SEATTLE – One of the most injury-riddled yet successful seasons in 49ers history is done, finished off by their second-largest playoff defeat ever.
Saturday night’s 41-6 blowout loss to the top-seeded Seahawks ended the short-staffed 49ers’ season, one win shy of the NFC Championship Game and three weeks from Super Bowl LX on their home field.
“I’ve never been a part of a team that’s so behind the 8-ball but just found a way to compete every week,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “We went up against so many rosters that were fully loaded while we were playing with guys that we got a week ago, two weeks ago. … We were extremely shorthanded. So I’m just proud of this team.”
That was the postgame’s widespread theme, with coach Kyle Shanahan and quarterback Brock Purdy echoing that praise.
“The character and the heart of this team was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of,” Purdy said. “I know a lot of guys were saying that — Kyle said it, Trent Williams, everyone feels it. Like the heart, man. So for us, it does excite us. We’re going to regroup and get guys healthy and get back after it. “
The 49ers (13-6) can now take time and tend to their vast casualties before returning next fall for coach Kyle Shanahan’s 10th season. This was the most lopsided loss in his tenure.
“It’s a loss. It’s very understandable to see how it got away,” Shanahan said. “It was a tough playoff loss but definitely won’t make more of it than a loss.”
Williams acknowledged the 49ers’ upset bid was quickly derailed Saturday night, done in by the potent combination of turnovers and a special teams touchdown.
Indeed, starting with Rashid Shaheed’s 95-yard kick return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, the 49ers staked the Seahawks to an immediate 7-0 lead … which grew to 10-0, then 17-0.
The Seahawks (15-3) scored on seven of their first eight possessions, including three touchdown runs by Kenneth Walker III, to build that 41-6 lead with still over 12 minutes to spare in the 49ers’ season.
By halftime, the 49ers were down 24-6. Could Purdy channel the 2023 team’s comeback powers, in which a 24-7 halftime deficit was overcome to beat the Detroit Lions 34-31 for the NFC Championship at Levi’s Stadium?
Nope.
Once linebacker Ernest Jones IV nudged out Luke Farrell for a third-quarter interception, the Seahawks eventually converted it into a 15-yard touchdown run by Walker for a 34-6 cushion. Another Purdy turnover came with 9: 12 remaining, on a strip-sack fumble forced by DeMarcus Lawrence.
The 49ers had won seven straight divisional-round games since 2011, including their past two on the road, at Carolina (2014) and at Green Bay (2021). Their biggest playoff defeat: 49-3 in the 1986 season’s divisional round at the New York Giants, who infamously injured Joe Montana along the way.
“Obviously we’re real disappointed. Obviously we didn’t have it today. Credit to them,” Shanahan said. “I just thanked them for the whole season and how they battled through everything. I thanked what they’d done all year and I am extremely, extremely proud of what they’ve done.”
Two weeks ago, Seattle beat the host 49ers 13-3 to lock up the No. 1 seed. The Seahawks also gained an eight-day rest advantage as the 49ers forged ahead as a sixth-seed wild card, which rallied to win its playoff opener 23-19 at Philadelphia against the defending champion Eagles.
Here, the Seahawks seized upon the 49ers’ depleted defense, with Fred Warner watching in sweats from the sideline rather than being rushed back from ankle surgery three months ago.
False hope perhaps came pregame as Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold did not warm up because of Thursday’s oblique strain. Darnold did enough (12-of-17, 124 yards, one touchdown) that he was relieved with 9 minutes remaining, and the home crowd was cheering for Drew Lock.
A few minutes later, Purdy was pulled for Mac Jones, whose 5-3 record as a fill-in starter earlier in the season played a critical factor in this playoff-bound season while Purdy recovered from a toe injury, which occurred in their Week 1 win here.
Purdy went out with 140 passing yards (15-of-27, one interception, one lost fumble), and 37 rushing yards, which were two more than Christian McCaffrey, who sustained a shoulder stinger just before halftime.
“Obviously that stings and hurts right now,” McCaffrey said of the loss, not the injury. “With time, you learn to appreciate everything that happened this season and all the people that made it happen. I feel very fortunate to be part of this team.”
Essentially, a defeatist tone was set once Shaheed zoomed through the 49ers on his 95-yard kick return, eluding Chase Lucas, Luke Gifford and, alas, kicker Eddy Piñeiro, who tried to trip Shaheed at the 55-yard line.
The 49ers then botched their opening possessions, from a fourth-down run-and-pitch by Kyle Juszczyk to a fumbled reception by Jake Tonges, who started in place of George Kittle (torn Achilles in Sunday’s wild-card win at Philadelphia).
Even after the opening kick, the Seahawks kept scoring and scoring, from a 31-yard Jason Myers field goal to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Darrell Luter Jr. got beat in coverage while never looking for the ball. He was in for the benched Renardo Green, who was getting an earful on the sideline from Shanahan for blown coverage on an earlier 21-yard catch.
Piñeiro field goals from 40 and 56 yards pulled the 49ers within 17-6 with 4 ½ minutes until halftime. The offense seemingly found a rhythm in the second quarter by working from the 5-yard line to the Seattle 38, but it stalled out in part by a double flea-flicker screen (1-yard gain by Demarcus Robinson) and a third-down pass Ricky Pearsall couldn’t scoop in at the Seattle 23.
The Seahawks went ahead 24-6 once Walker got past Marques Sigle’s attempted tackle for a 7-yard touchdown. Earlier on that drive, Shaheed resurfaced for a 30-yard run to the 49ers’ 36-yard line at the 2-minute warning.
“Just knowing the fight these guys have in this locker room, it hurt me to lose like that, and to just lose the game, period,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said. “I was praying we’d go far.”
Seattle’s sizeable halftime lead came despite just 68 passing yards from Darnold, who was 7-of-12 in the first half while likely impacted by Thursday’s oblique strain that kept him out of pregame warmups.
Now that 49ers defense could be losing its coordinator, Robert Saleh, who reprised his 2017-20 role this season and has multiple interviews scheduled, including Sunday video calls with the Titans and the Ravens before in-person visits elsewhere.
“Definitely not the way we wanted to go out. But what’s done is done,” defensive end Sam Okuayinonu said. “Just have to be better next year.”
