After a Week 1 upset win vs the Denver Broncos, the Seattle Seahawks could not keep the ball moving and fell flat vs their division rival, the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2.
There was a lot of optimism from the Seahawks going into this game vs their division rival the 49ers after riding high from their Week 1 victory over Russell Wilson and the Broncos. That optimism came crashing back down as soon as their opening drive started.
The Seattle Seahawks could not get the ball moving well enough to get consistent offensive drives vs Nick Bosa and the 49ers defense.
Although the box score will not show, this game was not close from the start. The Seahawks was clearly overmatched in all facet of the game. This loss is a reminder that this Seahawks season will be a long and painful one.
Takeaways from the Seahawks bad loss in Week 2 to the 49ers
The biggest news coming out of this game was not even from the Seahawks but rather a season-ending ankle injury from 49ers’ young quarterback Trey Lance. It was a gruesome injury and we wish nothing but the best for Trey.
However, the departure of Trey Lance in the first quarter did not remotely help jumpstart the Seahawks. San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was able to outmatch Seattle’s Geno Smith. We already know what this team is capable of offensively, it was, however, a painful pill to swallow to see it happen this early in the season.
Now that the Seahawks have tasted defeat, we shall see how this team responds to such adversity after returning to reality.
This defeat is a collective one, and cannot be pointed to a single player. The team must quickly find answers before it is too late and see themselves looking up on the standings.
Seahawks special team saved them from being blanked
It is hard to find any positives after this game. The Seahawks were clearly a class under compared to their division rival, the 49ers. Although it was raining all throughout the game, the Seahawks cannot blame that as the 49ers are also playing in the same condition.
The Seahawks cannot find anything going on in this game. Their offensive drives kept stalling, and their defense cannot stop the 49ers from marching down the field. If there is anything that the Seahawks can look back on from this game, it’s the fact that they were not blanked on the scoreboard. Some positivity can go a long way and this team badly needs it and they need those as much as they can going into Week 3.
If we want to see this as a positive for the Seahawks, their only score came from their special team. In the 3rd quarter when the score was 20-0 for the 49ers and looked poised to add some more points on the board, cornerback Tariq Woolen was able to block Robbie Gould’s 20-yard field goal attempt. The ball rolled and cornerback Michael Jackson was able to scoop it and run it back down on the other side to the house for the Seahawks’ only score of the game.
The defensive effort gave some life to the Seahawks’ sideline momentarily but sadly, much like the entire game, they could not capitalize on their chances.
The Seahawks non-existent offense
Coming into this game, we knew it will be a sloppy game due to the rain. What we didn’t realize is that it will greatly affect Seattle’s game as a whole. Like I said earlier, they cannot blame the weather for their inefficiency on the field, but what happened to their offense?
Their run game was nowhere to be seen even with the addition of second-round pick rookie Ken Walker, who was coming from hernia surgery. The combination of Rashaad Penny and Walker was only able to muster 25 rushing yards on 10 attempts. Say that again, only 25 rush yards from two players, what in the world does this team do to have such a pitiful run game?
Seattle cannot establish the run in order to help Geno Smith in this game. Geno was not able to find his grove against a relentless pass rush by the 49ers. Geno was his usual self only throwing for 197 yards but unlike their Week 1 win vs the Broncos, he was not able to throw for a touchdown in this game.
The Seahawks must find a solution to boost this offense well enough to be in the game. Anything that can help jumpstart this offense will do, but please, no more DeeJay Dallas trickery.
Flag on the play (and everyone seemingly on the Seahawks)
Even though the game was never out of hand for the Seahawks, they were not able to capitalize on the chances they have in this game. Their inability to drive the ball down the field was clear as they were only able to convert two of seven third downs.
What made Seattle’s day worse was their penalties. Seattle got flagged 10 times for 106 yards. On the other side, the San Francisco 49ers were only called for one that caused them 26 yards. Getting penalized and giving away that much yardage in a game wherein they can only muster very little sank this team.
The Seahawks must quickly clean this penalty mess up as they cannot afford to give the other team enough chances to bury them. Seattle needs to learn how to play a near flawless game for them to be able to stay in it and be able to steal some wins away. The team already has so much ineffectiveness in their offense and putting more burden on it due to penalties create an even bigger problem.
Let us hope the Seahawks are going to be able to correct this penalty issue moving forward and be able to win some more games this season.