49ERS LOSE TO SEAHAWKS 23-17

Vs.

Century Link Field , Seattle , WA - This game played in the Northwest between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks lived up to the anticipated hype. The so called 12th man was not really a factor in this game. The fortunes of the 49ers rose and fell according to the performance of Colin Kaepernick. The game was put on his shoulders and on this occasion the weight was too much for him to bear !

Colin Kaepernick

Aldon Smith

Russell Wilson

The first quarter started in an auspicious way when Aldon Smith sacked Russell Wilson , causing a fumble , which he recovered on the Seattle 11 yard line. The Niners again haunted by red zone woes had to settle for a Phil Dawson field goal from 25 yards out to go ahead 3-0 . In the next Seattle offensive series Wilson was sacked again by Navarro Bowman. The 12th man had nothing to cheer about. San Francisco struggled on offense.

Phil Dawson

Navarro Bowman

Frank Gore

In the second quarter , with the Seahawk defense shutting down Frank Gore , Kaepernick took matters into his own hands. After some scuffling around by the offense , he broke off on a 58 yard run to set up a touchdown. From the 1 yard line Anthony  Dixon launched himself over a stacked line for the score. The Niners went up on Seattle 10-0 and the home town crowd was quiet. Wilson quickly attempted to get the Seahawks back into the game. He hit Doug Baldwin with a 51 yard pass to the San Francisco 11 yard line. The Niner defense manned up and Dan Skuta sacked Wilson again forcing a Steven Hauschka field goal from 32 yards . The 49ers went into the locker room at halftime leading 10-3.

Anthony  Dixon

Doug Baldwin

Dan Skuta

After receiving the second half kickoff the Nine offense stalled and Seattle's offense took over. Wilson directed a long Seahawk scoring drive , which featured the hard running of Marshon Lynch. This change of pace caused the Niner defense to struggle . Lynch capped the drive with a 40 yard run right through the 49er defensive line. This tied the score at 10-10. The Niners responded in kind with their own drive. Kendall Hunter replaced Frank Gore and moved the ball. Kaepernick managed to hit Anquan Boldin with a couple of passes. Then in a broken play , Kaepernick scrambled out of trouble to the right and hit Bolden in the end zone from 26 yards out to put the Niners up again 17-10.

Steven Hauschka

Marshon Lynch

Kendall Hunter

From this point on things would go south for the San Francisco 49ers. On the Kickoff to Seattle , Doug Baldwin ripped right through the Speal team unit for a 69 yard return to the San Francisco 33 yard line. The Niner defense stepped up and denied the Seahawks a red zone touchdown. Steven Hauschka booted a 40 yard field goal to close the gap to 17-13 for Seattle. On the resulting Niner possession the game officials muffed a critical call. On fourth down Andy Lee punted and was hit on his support leg by Chris Maragos. Instead of what should have been a 15 yard penalty Seattle was hit by only a five yard penalty. This ended the 49er drive.

Anquan Boldin

Andy Lee

Chris Maragos

Seattle then went on a scoring drive. Aldon Smith went off side and Wilson took advantage of this to toss a 35 yard touchdown pass to Kearse. This gave Seattle their first lead of the game at 20-17. The fourth quarter put the worst of Kaepernick on display. On the next series he was stripped of the ball by Cliff Avril at the San Francisco 23 yard line and Michael Bennett recovered for the Seahawks. The on the one yard line Seattle fumbled the ball. The stadium jumbo tron clearly showed that Navarro Bowman recovered the ball but the officials again blew the call ! That wasn't the big problem. 

Cliff Avril

Michael Bennett

Kam Chancellor

On the play Bowman sustained a severe injury and had to be carted off the field. Then in an example of Karma, Wilson fumbled the ball on the next play and the Niners retained possession on downs. After a couple of first downs Kaepernick dropped back and threw the ball right into the arms of Kam Chancellor for a drive killing interception at the San Francisco 40 yard line. The 49er defense held Seattle to another Hauschka field goal from 47 yards out to put the score at 23-17 in favor of the Seahawks.

Richard Sherman

Malcom Smith

Michael Crabtree

Then with just over three minutes left on the game clock the 49ers went on one final offensive drive. With Kaepernick managing to get a clutch 4th down conversion and some short passes , the Niners drove down to the Seattle 20 yard line. They had two timeouts left and plenty of time to score. Kaepernick dropped back and tried to hit Michael Crabtree in the left corner of the end zone. Richard Sherman went high in the air and tipped the ball. Malcom Smith caught the tip for a game ending interception. In the blink of an eye the season was over for the San Francisco 49ers. 


This game provided Colin Kaepernick with an opportunity to show the world he was the man , worthy of elite status. Instead it was a case of diminishing returns. He fell short from last season. In the first half , his running carried the offense and in the second half his miscues brought his team down. The 49er defense did their part , sacking Wilson four times and causing three fumbles. Seattle made enough mistakes to lose but the Niners couldn't get the job done. The Special team play including the punting wasn't up to par. Kaepernick was the only representative of the offense, passing for one touchdown and 153 yards on 14 for 24 and running for 130 yards on 11 carries. Frank Gore was shut down.   


For Seattle Marshon Lynch pounded the ball in  the second half , finishing with 109 yards on 22 carries and one touchdown. Russell Wilson did just enough to win in spite of fumbling twice. The game statistics for both teams were almost identical. The 49ers were only 3 for 11 on third down. The Seahawks were 0 for 3 in the red zone.

Greg Roman

This game is dedicated to the NFL game officials who blew two big calls against the San Francisco 49ers. They managed to keep the peace but not do their job right ! This isn't an excuse for the 49ers who had their chances to win ! Honorable mention goes to the San Francisco 49er offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Other teams have been courting him for a head coaching position. The Scary One says let him go ! His play calling for the first and last offensive series in every important game stinks. Last season he cost the 49ers a Super Bowl win !

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