Dinner Served: Seahawks roast 49ers, 19-3, in Turkey Day showdown

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On Thanksgiving night, the Seattle Seahawks proved they were the hungrier team.

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On almost all ends of the spectrum, they dominated the San Francisco 49ers, 19-3 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., to win for the second time in five days against an NFC West opponent.

With the victory, Seattle improved to 8-4 on the year and are on the heels of the 9-2 Arizona Cardinals in the West division. The 49ers, meanwhile, dropped to 7-5.

Marshawn Lynch rushed for 104 yards on 20 carries, Russell Wilson completed 68 percent of his passes for 236 yards and the Seahawks defense allowed only a field goal for the second-straight week.

The game started as a battle of great defenses — both teams punted the football on each of their first two possessions. Then Richard Sherman stepped up for the Seahawks and intercepted a Colin Kaepernick pass late in the first quarter.

The Seahawks took advantage of the turnover when Wilson found Robert Turbin for a 13-yard touchdown on a swing pass that gave Seattle a 7-0 lead. Turbin finished the game with two catches for 47 yards and eight rushing yards.

Nov 27, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch (24) runs the ball against the San Francisco 49ers in the second quarter at Levi

The Seahawks scored on each of their next two possessions, a pair of field goals from Steven Hauschka from 21 and 36 yards out to give the Seahawks a 13-0 lead at halftime.

At the half, Seattle had outgained San Francisco 197-71 in total yards. The 49ers were forced to punt the ball on five of their six first half possessions and the only time they didn’t punt was because of Sherman’s interception.

In the third quarter, Hauschka kicked another field goal to make it a 16-0 game but San Francisco’s Phil Dawson nailed a 40-yarder at the end of the quarter to put the 49ers on the board for the first time and make it a 16-3 Seahawks advantage.

The final period saw Hauschka kick his fourth three pointer of the evening to make it 19-3. He was 4-for-4 on Thursday night after going 4-for-5 on Sunday against the Cardinals.

With about seven minutes left in the quarter, Sherman picked off his second pass of the game. Coming into the contest, he had only had one interception all season. In eight career games against the 49ers, Sherman has four picks.

If there was anything that needed improvement on the Seahawks end, it was certainly the number of penalties they were called for.

The referees tallied 14 flags against Seattle for 105 yards while the 49ers were only called three times for 20 yards. Yes, you read that right… fourteen penalties. At one point, with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Seattle had more penalty yards (95) than Kaepernick had passing yards (90).

Kaepernick had a miserable night, completing only 16 of 29 passes for 121 yards. Frank Gore was San Francisco’s leading rusher with 28 yards on 10 carries.

The Seahawks dominated the total yards category, 379-164.They forced three turnovers and won the possession game, 35:19-24:41.

Seattle will now get some well-deserved rest, a mini-bye if you will. They won’t be back on the field until Dec. 7 when they visit the Philadelphia Eagles (9-3), who are at the top of the NFC East after dismantling the Dallas Cowboys earlier on Thanksgiving Day.