Seahawks Win Bizarre Game in San Francisco, Face Lions Next
By Ben Renner
The Seahawks got an unconvincing win thanks to a furious comeback in Santa Clara over the lowly San Francisco 49ers.
The Seahawks came back from a 14-3 deficit to beat the San Francisco 49ers on the road yesterday in a bizarre game. Why was it bizarre? Several reasons, the first of which was the game’s final score, a 25-23 squeaker in which the Seahawks yet again allowed a fourth-quarter touchdown to an opponent, throwing open the door to defeat.
The weirdness of this Week 17 game started before the kickoff. Judging from the crowd shots, there appeared to be at least a few hundred Seahawks fans in Levi’s Stadium, apparently matching the number of 9ers fans in attendance. Hanging over the team before the Seahawks game was the likelihood that General Manager Trent Baalke would be fired along with head coach Chip Kelly. News came through during the first quarter that Baalke had indeed been let go. News followed that Kelly was canned soon after his team’s narrow defeat yesterday.
A team not playing for anything for a lame duck coach is capable of many things. For the first quarter, the 49ers took over. The San Francisco defense, carrying the stigma of being the worst defense in the NFL, held Seattle to 10 yards in the first quarter. Backup running back Shaun Draughn gashed the Seahawks for two long catches and punched in two touchdowns in the first half.
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But it gets weirder. The NFL’s worst rushing defense stifled the Seahawks’ rushing attack most of the game, holding starter Thomas Rawls to 14 yards on eight carries. Oddly, Seattle got a boost from rookie backup Alex Collins. Collins was the one to revive the running attack in this game. Weird. In the second half, the two division rivals started yelling at each other and fighting, not unusual, but then rookie defensive tackle Jarran Reed got ejected for an unnecessary roughness penalty. Second-year defensive end Frank Clark then got in Reed’s face and almost started their own fight on the sidelines.
I can’t make this stuff up. Jon Ryan watched helplessly as a snap sailed well over his head through the endzone for a safety. Probably the weirdest part of the game was in the second half, with the Seahawks ahead 25-16 (they also had a PAT blocked, again). Pete Carroll must have looked up at the scoreboard and saw the Falcons with a multi-score lead at home against New Orleans and figured the team would be playing at home in the Wild Card round anyway, so he benched Russell Wilson. Backup Trevone Boykin came in and played well while trying to ice the game.
Then, another weird thing happened, or possibly not so weird for this Seahawks defense in recent weeks: the 9ers scored in the fourth quarter to draw to within two points. With the Saints mounting a comeback in the Georgia Dome and his team’s result in doubt, Carroll stuck with Boykin, who ended up doing his job.
After all was said and done, the Seahawks hold the number-three seed in the NFC, with a home Wild Card date with reeling Detroit on Saturday. If yesterday was any indication, anything can happen this Seahawks season.
Next: The Seahawks are Strictly Mediocre Heading into the Playoffs