Seattle Seahawks January preview and predictions
By Jake Luppino
Seattle’s last regular-season game is on the road in Arizona to take on the 49ers
Sunday, January 3rd, 2020: Week 17 — Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers
The Seattle Seahawks close out the season on the road taking on divisional rival, the San Francisco 49ers. This game will not be as easy as everyone thinks. Despite all the injuries, the 49ers continue to find ways to compete. Just last week, they defeated the Arizona Cardinals in an upset win. Kyle Shanahan has proven he can coach with nearly any quarterback. The key for this San Francisco team is very similar to that of Los Angeles. If they can establish the run, they can essentially do what they want when they want.
Luckily for Seattle, their defense has really turned things around. In what has been one of the more remarkable transformations in the NFL, this Seattle defense now ranks near the top of every statistical category entering Week 17. In the month of December, they held each of their opponents to under 20 points.
In fact, they had the best scoring defense over the last month. The turnaround of this defense might propel this team to make a deep run in the playoffs. When the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl in back-to-back years, it was primarily because of the dominant defensive play. Now, not only is their defense humming but they have some legit weapons on offense.
This game against San Francisco is going to be similar to that of Week 16. The Seahawks will need to not only set the edge but be ready to burst up the gap and make a play. The 49ers run their fair share of motions. But, they like to run a lot of gap runs. In essence, this means that the LG or RG will pull to the other side and take away that LB, leaving a gap on whichever side they are running towards. This gap run scheme helped them get to the Super Bowl last year. If the Seahawks can slow down the run, they will force whoever is playing quarterback, to beat them with their arm.
What Will Determine the Outcome: Healthy Balance
In the win over the Rams, the Seahawks offense was stagnant in the first half. Granted, the Rams have a top 3 defense in the league. But, if Seattle were to get their offense going earlier in the game, it could have potentially been a blowout. The key for Seattle moving forward is to find that healthy balance.
Not all of their offensive drives will be long and methodical, just like not all of their defensive stops will be three and outs. With that said, if this Seattle offense can hit its offensive stride early in the game by establishing the run, they put themselves in a very good position to win.
When Seattle matched up with San Francisco earlier in the season, the game got off to a slow start. It was a D.J. Reed interception that propelled this Seattle offense for the remainder of the game.
D.K. Metcalf was heavily involved in the passing attack and found success against a banged-up San Francisco secondary. While the 49ers are slowly getting healthier in the backend, you should still expect D.K. Metcalf to have a big game.
Throughout the course of the second half of the season, we have seen more teams drop two high safeties in an attempt to take away the deep ball that Russell Wilson so beautifully throws. As a result, we should expect more of Jacob Hollister and Tyler Lockett in the short passing game. Also, expect Carson to get a heavy workload in this game. Rashaad Penny is slowly working his way back into game shape but should see a handful of snaps.
Next. 3 bold predictions for Seahawks versus 49ers week 17. dark
At one point in the season, the Seahawks had the number one scoring offense in the league. While that has slowed down, they have still the necessary means of being an explosive offense. I expect a big game from Russell Wilson in Week 17, along with a Seahawks victory to close out the regular season.
42. Prediction. 24. 36. 13