Here’s three takeaways from the Seattle Seahawks’ 25-23 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.:
1) The Seahawks earn the No. 3 seed, but miss out on a bye.
Seattle entered the day still having a chance to earn the No. 2 seed in the NFC and a first-round bye in the postseason. For that to happen the Seahawks needed to defeat San Francisco and have the Atlanta Falcons lose at home against the New Orleans Saints. Seattle did its part, but the Falcons didn’t cooperate — though the Saints tried to help out by staging a fourth-quarter comeback that made it a one-score game in the final minute.
Therefore, the Seahawks finished with the No. 3 seed and will host either the Green Bay Packers or the Detroit Lions next weekend in the wild-card round. Washington had control over the No. 6 seed, but lost a nail-biter 13-10 to the New York Giants to get eliminated. That means the winner of Sunday night’s game between Green Bay and Detroit will win the NFC North and the loser will be the No. 6 seed and travel to Seattle either next Saturday or Sunday.
You can bet the Seahawks are rooting for the Packers in that Sunday night game. Seattle just played Green Bay three weeks ago and was annihilated 38-10. Sure, that game was at Lambeau Field, not CenturyLink Field, but I can’t imagine the Seahawks would be looking forward to another dose of Aaron Rodgers, as opposed to facing a Lions team that went into the final week with a negative scoring differential.
On a side note, how much does Seahawks coach Pete Carroll actually value playoff seeding? Carroll inserted back-up quarterback Trevone Boykin with more than nine minutes remaining and Seattle leading by nine. Boykin remained in after the 49ers cut the lead to two with 5:42 to go. I get that it looked like the Falcons were going to win comfortably, and that Seattle would logistically be in the same situation next week regardless of whether it was the No. 3 or No. 4 seed. But what if the Seahawks ended up losing, finished as the No. 4 seed, then wound up facing the No. 3 seed later in the playoffs? Seattle could have squandered home-field advantage in a playoff game on a dubious coaching decision.
2) Turnovers matter.
Seattle’s defense didn’t play well early in the game. Twice in the first quarter San Francisco marched right down the field against Seattle’s defense, resulting in two touchdowns. At the end of the first quarter the Seahawks had been outgained 154-10. When the 49ers scored on the first play of the second quarter it put Seattle in a 14-3 hole.
But it was turnovers that rescued the Seahawks in the first half. Seattle pounced on a botched handoff on the game’s second play from scrimmage, taking over at the San Francisco 21-yard line. Although Seattle’s offense wasn’t able to do anything on the drive, the Seahawks at least got a field goal out of it. Then on the 49ers’ first full possession of the second quarter Seattle defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin stripped the ball away from 49ers running back DuJuan Harris, with defensive end Frank Clark recovering the fumble and rumbling to the San Francisco 15. This time the Seahawks cashed in, with Russell Wilson hitting Luke Wilson for an 11-yard touchdown pass to pull Seattle within a point at 14-13. Seattle’s offense hadn’t done much up to that point, but the short fields provided by the turnovers kept the Seahawks in the game.
Seattle’s defense hasn’t been a takeaway defense this season, coming into the game tied for 23rd in the league with just 17 turnovers forced. Sunday’s game illustrated how much turnovers can affect an outcome.
3) Seattle’s running game was not able to get healthy against the 49ers.
This was supposed to be Seattle’s opportunity to get its run game back on track. After struggling to run the ball through the first half of the season, the Seahawks seemed to get back on rack with a four-game stretch in which they averaged 163.8 yards per game on the ground. But that came screeching to a halt the past two weeks, when Seattle was stuffed by the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals to the tune of 75.0 yards per game and 2.6 yards per carry. A date with the 49ers was supposed to cure those ills, as San Francisco came into the game with the worst run defense in the league, allowing 171.1 yards per contest.
It didn’t work out that way. The Seahawks had 87 yards rushing on 25 carries, which is just 3.5 yards per carry. No. 1 running back Thomas Rawls was never a factor, managing just 14 yards on eight carries. J.D. McKissic, just signed last week, found himself starting Seattle’s second drive at running back. Eventually rookie Alex Collins was inserted and he was the most effective of the group, going for 55 yards on seven carries, including a 26-yarder.
While Seattle’s run game never got going, it wasn’t given much of a chance, either. Seattle ran the ball just nine times in the first half for 20 yards. During their first 10 drives the Seahawks had just 15 runs, as 10 came on the final two drives of the game with Boykin at quarterback, when Seattle was just trying to run out the clock. It seems unlikely that whoever the Seahawks face next week, that they’ll be intimidated by Seattle’s run threat.
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