Seahawks' defense doesn’t give the Niners a chance

It wasn’t so much a match but a mismatch. The score was relatively close. But the game wasn’t.  

It wasn’t so much that everything fell apart for the San Francisco 49ers, it was the Seattle Seahawks, with a magnificent defense, taking control of a game that left the Niners perhaps as bewildered as they were defeated.  

The game that was going to open the door for the Niners, who with a victory, could have gone to the Super Bowl without leaving their home stadium, closed with a disappointing 13-3 loss Saturday night at Levi’s.

Here is some statistical verification. Total yards: Seattle 361, Niners 173. Net rushing yards: Seattle 180, Niners 53. 

Christian McCaffrey, around whom San Francisco’s offense is built, rushed for only 23 yards and caught 6 passes for 34 yards. His inability to wrap up a Brock Purdy pass in the 4th quarter resulted in a Seattle interception on the Seahawks' 3-yard line. “We've got to be better,” said McCaffrey. “They were the better team today. I have to make the play to prevent the interception.”

San Francisco did have a couple of chances to keep things interesting if not triumphant, but after Kenneth Walker burst for 19 yards on a 3rd and 17 in the 3rd quarter and then McCaffrey losing the pass, the Niners were finished.

Kyle Shanahan is recognized as one of the finest offensive minds in the NFL, but the classic contention is that defense wins, and it certainly did this time. 

“We knew the Seattle defense was a challenge,” Shanahan conceded. “We couldn’t get the running game going. We only had 12 runs. They kept the ball from us.”

That’s because the Seahawks, using the schemes of second-year head coach Mike MacDonald, wouldn’t let them, occasionally using extra defensive backs and keeping the Niners off balance and guessing. 

Now the Seahawks, with seven straight victories, have a 14-3 record, while the Niners' own streak of victories has ended at 6, are 12-5, and are forced to travel for the postseason, as long as it lasts. 

“We have to do it the hard way,” said Shanahan. “It would have been nice to play the rest of the games here. It is what it is. We will be ready to play.”

It also would have been nice to have All-Pro offensive tackle Trent Williams, who along with defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, missed the game. And it could be argued that San Francisco really felt the loss of wide receiver Ricky Piersall. Then again, the NFL is a league of survival. This season, the Niners survived until they couldn’t.

The argument can be made that with all their injuries, the Niners accomplished a great deal. Although yes, the philosophy of the front office is that any season that concludes without a Super Bowl triumph is unsatisfactory. 

Which means since the 1994 season, the 1995 Super Bowl, there has been plenty of dissatisfaction.

Indiana’s Mendoza gets to experience the Rose Bowl with a victory

This is where I came in. A Big Ten football team overwhelming an opponent in the Rose Bowl. However, there is a difference. The Big Ten team doing the overwhelming used to be Ohio State or Michigan, and it would beat up on Cal, Stanford, or even USC.

College football, as everything else in the world, has certainly changed. New Year’s Day this time, it was Indiana, once the doormat, with the big win. And if the Hoosiers’ 38-3 victory in the bowl game, nicknamed the Grandaddy of them all, wasn’t impressive enough, then consider who they beat, Alabama, forever one of the very best in the sport.

Asked what he thought about the rapid and stunning improvement since he took over, going from 3-9 in 2023 to 13-0 this season, Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti said, “It would be a hell of a movie.”

A perfect comment in Pasadena, where the Rose Bowl is located, fewer than ten miles from Hollywood.

The Rose Bowl used to stand alone in its prestige and importance. Now, in the great scheme of college athletics, it’s merely a part of the playoff system.

So the game Thursday was not only the Rose Bowl, it was a quarter-final in the college playoff schedule, and the No. 1-ranked Hoosiers now will play Oregon in a semifinal Saturday night in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

Yes, they met on October 11th, and Indiana won 30-20. The rematch doesn’t figure to be much different. Indiana has an excellent offensive line, perhaps the finest. And quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Cal transfer, is the Heisman Trophy winner. 

Against Alabama, Mendoza had more touchdown passes (three) than incompletions (two), going 14 for 16 for 192 yards.

“One of the best venues ever,” said Mendoza.

He gets no disagreement from yours truly. I grew up in the LA area and started attending the Rose Bowl game in 1954 as a program salesman. And before calling it quits three years ago, I was at 70 straight games in Pasadena (no, didn’t travel to the Covid game in Dallas). I watched this one and the last two on TV, albeit within punting distance of the competition, because it became too much of an effort to get into the press area of the stadium I love so much.

Maybe this particular game lacked the excitement of several others, UCLA defeating Michigan State in 1966, and most of all Texas overcoming USC 41-38 in the final seconds of  2006. But to me, they are all special.

My alma mater, UCLA, is trying to flee the Rose Bowl to play its games in luxurious and soulless SoFi Stadium in downtown LA. That’s unfortunate. 

There is no place like the Rose Bowl. It hasn’t rained for the game since 1955, although in the fourth quarter in 1996, there was some very heavy mist. 

The place has history, and it has sunset vistas that are unmatched in sports. That ought to be enough to keep the game where it belongs and to keep creating comments like the one from Fernando Mendoza. One of the best venues, indeed.