SANTA CLARA – Two partially smoked cigars rested on a table in Levi’s Stadium’s visitors locker room, an hour after the Seattle Seahawks’ 13-3 humbling of the 49ers in Saturday night’s battle for the NFC’s top seed and the NFC West crown.
To the victor went the spoils of loud music, commemorative swag, and Don Thomas Clasico Robusto cigars.
Yeah, that tops the Seahawks eating turkey legs on Levi’s Stadium’s field on Thanksgiving 2024. Tight end George Kittle didn’t take offense, however.
“I would do the same (expletive),” Kittle said. “They won the division, the (No.) 1 seed, in a rival stadium. Good for them.”
He and the 49ers actually accomplished the same in 2019 in Seattle en route to the Super Bowl. Perhaps the Seahawks plan to come back to Levi’s Stadium to finish those cigars in five weeks after Super Bowl LX.
That is not the 49ers’ immediate concern. They haven’t lost back-to-back games all season and now must win as a wild card on the road, as they did in 2021 as a sixth seed at Dallas and Green Bay before succumbing to the eventual champion Rams.
Here are 10 things that caught my eye as the 49ers faceplanted in the biggest regular-season game of Levi’s Stadium’s 12-year history:
Less than two minutes remained in a sure-fire defeat when Brock Purdy got drilled in the back by a 260-pound linebacker, then crunched from the front by 310-pound Leonard Williams. Purdy, remarkably, lived to talk about what he “thinks” was only a left-shoulder nerve stinger that temporarily floored him before he walked off after that fourth-down incompletion. His right thumb appeared bloodied by impacting Williams’ hand, too.
“I got hit and the left shoulder sort of lit up,” Purdy said. “I feel good right now. We’ll see how I feel (Sunday).”
Last time he faced the Seahawks, he reported a turf-toe injury the next day, an injury that would shelve him for a total of eight games. Then came a scintillating resurgence over a six-game win streak – against inferior foes – before the Seahawks creamed him with a season-high three sacks and eight hits.
Yes, Mac Jones rescued the 49ers through the season’s first half. But the 49ers are paying Purdy to lead them through what is now a tough but not unconquerable playoff path.
Coach Kyle Shanahan said it was “too risky” to play left tackle Trent Williams (hamstring) and wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee, ankle). Saving them for the playoffs seems smart, for here comes the elimination round. Both players certainly could have helped an offense that matched Shanahan’s lowest-scoring output since his 23-3 debut in 2017 against Carolina.
The 49ers are 4-13 without Williams in the starting lineup since 2020.
Austen Pleasants made his first career start in Williams’ place, and right tackle Colton McKivitiz said Williams’ absence didn’t prompt changes to the Seahawks’ scheme, which uses a lot of inside twists.
Kittle campaigned for the Arizona Cardinals (3-13) to upset the Los Angeles Rams (11-5) so the 49ers could climb up to the No. 5 seed and open against the NFC South’s champion, either Carolina or Tampa Bay.
After spending his bye weekend streaming NFL games while duck hunting, McKivitz won’t be doing that Sunday as he instead recovers from Saturday’s workload.
“Why not have it hard and go win three road games? That’s just the road we’re going to be on, and why not?” McKivitz said. “It’s basically playoff football. That is what it was today. At least we get to play another and we’re not going home today.”
If the 49ers stay the No. 6 seed, they’ll open at either the Chicago Bears or the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles. The wild-card round is next Saturday through Monday.
Christian McCaffrey scolded himself for having a Purdy pass, tipped as it were, to ricochet off his hands and into those of Drake Thomas for a comeback-killing interception at the Seattle 3-yard line with 12:21 left.
McCaffrey vowed to learn from it. Purdy defended him, saying the ball “came out weird” after the tip Purdy blamed on himself. “But Christian’s a baller. He’s going to live to play the next play and he’s a Hall of Fame running back. So, dude should walk out with his head up.”
That dude McCaffrey walked up to the starting lineup all 17 games, ran for 1,202 yards and had a team-high 102 receptions for 924 yards, leaving him 76 receiving yards shy of a 1K/1K season. He’s the 49ers’ first player with 100 receptions since Terrell Owens in 2002.
He set the 49ers’ record with 413 touches this season, and his 2,126 scrimmage yards are second-most. He also scored 17 touchdowns. But his average of 3.9 yards per carry was his lowest since his 2017 rookie year (3.7).
The 49ers trailed only 10-3 when a golden opportunity presented itself: Sam Darnold, after having his foot stepped on by his center, fumbled an exchange with running back Zach Charbonnet. Defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos dove for the ball, only for it to end up in Charbonnet’s hands for a 3-yard loss at the Seattle 25.
“The ball just bounced,” said Gross-Matos, who helped secure last Sunday’s 42-38 win over the Bears by hitting Caleb Williams on a final throw that bounced incomplete in the end zone.
Two plays after that fumble, the Seahawks converted a third-and-17 play, not via a Darnold pass but rather a Kenneth Walker run for 19 yards through an onlooking defense. Consider it an ugly stepchild to the third-and-15 that ignited the 2019 Niners’ Super Bowl loss to Kansas City City.
Why did the 49ers miss so many tackles, not just on that play but throughout the evening (16 per Pro Football Focus)? Linebacker Tatum Bethune cited how the 49ers were just playing aggressively, but they still have to make tackles. The Seahawks converted 6-of-13 third-down plays.
The 49ers were just 2-of-9 on third-down plays, which went against their NFL-best conversion rate (51%) but was fitting against Seattle’s NFL-leading third-down defense (32.4%).
What perhaps stung most was a fourth-and-1 play that backfired into Purdy getting pressured into an incompletion toward Kyle Juszczyk from the Seattle 39 with 9 ½ minutes until halftime.
Afterward on the sideline, Purdy’s film review revealed he could have hit Kittle: “I didn’t have a clear picture, but we got back to the sideline and it was like, ‘Dang, he was there.’”
The exits of Bethune (groin) and Dee Winters (ankle) prompt serious concerns about who’ll man that unit in the playoffs. Eric Kendricks got called up from the practice squad a third straight game and has the veteran experience to play the “Mike” role and relay Robert Saleh’s calls, and so does Curtis Robinson, who started three games before being deactivated the past three. There’s also Luke Gifford, and a Garrett Wallow who fans discovered after his costly facemask penalty in punt coverage Saturday.
Fred Warner? He hasn’t practiced or even been seen conditioning on a side field since his Oct. 14 ankle repair, although he has certainly pushing hard behind the scenes. Any heroic comeback doesn’t figure to happen until later in the playoffs.
Rookie Nick Martin went on Injured Reserve two weeks ago from a concussion. The 49ers’ leading tacklers this game: cornerback Renardo Green and safety Ji’Ayir Brown, each with eight.
The Seahawks set a franchise record with their 14th win, and they remarkably improved to 15-2 on the road in two seasons under coach Mike Macdonald, topped only by George Seifert’s 16-0 road start in his first two seasons with the 1899-90 49ers.
“I mean, they’ve been showing that they’re one of the best teams in this league all year,” Shanahan said. “That didn’t feel much different than the team we played in Week 1 (a 17-13 49ers comeback win). I thought the game was a little bit similar in terms of the battle on both sides, just to get in the end zone. But, they’ve earned the No. 1 seed. They played like that throughout the whole year and we’re going to have to earn the chance to get to play them again.”