Takeaways from Seahawks 31-13 loss to 49ers

SEATTLE - A Thanksgiving night matchup with the San Francisco 49ers quickly turned into a night of terrors for the Seattle Seahawks.

The 49ers thoroughly outclassed their NFC West rival and showed that they are still clearly the best team in the division. The Seahawks made several unforced errors, a few forced ones too, and weren't up to the task of matching the 49ers on the field in a 31-13 loss on Thursday night.

"You can't spot them 24 points in the first half," safety Quandre Diggs said.

A broken play on the first drive, Geno Smith tripping over Zach Charbonnet for a sack on the second drive, a Smith interception on a throw for Tyler Lockett on the third drive, and a fumbled punt from DeeJay Dallas late in the first half all contributed to the Seahawks getting run over by the 49ers. 

"The first half of this game we couldn't get out of our way enough to make them go long fields and keep the football and so they got they got off to a great start," head coach Pete Carroll said.

The 49ers held a 24-3 lead at the break and were out-gaining the Seahawks by a 225-56 margin. Seattle was 0-for-4 on third down in the half, had run just 19 offensive plays to San Francisco's 42, and turned the ball over twice on Smith's interception and Dallas' fumble.

"We get nothing out of the first drive and Geno gets tripped in the second drive and gives us a long situation, and it just went their way early on. Yeah, it was concerning. It was really hard is what it was," Carroll said.

The defense wasn't great either, but the offense was doing very little to help them out. The 49ers had three drives start on Seattle's half of the field in the opening 30 minutes, which led to 10 points total.

"Shoot man, they beat us. I mean, it's as simple as that," Smith said. "You can't really make an excuse for it. You know, it's football, sports. Sometimes, a team comes out and beats you. But you know the good thing about it is we got another chance to go against these guys in a few weeks and I think everyone's got to take that personal. You know, I know I am. So we all got to take it personal, man. We can't keep coming out here and letting them beat us like that."

A Jordyn Brooks pick-six of Brock Purdy on San Francisco's opening drive of the third quarter gave Seattle a pulse. The Seahawks followed with their most promising offensive drive of the game, marching 78 yards on 14 plays to threaten the end zone and a one-score game heading toward the fourth quarter. However, Jaxon Smith-Njigba was held significantly by cornerback Ambry Thomas and impeded in getting back to a Smith throw into the end zone. The Seahawks didn't get the call and had to settle for a 30-yard Jason Myers field goal instead.

A possible 24-17 game was instead just a 24-13 game and the 49ers didn't need any more help in putting the game away.

The Seahawks are facing a defining stretch of their season and are off to a poor start. They've also scored just three offensive touchdowns in their last four games combined as any semblance of offensive consistency has been lost. A quality team like the 49ers clearly showed the Seahawks aren't currently on that tier.

Here are the takeaways from the loss to the 49ers:

– Seahawks don't look like a contending team.

It became pretty clear early in the year that the five-week stretch where the Seahawks played the 49ers twice, the Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles would be a defining stretch of the season.

The Seahawks so far are 0-2 during the stretch and looked completely outclassed by the 49ers on Thursday night.

When combined with the total beat down the team suffered at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens earlier this month, the Seahawks just don't seem like a top echelon team at the moment.

"We have to find our consistency. We're not feeling it, you know, and you can see it, we're just not moving the ball steadily. We have to find a way to do that. It's mixing the stuff that we have and using the guys that we have better than we have so far."

The offense just isn't consistent enough to compete against better teams. They cannot convert on third down, they've been awful in the red zone all season, and the play-calling for the unit seems to lack a coherent plan regularly. Seattle has scored just three offensive touchdowns in the last four games combined.

"We have to find our consistency," Carroll said. "We're just not moving the ball steadily and have to find a way to do that. It's mixing the stuff we have and using the guys we have better than we have so far."

The Seahawks were held without a touchdown in a 37-3 loss to the Ravens, scored two touchdowns in a 29-26 win over the Washington Commanders, had just one touchdown in the 17-16 loss the Rams last week, and the only touchdown on Thursday night came on Brooks' pick-six.

The Seahawks remain one of the worst teams in the NFL in converting on third downs and are in the bottom third of the league in scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

"I still believe in the guys that we have.," Smith said. "Still believe in our coaches. Still believe in the players. I think it's been a tough stretch for us, but I believe things will turn around. What we have to do is continue to work hard, if not work harder. There is no excuse for it. There is no words that I can say that will make it better. What needs to be done is we need to work harder. We need to find a way. We got a lot of talent. We got a lot of good players on this offense. We got the right coaches. So we got to believe, continue to stay consistent in our work, and then we just got to work harder and find a way."

Smith said his arm felt good enough to play and it wasn't something he was thinking about during the game. When asked if it affected him at all, Smith replied "no, not at all."

And it didn't seem to be a problem when it came to Smith's ability to throw the ball. He seemed to have the necessary accuracy and arm strength that Smith has shown himself capable of over the last year and a half as the team's starting quarterback. But DK Metcalf dropped a pair of passes, Smith took four sacks, and the team didn't convert a single third down until Smith-Njigba made a spectacular one-handed catch for a 34-yard gain six minutes into the third quarter.

"I feel like Shane [Waldron] always does a great job," Smith said. "I've got his back 110 percent. He knows that. I feel like it comes down to us executing better as players. No matter what the play is called, it comes to the players making it come to life. Shane's called so many great games for us and is going to continue to do that. I just think overall, we just got to stay confident, got to keep believing in what we're doing, keep believing and trusting in our process. Shane will continue to call great plays, and we just got to execute them."

The defense had its own issues with Christian McCaffrey running for 114 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns, Deebo Samuel catching seven passes for 79 yards primarily across the middle of the field, and a 28-yard touchdown strike from Purdy to Brandon Aiyuk serving as the final dagger to Seattle's hopes. But the disappearing act of Seattle's offensive production is the biggest concern at the moment.

"I think everybody needs to go and look at themselves, they need to have a reality check with themselves and ask themselves are they playing with the passion, with the heart that they need to play with for us to win games. Because right now, we’ve got to pick it up. We have got to pick it up," nose tackle Jarran Reed said.

Dallas, San Francisco and Philadelphia over the next three weeks will not be easy tests for the Seahawks to get back on track either. In two games against top tier opponents this season, the Seahawks haven't been competitive. There's time for that to change, but the Seahawks haven't shown much promise on that front as of yet.

– Riq Woolen benched in favor of Michael Jackson.

The Seahawks made a pretty stunning decision to bench cornerback Riq Woolen in the second quarter and replace him at right cornerback with backup Michael Jackson.

Woolen missed on a couple tackle chances early that hurt Seattle's defense. Christian McCaffrey had a 16-yard run on the first play of their second touchdown drive. Woolen had edge run support on the play, but he remained flat-footed as McCaffrey cut inside and found a hole for a big gain that propelled the scorning drive.

Later on that same drive, the 49ers converted a key third-and-7 where Woolen and Tre Brown both missed chances to aid Devon Witherspoon on a tackle of Jauan Jennings. Witherspoon covered the pass to Jennings well, but he was able to wrestle free toward the first down marker. Brown and Woolen both overran the play and missed chances to help as Jennings picked up the first down.

McCaffrey scored on a 1-yard touchdown run that gave the 49ers a 14-3 lead later in the drive.

Shortly after, Jackson replaced Jackson in the lineup and Woolen did not return to the game on defense. He did see snaps on special teams. The Seahawks confirmed that Woolen was not out of the game due to injury.

However, Carroll did point to an ongoing shoulder injury Woolen has been managing as at least having contributed to the decision.

"Riq wasn't back all the way," he said. "He didn't tackle well with the shoulder and went into the game wanting to see if he could hold up and didn't feel like he was ready. Mike was 100 percent ready to go and we think Mike is a terrific football player, and no problem putting him on the field."

Woolen was limited in practice this week but was fully available to play against the 49ers. He didn't suffer a new injury in the game on Thursday night.

Woolen's second season with the Seahawks hasn't been nearly as successful as his rookie campaign. A knee injury over the offseason required surgery and set him back during training camp and the current shoulder injury seemingly remains an ongoing problem.

But Jackson gave the team a better effort than Woolen was capable of on Thursday night and the Seahawks made the change when they felt they had to do so.

– Non-call penalty on Jaxon Smith-Njigba play in end zone was a critical blow to Seahawks comeback hopes.

After enduring a terrible first half, Brooks' pick-six gave the Seahawks life. They carried that momentum into their best offensive drive of the game.

On second-and-goal from the 49ers' 7-yard line, Smith fired a pass toward Smith-Njigba in the front corner of the end zone with San Francisco cornerback Ambry Thomas in coverage. With Smith-Njigba's arm extended, Thomas grabbed and pulled Smith-Njigba's arm and kept him from coming back to the football. Thomas was able to make a play to break up the pass.

Down judge Patrick Turner was right on the goal line and had a good view of the play and didn't throw a flag.

"I mean, we saw it last week with 'Spoon, right, how pivotal those calls or no calls are," Smith said. "I'm not one to get on the refs. I know they have a tough job. I don't know if they did or did not see it, but from my vantage point I could clearly see him getting held, and it affected him being able to catch the touchdown right there and that affected us being able to get points, so that's a four-point swing, and in games like this, every point matters. So tough call, but, hey, that's how it is sometimes."

Smith even ran over to Turner to plead his case that Smith-Njigba was held, but Smith said Turner said nothing in return to him about the non-call.

Smith was sacked on third down and Seattle had to kick the field goal instead. Any prospect of a continued Seahawks rally seemed to sputter at that moment.

"That's a huge situation for us," Carroll said. "We're tying to get right back in it and we felt it, everybody in the stadium could feel it, they were ready for us to turn the game around. We were there for the opportunity; just missed our shot there."