SAN FRANCISCO — A week ago, the Seahawks defense earned a lot of praise for their part in a shutout victory.
Seven days later, those same defenders were chasing Frank Gore in vain up and down Candlestick Park. Twice.
The defense that dominated the Rams last week was gashed for two game-changing plays, runs of 79 and 80 yards by Gore, who finished with 207 yards on just 16 carries to lead the 49ers to a 23-10 win.
OK, so it wasn’t quite the same defense whiffing at Gore. Tackle Brandon Mebane was out with a calf injury, and linebacker Leroy Hill was sidelined by a groin injury. Linebacker Lofa Tatupu, who hurt his hamstring last week but tried to play Sunday, didn’t make it out of the first quarter, and cornerback Josh Wilson missed the second half with an ankle injury
But regardless of who was on the field, the Seahawks felt those plays shouldn’t happen.
“We’ve got good backups,” safety Deon Grant said. “The rhythm shouldn’t be off. We know them guys, we’ve been together through OTAs and training camp, so we have to just pick it up, pick up the slack. It was us as a defense. Regardless of who was supposed to have it, there are 11 of us out there, and he shouldn’t ever break a run like that. It was all of us as a defense.”
On both of Gore’s touchdown runs, the Seahawks had their defense geared towards stopping the run.
“We were in eight-man fronts on both of them, so technically you shouldn’t be able to run against that, but we got out of whack on our gap control,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said.
Grant said he his teammates won’t let those types of plays happen again.
“That is the last time that you are going to see it,” he said. “I promise you that. We are not letting no one run past us again for — how many yards was that, 80 both times? I take my hat off to him, but that is the last time that is going to happen if I have anything to do with it.”
It was no secret that the 49ers wanted to get Gore the ball, especially after he struggled against Arizona last week. But even when they knew the running back would get the ball, the Seahawks couldn’t stop him.
Mora said he couldn’t assess blame on the plays without watching film, but defensive end Patrick Kerney put blame on himself for the second long touchdown run, saying he misread the play.
But when 80-yard runs happen, more than one person is to blame.
“We just didn’t get it done today,” Grant said. “It’s just that simple. San Fran brought their A game and we brought our D or F game. Well, when you lose you bring you’re your F game, so we brought our F game.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at www.heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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