The second game of our Saturday doubleheader might be the most important this weekend because the winner of the matchup between the 13-3 Seattle Seahawks and the 12-4 San Francisco 49ers will not only clinch the division, but they’ll also lock up the number-one seed in the NFC.
The Niners are coming off one of their best performances of the season and arguably the most exciting game of the year, a 42-38 win over the Chicago Bears. On the final play of the game, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was forced outside of the pocket and attempted a pass while backpedalling that fell short of his intended receiver, allowing San Fran to hold on for the victory. 49ers middle linebacker Tatum Bethune revealed that he actually made some adjustments on that play, which ultimately led to the win.
“I and Dee (Winters) were supposed to be on a blitz,” Bethune said during a postgame interview with KNBR 680, “and we dropped out because we knew what they were capable of, and we just wanted to put some extra heads in the throwing lane and make Caleb run around and waste the time out, and that’s what he did.”
“They stepped it up huge, man,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday. “I mean, that team’s had more fourth-quarter comebacks, I think, than anyone in the history of the NFL. [I] Know there’s a lot we can clean up from the whole game. Probably made too many mistakes, but to get it done, they were at their best when their best was needed, and stopping them on that last drive was huge.”
Unfortunately for the Niners, they didn’t come out of that contest unscathed. Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams had to leave the game early and was unable to return due to a hamstring injury.
“I mean, he tried to go, and he couldn’t,” Shanahan clarified. “Trent told me he’s never pulled a hamstring before, so [we’re] not really sure how it’ll be.”
The good news is that Austen Pleasants, the lineman who replaced Williams last week, did a good job filling in for a future Hall of Famer.
“[He] played well enough for us to win,” Shanahan said on Tuesday. “Thought he did some good things in the game, real good in [the] running and pass game. So, he did a solid job.”
It also helped that 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has been on a tear lately, with ten total touchdowns in his last two games. However, Kyle Shanahan explained that he doesn’t need Brock Purdy to be Superman this week; he just needs him to be Brock Purdy.
“You always hope the momentum helps you, but I just want him to keep being him. Not hesitating on stuff. When he sees it, let it rip,” Shanahan said. “I mean, I loved how he’s been playing… I think early in the game shows you kind of where he’s at, throwing a pick-six on the first play. You watch some guys, how that makes a person act, and how they change after that, and he didn’t change at all. Personality-wise, demeanour-wise, what you see on the silent tape, when he’s confident, he sees it, and he lets it rip. If he doesn’t, he gets rid of it, usually to a checkdown, or he finds a way to make a play.”
At the same time, the Seahawks’ Week 17 matchup was far less dramatic than San Fran’s. Seattle had no problem taking care of the Carolina Panthers on the road, 27-10, for their 13th victory of the season.
“It was a great win by our guys. I feel like it’s the same story every week: we didn’t flinch,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said after the game. “The big emphasis this week was like, can we stack plays in all three phases? It took us a half to do it, but I felt like in the second half we did a great job by responding to the takeaway.”
On a day where Seattle’s offence looked a little sluggish at the start of the game, the defence was able to step up by forcing two turnovers and holding the Panthers to one third-down conversion on 11 attempts.
“Our defence has had our back all year, and vice versa,” quarterback Sam Darnold said during the postgame press conference. “When we feel like we need to spark, our offence has stepped up in big ways as well. So, it’s just complimentary football all season long, and in this one especially.”
When San Fran and Seattle first faced off, Sam Darnold didn’t have his best day, going 16 of 23 for just 150 passing yards, zero touchdowns, and a lost fumble. 17 weeks later, though, Darnold is playing much better, and Mike Macdonald doesn’t feel like his QB is getting the recognition he deserves.
“Sam did what we needed to do to win the game. Now, you’re like an angstrom away from that [interception] being an incomplete pass, and we’ll see where the toe was on the interception. All of a sudden, now, we have a no-turnover game, and no one’s talking about it,” Macdonald told reporters on Monday. “Can we make some better decisions? Can we clean up some fundamentals? Yeah, absolutely. That goes for everybody. That’s the same story every game. But I [I] talked to Sam this morning. He’s in great spirits. Same guy every day. [He] did the things we needed to win.”
Though the Seahawks and 49ers have already played each other once this season, that game took place four months ago on September 7th. Both squads look very different, especially on the defensive side of the ball, explained Mike Macdonald.
“I just think we’ve grown as a defence and – as coaches included – in how we prepare our guys,” he said. “I think we have a better feeling for what our guys are good at and what they can handle on a game plan basis. We had to pivot pretty drastically in that game, and that happens. It happens all the time, and you’ve got to be able to do that to win. We’re going to have a plan for this game that we feel great about, hopefully. And you’ve got to, kind of, have a backup plan, too, if things don’t really go your way.”
Kyle Shanahan did not echo Macdonald’s sentiments. He argued that the teams now are very similar to how they looked in Week One, making the tape from that game very valuable.
“You always look at (the tape). I mean, you see what’s changed personnel-wise schematically, but our teams are pretty similar in what we did at the beginning of the year to now,” Shanahan told reporters. “We have schemes we believe in, but you just watch the personnel and everything and take it all into account.”
Prediction for Seattle Seahawks (-1.5) @ San Francisco 49ers
The biggest difference between the Week One matchup and this weekend’s game is that the 49ers’ defence has been devastated by injuries. The Niners’ two best defenders (Nick Bosa and Fred Warner) will not be available this time around, which will be huge since those guys accounted for 14 total tackles, three tackles for loss, a sack, and a fumble recovery in Week One. Simultaneously, San Fran has struggled against the pass recently, allowing 292 air yards per game in its last two matchups. That’ll be a problem when going against Sam Darnold, who has the fifth-most passing yards in the NFL this season (3,850), and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who leads the league in receiving yards (1,709). San Francisco will be able to ride the energy of the crowd and keep this close all the way through, but Seattle will hit a game-winning field goal to lock up the number-one seed in the NFC.
Prediction: Seahawks 23 – 20 49ers
