SEATTLE – Three instant impressions after the Seahawks beat the 49ers 41-6 to advance to the NFC Championship Game for the fourth time in franchise history:
This felt like the mid-2010s again
Just before 5 p.m., there was an announcement that kickoff was being pushed back by 10 minutes because the Bills and Broncos game was in overtime. Normally, that would be seen as a benefit in order to give everyone in blue a few extra minutes to find their seats.
It wasn’t needed this time. Not on this night.
The first home playoff game in nine years with fans in the stadium lived up to the billing. Fans were there early. They were loud early. They were ready for the moment.
And that was before Rashid Shaheed gave them something to yell about – the longest kickoff return for a touchdown in franchise playoff history and only the fourth time a playoff game has started with a kickoff return touchdown.
Lumen Field was on tilt from the start and helped lead to a tie for the largest postseason victory in franchise history. Let’s see what next week brings.
So much for the oblique
Two days of concern about Sam Darnold’s oblique ended up not being that big of a deal. That was thanks largely to another terrific game running the ball, this time by Kenneth Walker III.
Walker became the 18th player in postseason history and the first Seahawk to have 100 yards rushing and three TDs in a playoff game. Asked to carry a heavier load after Zach Charbonnet left with a knee injury, Walker found the same big running lanes that were there two weeks ago in the Bay Area when the Seahawks rushed for 180 yards in Week 18.
This time Seattle finished with 175 yards rushing with Walker ending the night with 116 yards on 19 carries.
The success of the run game, plus the early lead provided by Shaheed, took any of the pressure off Darnold to go out and win the game playing injured. He made a handful of plays when he needed to – specifically a terrific throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 4-yard TD while rolling out to the left – but the onus of this victory wasn’t put on Darnold’s shoulders. Or in this case, his oblique. And that was a very good thing on this night.
Welcome to the dark side
Go back to Week 1. Remember way back in early September when expectations were low and questions were high about what to expect from this Seahawks team. In that season opener, the 49ers took their first drive and went 95 yards for a touchdown and their last drive of that game in the fourth quarter went 68 for a TD.
In the other 10 quarters the teams played this season, the 49ers managed 12 points on four field goals. The final eight quarters between the Week 18 win and the playoff victory, the 49ers never found the end zone and only once had a drive reach inside Seattle’s 20-yard line.
The defensive performance in these two games against San Francisco should be long remembered in team history. They took a San Francisco offense that had been rolling into Week 18 and suffocated them. Two weeks later against that same offense – albeit battered and dealing with some more injuries – the Seahawks did it again.
San Francisco managed just 173 yards in the Week 18 game. The 49ers had just 205 when the Seahawks finally cycled in most of their backups midway through the fourth quarter after forcing a third turnover.
Next week will either be the Seahawks trying to shut down the upstart Chicago Bears or the third chapter in what has already been an epic first two games this season against the Los Angeles Rams.