Let us wind the clock back to Jan. 14 of this year. The Seattle Seahawks’ season has just ended in a 41-23 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers. For the first time in the history of both franchises, San Francisco has defeated Seattle three times in the same season.
From that moment on, it became clear there was one major roadblock between the Seahawks and any aspirations higher than a wild-card appearance. Seattle focused all their efforts in the offseason to overcome the roadblock of the 49ers. To close the gap between them and the powerhouse San Francisco had become.
The Seahawks bolstered their defensive line by signing Dre’Mont Jones in free agency and later acquiring Leonard Floyd via trade. They brought back Bobby Wagner and Jarran Reed. They added to their secondary with Devon Witherspoon in the draft and Julian Love from the Giants. They even gave quarterback Geno Smith more weapons in rookies Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Zach Charbonnet.
All this was done to overcome one team and one team in particular. All roads led to the rematch between the Seahawks and 49ers at Lumen Field on Thanksgiving, to see where things stood between these organizations.
The results are in, and they’re not great. Despite improving both sides of the ball, Seattle is still exactly where they were in January: getting dominated by San Francisco in an uncompetitive blowout loss. This time, 31-13 at home on Turkey Day. Yet again, the Seahawks offense couldn’t get anything going when it mattered most, and the defense couldn’t truly stop the dynamic 49ers offense.
In the last four meetings — all of which Seattle has lost — the average margin of defeat is a whopping 16 points. The only game that was a single score, a 21-13 loss in Week 15, wasn’t even as competitive as the final mark would suggest. The 49ers led 21-3 in the third quarter, and took their feet off the gas because the game was clearly over.
I’m not sure where the Seahawks go from here. It’s clear there is still a considerable gap between them (a team trying to learn to be consistently good) and San Francisco (a clear Super bowl contender). On paper, Seattle should be more competitive than what we witnessed last night. Safety Quandre Diggs mentioned after the game the team needs to stop starting so slow for moments like this.
It’s a fair point, as the Seahawks offense has shown they can move the ball against the 49ers. Unfortunately, they are only doing so once they are already down multiple scores. Teams like San Francisco don’t get to be what they are if they make a habit of blowing multiple-score leads.
The good news is a lot can happen over the course of two weeks, which is when Seattle will play the Niners again. Life happens fast in the NFL, and the league is truly week-to-week. Perhaps the Seahawks can learn from this latest shellacking and make the necessary adjustments.
But then again, if 11 months wasn’t enough time to close the gap, then how will 17 days be sufficient?
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Seahawks get cooked on Thanksgiving, lose 31-13 to the 49ers
