Niners: Sometimes it doesn’t end the way you want it

Maybe. Maybe the win a week earlier was misleading. Maybe if the opening kickoff this time hadn’t been run for a touchdown. Maybe the Seattle Seahawks are better than we thought they were—and we knew they were very good.

Maybe we should place this San Francisco 49er season into perspective. Which is difficult to do only hours after it ended with such a thud, Saturday evening.

The Niners were crushed, 41-6, by the Seahawks at Lumen Field in Seattle. A tough way to end, but that’s the price of competition when you are seeking the top.

The Niners and their fans were on such a high after the surprise win a week ago over the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round. 

Where would they go from there? 

Down all too quickly when Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed sped 95 yards with the opening kickoff.   

It was only one touchdown, but it seemed like a knockout blow. The Seahawks eventually grinded out a 41-6 win, which boosted them into the next round against the winner of the Los Angeles Rams-Chicago Bears game. 

The postseason goes on. The Niners do not. The Super Bowl will be played at the Niners Levi’s Stadium in three weeks. The thought that San Francisco would be one of the teams was exciting, but, sigh, all too unrealistic. 

No, the Niners won’t get a chance for the Big One coming to their home field, yet after what happened, the injuries to such stars as Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and even last week, George Kittle, were perhaps too much to overcome.

No less so was Shaheed’s stunner seconds into what would become the final game of the year.

“We were really disappointed,” said Kyle Shanahan, who despite the defeat, should be recognized for the job he did this year as San Francisco’s coach.

“We didn’t have it,” Shanahan continued. “I thanked them (the players) for the season, for the way they battled. I’m proud of them.”  

He should be.

The Niners were lacking on defense—ironically Seattle’s strength—and often only had Christian McCaffrey as their offense, along with, of course, their quarterback Brock Purdy, who frequently was throttled by the swarming Seahawks. He did complete 15 of 27 passes for 140 yards, but lost a fumble in trying to escape the pass rush, one of three Niner turnovers. 

For a second consecutive game against the Seahawks, the Niners, beaten by Seattle 13-3 two weeks ago, failed to score a touchdown. For a team known for its offensive success, that’s notable failure.

That’s also a tribute to the Seahawks’ unrelenting defense. 

“Their style of play,” said Purdy, “is to get the offense to mess up and to make us not capitalize on the 3rd down.”

Although the time of possession wasn’t that much different—Seattle had the ball for 31 minutes—the Seahawks managed to keep San Francisco from converting on key third downs.

The Niners have to believe next season the football gods will offer more than a few smiles, that their big names will not be out of action. 

And maybe they can pick up a needed lineman or three in the draft or in trade.

So the Niners, along with the rest of us, will watch the remainder of the playoffs and Super Bowl on television, thinking about what was and also what might have been. Sometimes it doesn’t end the way you want it.