Seahawks lose to 49ers and could miss playoffs

The Seahawks lost to the 49ers in week 15. The loss means that Seattle will most likely have to win against the Cardinals in week 17.

Hello, fellow 12s. I have to be honest here; I am pretty upset about the Seahawks loss. Seattle lost to the 49ers on Sunday 26-23 in overtime. This was a game in which Seattle had better talent and was healthier. But what they didn’t have was better offensive coaching.

First and second down were challenges for Seattle. Even to start overtime when Seattle’s offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer should have shown whatever wild side he had, he refused. Seattle ran up the middle on both plays. Seattle was then forced to throw a deep out pass and the Seahawks were called for holding.

This wasn’t really a surprise, though, because the Seahawks were called for several key holding penalties when the calls negated first downs. J.R. Sweezy had two holding calls called on him. Both were terrible calls. Germain Ifedi had a holding call go against him too.

But Ethan Pocic was the winner of the chicken dinner of the day after he was forced into action after Jordan Simmons was injured. Pocic had a holding penalty called against him with 53 seconds left in the game which basically killed a Seattle drive that could have won the game. And Pocic did it again in overtime on the McKissic play which basically ended any hopes of a game-winning drive.

The NFL also called two awful pass interference calls against Seattle. One was against Delano Hill. The other was against Shaquill Griffin. The Griffin penalty came in overtime. Neither penalty was warranted and even the TV crew calling the game for FOX thought the calls were bad.

The NFL needs to look at its rules. Otherwise, all that time becoming “America’s game” will give way to the NBA or something. NFL rules are confusing. Moreover, penalty calls seem, at times, to be intentional to not allow a team to gain momentum.

But one could make the argument that Seattle was simply badly out-coached at the beginning of the game. For a team with hopes of making the playoffs, Seattle seemed to come out as the less motivated team compared to the 49ers. Sure, the 49ers only had two more total yards in the first half than Seattle, but that was because the 49ers ran a kickoff back for a touchdown and had another drive ended by a fumble.

Schottenheimer’s play-calling throughout the game lacked imagination and never let Russell Wilson and company get any rhythm. Cases in points: Wilson ended with a passer rating of 117.3 and had 2 touchdowns and no picks and Chris Carson ran for 119 yards and a touchdown.

And this wasn’t enough for Seattle to win because Schottenheimer kept putting the Seahawks into 2nd-and-long or 3rd-and-long situations. The odd thing is that Schottenheimer seems to call better games when Seattle has more to gain rather than more to lose.

Seattle now faces the Chiefs on Sunday night. Patrick Mahomes will eat the Seattle secondary for dinner if Seattle comes out as flat as it did to start week 15. So let’s assume Seattle loses. For a team that needed one win in their last three games to make the playoffs, this means their final game against the Cardinals will be huge. The Seahawks should make the playoffs, but now they could easily miss them. They still have to win a game.