The San Francisco 49ers completely folded in a must-win situation, losing to the Seattle Seahawks 20-17 at home. This dropped them to 5-5 and all but guarantees they won’t finish with the top seed like they did last season. San Francisco played a sloppy and undisciplined game on offense while the defense got left in the dust on the game’s final drive. It was an all-around disaster of a game for the 49ers.
The 49ers face two playoff contenders on the road in their next two games. The Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills. There is a real possibility of them falling to 5-7 by the time the home stretch of the regular season arrives, and that is not a hole they seem capable of climbing out of. Several issues with this team continue to show up week after week, and if they are not addressed in a significant way, the San Francisco 49ers will fall short of their Super Bowl aspirations.
The Passing Game Struggles
While it is true that San Francisco didn’t have George Kittle for this game, they still have other weapons in place. Christian McCaffrey was there as well as Deebo Samuel and even Trent Williams managed to suit up despite his ankle issues throughout the week. Against a defense that they torched the last time they played, the 49ers passing game was dead in the water against Seattle from start to finish. A large part of the reason why was due to the struggles of the 49ers offensive line. They committed six of the team’s nine penalties and generally struggled in picking up Seattle’s crafty blitzes.
It’s been a weakness of this 49ers team all season. They’ve been notoriously ineffective at picking up blitzes and this week unearthed the reason why. People have diagnosed the issue as falling at the feet of Kyle Shanahan. His system does not allow for Brock Purdy to change the protection schemes at the line of scrimmage, and teams have picked up on it. There were several plays in this game where Seattle knew how San Francisco was going to block them and then sent a perfect blitz package to counter that.
Seahawks Head Coach Mike Macdonald put together an excellent game plan to stop this 49ers offense, and it worked well. They held San Francisco to just 17 points and made the plays they needed to make in crucial situations. One of which was forcing Purdy to throw hot on 3rd and 11 late in the fourth quarter to give their offense one more chance to win the game. The 49ers also struggled way more running the football than they did in their prior game vs Seattle. Part of this was due to Seattle being healthier this time around.
Nick Bosa’s Injury
Nick Bosa was dominant in this game, finishing with 1.5 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, and 4 QB hits. Unfortunately for the 49ers, he was only on the field for 26 snaps. Bosa left the game early in the third quarter with an oblique injury, and it immediately changed the course of the game. The Seahawks scored 14 points and had 187 yards in the second half once he left. The 49ers couldn’t get the same level of pressure they had on Geno Smith once Bosa left, and it translated to their entire defense falling apart in the end.
The 49ers did a good job at stopping the run, limiting Kenneth Walker to just 54 yards on 14 carries. That is until the very last drive of the game. Ironically it was Geno Smith who trounced them on the ground, with two huge scrambles that went for 29 yards, one of which went for the go-ahead touchdown with 12 seconds left. An otherwise productive day for the 49ers defense went up in smoke because they couldn’t stop the Seahawks offense when they needed to the most. Now, if Nick Bosa is out for any period this defense could become a liability rather than an asset.
Final Thoughts
The San Francisco 49ers have their backs against the wall. They are in serious jeopardy of not making the playoffs, let alone winning their division. Until they clean up their schematic issues in protection, or if they just let Purdy change the protection at the line, then their offense will continue to struggle. Their next two games will show the NFL world who they are in 2024: Contenders or Pretenders!
