The San Francisco 49ers clinched the NFC West division championship with a 21-13 defeat of the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night at Lumen Stadium in Seattle. San Francisco is assured to have at least one game at home in the playoffs.
San Francisco took the lead late when Brock Purdy connected with George Kittle from 28 yards out on the 49ers second offensive possession of the game. Purdy faked a screen to his left then to his right before firing a pass down the middle to Kittle.
Late in the first half, Dre Greenlaw’s hit on Travis Homer forced the Seahawks running back to fumble. Charvarius Ward scooped up the loose ball and took it down to the Seattle six. Two plays later Christian McCaffrey got into the endzone from a yard out to put San Francisco up 14-3 at the half.
The 49ers got the ball to open the second half and wasted little time extending their lead.
On the second play of the half Purdy found Kittle alone down the left side and got him the ball. The tight end did the rest for a 56-yard touchdown.
Here are answers to the five questions asked prior to the game.
1.) Can Brock Purdy get it done on the road? YES
Playing with a oblique and rib injuries in Seattle on a short week, Purdy was once again the best quarterback on the field. The rookie hit his first 11 throws of the game to get the 49ers offense off to a solid start. He finished 17-26, 217 yards and two touchdowns.
Purdy became the first 49ers rookie quarterback since at least 1970 to throw at least two touchdowns three games in a row.
The quarterback did not only make plays with his arm. Facing third and one while trying to run out the clock late in the fourth quarter, Purdy took off around the right side on a bootleg. As a Seahawk defender closed in, he extended the ball in front of him and slid down. The resulting first down closed out the game for San Francisco.
2.) Will the 49ers replace the production of Deebo Samuel? YES
Without Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey stepped up with 138 total yards of offense. The running back gained 108 yards on and scored a touchdown on 26 carries. He also had six receptions for 30 yards.
George Kittle had his most explosive game of the season. Included in his four catches for 93 yards were scores from 28 and 56 yards out.
3.) Can the 49ers stop Kenneth Walker? YES
The 49ers have not allowed a runner to gain more than 59 yards on them this season. They continued that dominance on Thursday night they held Walker to only 47 yards on 12 carries.
4.) Will the 49ers defense get to Geno Smith? YES
The 49ers defense held Geno Smith to only 4.4 net yards per pass. Smith completed 31 of 44 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown, but he was only able to get Seattle into the endzone once.
Smith was under constant pressure. San Francisco was able to hit the Seahawks quarterback nine times and Nick Bosa, Samson Ebukam and Talanoa Hufanga each recorded a sack.
5.) Can San Francisco figure out how to win in Seattle? YES
San Francisco was able to win for only the sixth time in its last 22 games at Seattle. The crowd was not able to get into the game until late in the fourth quarter as the 49ers took control of the game throughout the early going.
Under Kyle Shanahan the 49ers have won the NFC West twice, clinching the division title with victories in Seattle both times.
Prediction:
49ers 23 Seahawks 16
What a joy to watch these guys play.
This is a special team we are watching.
How ever all of this turns out does not distract from how blessed we are as fans to be able to cheer on this magical team.
Go 9ers.
I agree 100%. It’s always a good time to be a Niner fan, but especially now.
agree
One more burning question: Can Kyle keep his roster relatively healthy between now and the postseason?
Based on the way Kyle used Deebo last week, and CMC tonight (34 touches, while JP Mason got 4), I’d say the answer is NO, and that’s seriously depressing! I don’t understand the way Kyle’s brain works, but what I do know is that he has no clue how to help protect his key players (the injury history of the 49ers under Kyle, speaks for itself) and that’s a real shame!
The opposite of grateful and happiness. The only real shame is your sour attitude. What a way to live life.
In case you missed, in the spirit of the season, Jaxson was quite gracious and wished everyone here a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on the live blog. Thank you Jaxson and the best to you(and the blog) this holiday season and always. Totally share Jaxson’s concern about Shanahan’s overuse of CMC. Continue to believe KS will get tight during the playoffs and find some way to muck things up.
Kyle needlessly overusing McCaffery has been an issue for me over the past couple of games. But at this point, it’s a minor gripe heaped on top of a bunch of success.
Who pissed in your Post Toasties, this morning? Maybe Jordan Mason doesn’t have as good a grip on the offense as McCaffrey does…maybe his pass blocking needs work…there could be any number of reasons why Shanahan isn’t using him more….maybe you should coach the team, and make decisions during the game, since you seem to have a handle on the personnel, and situations
Jaxon/49reasons does nothing but post ignorant garbage on this and other boards. He calls for Shanahan to be fired regularly and is probably very unhappy that the team is doing so well right now. The guy is a loser and worst kind of commenter.
That roughing call on Bosa was garbage. Dumpster fire garbage. This game shouldn’t have been a 1 score game in the 4th qtr but that trash calls gave the Seahawks life. NFL needs to do something about their officials, 99% of them are terrible at their jobs.
1.6 that’s right, How is a D.E. supposed to tackle a guy ? Jaxon – Cheer up we’re a great team, you should be grateful to be here !
I thought the same thing and was very irritated by that roughing call. However, Bosa was asked that very question after the game and his response was that it was his fault as related to how the officials call roughing the passer. In other words he was saying that he knows how they are calling that penalty and he knows how to avoid the call, but made a mistake on that play. It still looked like a BS call, but I have to go with Bosa’s answer on that one.
off topic a bit . i lost the blog name of the site Razor and some of the other former posters from this site started.if anybody can post it for me i would be grateful
Here you go k
https://inspired49ers.blogspot.com/
thanks
Great prediction from Jack on this game. Bosa says that the call was likely to correct given the rule. He thought Gino had the ball and he was trying to knock it out. The game seemed to turn at that moment and it was much closer the rest of the way. Still, wonderful win in Seattle, and we have had too few of those.
It’s the correct call to the letter of the rules. So the refs made the right call. The issue is the rules themselves. The roughing the passer calls needed to be re-evaluated to make it realistic to call fairly. As someone said, there’s nothing Bosa could have done to prevent landing on top of the QB while sacking him unless he learns to hover.
Allfor,
Watch Bosa’s sack he tackles him to the letter of the rule. He admitted that he knew better than to tackle him in the manner he did. I agree with you that the NFL should clean up the rule but it looks like they are going in the other direction in that they may start ejecting players for roughing the passer. You can lay most of the blame for these over protecting of the QB rules at the feet of Tom Brady. Every time he gets touched he cries like a little B**** and the NFL reacts and makes another rule protecting QB’s.
I believe there are 3 keys to the rest of this season.
#1Getting the #2 seed in the playoffs.
#2 getting and staying healthy.
#3 The O line achieving some level of consistency.
As to #1 they need to balance the advantage of being the second seed with staying healthy. The second seed guarantees them 2 home games in the playoffs and with Phil facing Dalll in the 2nd round it gives the 9ers a good shot at 3 home games in the playoffs. Getting and staying healthy, they need to have a healthy Armstead, Givens and Kinlaw going into the playoffs. A healthy Mitchell, CMC and Mason going into the playoffs. To achieve that goal KS needs to give Mason at least 12 touches a game and limit CMC to about 15. They need a healthy and rested Bosa. I would like to see them rest Bosa around 25 to 30 percent of the plays.. As to the O line gaining consistency they look good one game and terribly inconsistent the next that can’t continue into the playoffs. I have said it numerous times over the years, games are won in the trenches and the 49ers success is totally dependent on the O line.
QUESTION: Will the 9er VS Commanders game be a preview of the 9ers first 2022 playoff game? It’s looking like it could be…
ENJOY IT 9ER FANS!
I.m not sure if I want the 9ers playing Wash in the playoffs. Wash D is playing second only to the 9ers D at this time. There starting D line may be better than the 9ers. I don’t want to see them matched up against the 9ers very inconsistent O line