The Seattle Seahawks burnt the turkey on Thanksgiving, leaving fans off-put and woefully disappointed. With the vaunted San Francisco 49ers coming to town, Seattle had a chance to prove itself amongst NFC competitors before a brutal end-of-season stretch. Instead, a horrifying first half was quick to dampen those hopes.
The Seahawks lost 31-13, having been outplayed in virtually every category. They were outgained by over 150 yards, saw nine fewer first downs, sacked five more times, and ran 11 fewer plays. They had 11 fewer minutes of possession but two more penalties and an additional turnover. Simply put, it wasn’t pretty.
Subsequently, there was plenty of blame to pass around. Quarterback Geno Smith’s -0.33 expected points added per play was a tenth-percentile performance. Both star receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett produced negative four expected points added on the night, with Metcalf’s drops stunting Seattle at multiple points.
The defense wasn’t much better. Veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner was identified by 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan as a weakness and exploited for four quarters. Cornerback Riq Woolen was benched, a determination head coach Pete Carroll said came down to health. Regardless, San Francisco found success all game on the ground and on timely strikes through the air.
Defensive tackle Jarran Reed didn’t call Seattle’s issues a talent or coaching concern, at least not directly. He spoke about the Seahawks’ struggles after the loss.
“I think everybody needs to go and look at themselves,” Reed said. “They need to have a reality check with themselves and ask themselves are they playing with passion, with the heart that they need to play with for us to win games. Because right now, we’ve got to pick it up. We have got to pick it up.”
Reed had two pressures in the loss to go along with four tackles, though he missed one. Pro Football Focus gave him a mediocre 59.7 grade on the night, good for seventh-best on that side of the ball. The fact that nine Seahawks defenders graded out worse than that speaks directly to the issue. They just didn’t have it on Thursday. The 49ers require opponents’ “A-games” and some lucky bounces to beat them.
Seattle did not bring the former and could not find the latter.
With that said, Reed isn’t concerned “at all.”
“I have faith in this team,” Reed said. “I’ve got faith. I got plenty of faith. We work hard, we run hard, we’re together. We just have to put it all together. And we’ve got to do that quick.”
Quick is right. With the Dallas Cowboys, 49ers, and Philadelphia Eagles coming in the next three weeks, falling out of the NFC playoff picture is a legitimate possibility. They’ll have just a week to prepare for Week 13’s edition of Thursday Night Football against Dallas, who happens to be on an incredible hot streak and a 13-game win streak at Jerry World.
The clock is ticking on Seattle’s playoff aspirations.
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