a better job of rallying to the football.”
Even when Seahawks players had a shot at Gore, he often made them miss. An unofficial count showed that Seattle defenders missed tackles 10 times during Gore runs. Multiple players missed on his runs of 51, 50 and 7 yards.
In the end, Gore averaged 8.8 yards on his 24 carries.
“He did a good job of making plays,” Seahawks linebacker Julian Peterson said. “That’s how it is sometimes.”
Gore did not have a perfect day, however. He fumbled the ball away on one of his final carries. That gave the Seahawks hope in the closing minutes, but they could not convert because Seneca Wallace threw an interception two plays later.
Before Sunday’s game, Seattle had not allowed a 49ers running back to go over the 100-yard mark in six meetings. In four of those games, San Francisco couldn’t even get 100 rushing yards as a team. In fact, the 49ers had just 172 total rushing yards in two meetings with the Seahawks last season.
After allowing just one 100-yard rusher all of last season, the Seahawks have already seen three opposing runners go over that mark this year.
“If you don’t stop the run, then they can do play action and make the pass. They have that type of threat when you can’t stop the run,” Seahawks cornerback Kelly Herndon said. “Everybody in football – everybody in the world – knows that if you can’t stop the run, you can’t stop anything.”
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