Here’s one way to look at the reason the Seattle Seahawks lost a slugfest against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. San Fran’s future Hall of Fame receiver Mike Evans came up huge at every key moment, while Seattle’s dominant receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba failed one time to make a big play. That would be the wrong takeaway.
If that’s all it was, Seattle would have nothing to worry about. But Seattle does have something to worry about because this game was lost due to reasons that have been brewing all season long. These are things that Mike Macdonald can fix. I fully expect he will fix them. But they speak to the difficulty in staying on top in the NFL.
The Seattle Seahawks still have a very fine football team which should be in contention for a title come season’s end. But they are failing in ways that are uncharacteristic. I really don’t think it’s the obvious culprits – the turnovers or JSN’s unlikely drop in the final minute.
3 troubling takeaways from the Seattle Seahawks’ Week 5 loss to San Francisco
Those things will happen to even the best teams and best players. Seattle will not make those kinds of mistakes often. But there are three things that are more insidious, and these are what will ultimately determine how far the 2026 Hawks go.
Seahawks cannot run
This is the most obvious problem the offense has. It is a more consistent issue than the turnovers. Emanuel Wilson and George Holani carried the ball 24 times for 68 yards. That is under three yards per carry. That will not win championships.
Again, I don’t want to harp on the fumbles. They probably cost Seattle this particular game, but the bigger issue is that these backs cannot consistently make big runs.
They cannot do what we saw Christian McCaffrey do throughout the game. They cannot take a three-yard run and turn it into a six-yard run. They cannot – every once in a while – take that same three-yard run and turn it into a 35-yard touchdown.
Zach Charbonnet can do the former. Kenneth Walker could do the latter. Without them, Seattle simply doesn’t have the type of rushing attack that will worry a good defense like San Francisco.
Seahawks was out-physicalled up front
This never happened last year. It has been happening this year. It may not be surprising that the Seahawks offensive line was routinely pushed backwards by San Francisco.
The Seattle line, especially without the power-blocking Anthony Bradford, can be overmatched inside. Grey Zabel, Jalen Sundell, and either Christian Haynes or Beau Stephens are good players, but they are not dominant players.
Quite frankly, they made Gracen Halton and Osa Odighizuwa look like Pro Bowlers. Seattle averaged 4.2 yards per play. One big run by JSN pulled the rushing average up to 3.4. Sam Darnold was sacked five times and under pressure all night.
But far more troubling was the way San Francisco’s offensive line pushed Seattle’s formidable defense around late in the game. To be fair, the Seahawks defense was very good throughout much of the game. But when they needed it most, they allowed a depleted 49ers offense to run the ball down their throats.
Which brings us to the final worrisome observation…
Seahawks is not finishing games
In the last three weeks, the Seahawks have lost the fourth quarter 30-17 while losing two of three games. Wilting late runs so counter to what this team did last season that it defies explanation. Seattle has surrendered 88 points in those three games. That is not all the fault of the defense. Against the 49ers, 21 points are directly attributable to failures by the offense.
But in the fourth quarter over the last three weeks, Seattle has given up 30 points – or 34 percent of the total points allowed. And that is not the fault of the offense. That is because the defense, for whatever reason, is not imposing its will the way it did late last season.
There are recurring problems that we have known about this year’s club. They are kicking too many field goals. They are too reliant on JSN. Penalties. Turnovers. Those are all legit concerns. But they don’t worry me long-term.
Running, being tougher than the opponent, and finishing strong do worry me. The first one was not hard to see coming. But the second and third? Those are surprises. They are attitudinal, and it could be that a team like Seattle simply cannot maintain its fine edge indefinitely. They may not be able to flip a switch and get back to where they were last season.
The good news is that it is still early and this team still has enormous talent. We will see in the coming weeks whether they start playing with the edge and swagger that made them champions last season, or whether they are ceding that to hungrier teams like San Francisco in 2026.
Add us as a preferred source on Google