First thing’s first, I thought San Francisco deserved to win. They moved the ball on offense far better than the Seahawks and defensively, with a bit of assistance from a confusing Seattle game-plan, the home offense never got going.
But for two interceptions from Brock Purdy and some awful special teams, they could’ve coasted to a win. In fact, they probably should’ve done. I thought watching this game there was a separation between the two teams that hopefully was merely an ugly one-off.
Klint Kubiak’s offense was painful to watch. Why was it so tricky? Why is the third string quarterback running a draw on your opening drive? Why try funky attempted wide screens thrown into traffic to establish momentum? Why did they go away from outside zone as soon as the 49ers had a little joy against it?
There were too many runs from the shotgun, too many attempts to catch the 49ers out and not enough bread and butter for what we know this scheme to be.
They insisted on running with a two-headed monster in the backfield despite Zach Charbonnet clearly being the hot-hand. Ken Walker looks like a player totally devoid of confidence. Any time he was on the field, you could feel the crowd slumping in their seats. Why did they not run behind Charbonnet in the second half when he was effectively going for near enough five-yards-per-carry?
Is the passing game completely reliant on Jaxon Smith-Njigba? Why were the tight ends not utilised? Was it really as hard as it looked to get the other receivers involved? If they’re one dimensional in their passing game it’ll be a problem.
Some have voiced concern about Seattle’s ability to drive the ball downfield. In this game the deep-ball felt like a total afterthought. They never tried to stretch the 49ers or really attack the secondary. That’s concerning.
The offense was bailed out time and time again by a defense playing its heart out and that has to be the positive takeaway. They gave everything to keep it tight. It was an achievement they had opportunities to win — and that was thanks to defense and special teams.
Yet even at the end they succumbed thanks to two horrible plays by Riq Woolen, who again showed the rollercoaster journey that he provides in coverage (that will also, as it happens, prevent him from getting a big contract from anyone in the future). He simply has to be stronger on the game-winning score. Make a play there, even if it’s not an interception. He was so poor in coverage on the initial deep-ball my first reaction from my view at the other end of the stadium was to question whether it was a linebacker mismatch exploited by the 49ers.
Regardless, I think we can see from this game that the defense will make Seattle competitive. The offense, however, is a major worry. They have to improve immediately, because they go to Pittsburgh next and can ill-afford to drop into an 0-2 hole to start the season. Even if they’d delivered a late score to steal a win, this would need to be viewed as a tough debut for Kubiak, Sam Darnold and co.
You won’t win many games in the NFL when you have 10 fewer first downs, 230 total yards only and a near 16-minute difference in time of possession.
The big concern for me is — are they being tricky because they feel they have to? Are they not good enough on offense at the skill positions to just run their plays and hurt teams? I didn’t think so coming into the season but maybe I was wrong?
It’s a question we’ll know the answer to pretty quickly.
A final note — the Seahawks are now 16-19 at home since fans returned to Lumen Field in 2021. They are 1-7 in their last eight home games. This is a problem that isn’t going away.
