It is, as usual, a game of attrition. Not having Shaheed will matter. As SSJ wrote, in theory this "should" be easier than you'd guess based on SF's weaker defense. Seattle just put 27 on one of those defenses, but SF's offense is stronger than Carolina's by a lot. It's really going to be up to Seattle's D to get to Purdy, but have discipline against screens and scrambles. SF punished Chicago with both. Screens to Mccaffrey and scrambles for Purdy. I don't think there's a better play designer than Shanehan—but Purdy was picked once for being very predictable and I'd expect Seattle to have his number at least once. Look out for SF to emulate the tight-end screen that the Rams threw to Nacua last night with wideouts blocking. Look for a ton of motion to get mismatches. I'm sure Seattle knows all this; every team does. It's players seeing through the eye candy...
And then on offense, somehow Seattle has to get more hands out on the field, especially underneath. Charbonet and Ken Walker should both be bigger targets, and it would be clever to see both on the field simultaneously to force SF to cover 1:1 against JSN. Seattle has to make SF (Saleh) struggle against mismatches. Seattle's talent is everywhere on D. If they can play SF to a draw against their lesser D and suffocate their offense, that's how they win. And this test has to be emulated and repeated for 2 (or 3) more games coming up. Seattle could be one and done even with the 1 seed if they're not more creative at exploiting weaknesses than they have been....
Really stinks they give the east coast traveling Hawks a shorter week to prepare for another road game. Semi ridiculous. Get it in that Steelers and Ravens also playing for Division title but they could’ve been the Saturday night prime time game.
If we can keep the 49ers close in the first half, I think we win the game. I don't like our chances in a shootout. (See our most recent Rams game and their win over da Bears.) Our advantage in D is our best thing. As good as they are, they still miss Bosa and Warner.
This time of the year, I'm all for playing against 49ers best. We win and they immediately have doubt as the Rams surely do. Placing a little fear in these teams just before the playoffs begin is invaluable. That is my dream scenario anyway :)
Something to keep in mind when thinking about the big bad forty whiners….courtesy of John Fraley.
“The victory was Seattle’s seventh by two touchdowns or more. The Seahawks have beaten five probable playoff teams and eight teams .500 or better. They have the best point differential in all of football by 23 points.”
And let’s not forget what team is 10-1 in their last 11 games.
I figure a week from now Brock Purdy will be having recurring nightmares of Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence.
As we suspected it might, all year long, that stupid loss in week one to this stupid team has put us in this stupid position. We could be a 13-win team having to go on the road to play the defending champions in round one. The significance of this week 18 win cannot be overstated.
I think we all want to see the early Seahawk offense reappear on Saturday. I especially want to see Sam playing loss and going deep and throwing into tight windows. This is the game you play to WIN, you don’t play it safe for the 6th seed! Cut it loss.
I want to see the pocket moved to one side and then the other, I want to run plays that let the defense flow thought one way with the running back designed to cut back around the D, I want to see deep crossing routes, I want to see the Hawks jump out early and often and find rhythm. I don’t want to see a 13-4 number six seed.
Only a slight disrespect. I think the home team always gets a field goal so you’re automatically +3 on the road — the other +1.5 is how they’re separating the two teams.
I watched the Bears niners game last night too. Watching McCaffrey I couldn't help but to think 'what does he have that K9 doesn't?' because the answer certainly isn't quickness and ability -and that's saying a LOT because CM is super all of that .... My takeaway is that CM can juke in more than one way. K9 jukes only backwards and to the outside, and CM never ever jukes backwards behind the LOS (at least not in this game that I watched with this question in mind). What's weird is that juking only to the outside means that you can still juke in 2 directions, but he doesn't because he runs with a lean to the outside until he hits the 2nd level; meaning he can only juke in that direction ... or all the way around in that direction. He doesn't run with his weight balanced until he's off to the races, if he's off to the races. I still think he's missing holes set up by the zone run that he'd hit with a stronger inside juke. I've been hard on K9 in the past with my opinions, and I've always come around but man I just can't shake the feeling that this far into his career he just is what he is: a <10% big play chance or nothing. Not a reliable bellwether like Zach. I think Zach should start, and I can't help wondering what we could get for K9 after watching a full 9ers game comparing the insane abilities of K9 and McCaffrey. Sucks that 9rs fans have to type that name so many times because they weren't creative enough to find him a nickname.
I think one thing CM has that K9 doesn't is volume. I think if K9 got the touches CM had, he would be thought of differently. The opportunity cost is time spent on the IR.
K9 is healthy because he not getting CM volume. I don’t think K9 on the team next year, I believe MM wants a more dynamic power back suck as Beast Mode.
The 49'ers offense has looked really good of late, so it will be a challenge. I think our defense will be up to the task. The 9'ers defense has not looked good lately. So can our offense take advantage of their defense more than their offense can get against our defense? Should be a good contest, and will probably be decided in the 4th quarter. I am worried about our WR situation though.
If the 49er defense is as incapable of stopping us as they were the Bears, we should have a decent opportunity to score. By the same token, if our defense plays like they have, they are far better than the Bears defense and should be able to stop the 49ers from scoring on nearly every drive.
Our receivers better but Bears offense is much better than ours. Their HC clearly better than Coach K, unfortunately. But Whiners defense didn’t look that great. Man if only he got that ball to his guy on that last play….
SF beat themselves up tonight, marginalizing more of their starters. Upton Stout looks to be out after exiting tonight's game (concussion?). Williams at LT looks like he's also sitting out from a hamstring. I watched McCaffrey getting special attention on the sidelines with a back issue, which was a big problem after he wore himself out getting to their last Super Bowl appearance. Maybe Kittle makes it back next week with an ankle issue? How valuable will the first round Bye be to them? Playing us at 80% next week can only diminish their ability to be effective in the Playoffs. Might they decide to rest crucial players, knowing the first round should be fairly easy victories using bench players?
The 49ers are the slipperiest team in the league. Our defense needs to play disciplined and tough. Fortunately, their defense lets others slip past them.
They gave up 24 (Titans), 27 (Colts), and 38 (Bears) recently. If our defense gets a reasonable number of stops, Seahawks win. Our offense should not play scared and should not hold anything back. We should treat this as an early Wild Card game.
Thinking back to those 49ers games of the past have me a little concerned about this upcoming game. It seemed all to often that we would fumble or throw an interception on the opening drive and then have to fight to get those points back by the end of the game. Couple that with the fact we have a QB with a turnover issue and I'm going to be on edge for this one.
I don't know what I'm really talking about regarding offensive play calling but it seems to me that Kubiak has just been calling very conservative first half's over the last month or so. Not sure if that might be a directive from the MM?
I’d say the offense has been patchy, frustrating, and off-kilter for a month. As a team, we’ve scored 37, 18, 38, and 27 points over the past month. Walker had 100+ yards last week and Charbs did it this week. The Niners defense is below average.
But the Niners offense has been almost unstoppable at times. We won’t win a boat race. We need sound tough play and exceptional tackling to give Sam a chance.
I hope that Shaheed is cleared quickly, but I’m not optimistic that he’ll be ready by Saturday. Great field position and more targets than JSN and Kupp are difference makers.
With home field advantage and an offensive that’s clicking, I can see why the Niners are favored. But I think people are discounting the Seahawks defense and letting the bad offensive plays overshadow the successes.
Biggest game of the year - just two weeks after the previous biggest game of the year!
The forty whiners offense is a juggernaut. I’m sure the Hawks defense can do better than the Bears, but we will need 4 quarters of quality play from Sam Darnold and the offense. Shaheed will be a big loss. The Saturday game will make it more likely he won’t clear protocol in one fewer days. Horton does not sound promising for return this week. Kupp is going to need to have one big swan song for the Gipper.(Does anyone remember, “Win one for the Gipper?”) Only 4 targets for 88 vs the Panthers. (Barner) He caught three. I’d like to see Kubiak up the ante on Barner’s targets to 8 for next week.
A thought I had watching the Panthers game replay on NFL+. K9 is a more explosive runner, but it’s looked to me all year that Charbs is the preferred pass blocking RB and I wonder if one reason the Hawks run so much on 1st down with K9 on the field is his liability as a pass blocker. Playing Charbs on 1st down more frequently might make the pass game more effective with the added backfield protection. I think we’ll see more Charbs on 1st downs on Saturday. After all, it’s not like he isn’t an effective runner, he’s just not as explosive. But I’ll take 4 yards on 1st down.
I think if we lose, it will be due to turnovers. Can we keep it to one turnover, please! If we have three, I can’t see it coming out in our favor vs the SF offense. They will take advantage of them. I know Sam can play a more clean game. Let’s go do this! Go Hawks!
Man, it sure didn’t look like it last night. Purdy still had tons more time than Darnold and in theory Bears have both a better pass rush and a better secondary than Panthers. And McCaffrey had himself a game too. Loving that Williams may be out, but they didn’t miss a beat.
Right. But zooming out, no Trent vs Seahawks front is the bigger story than vs Bears front. Weather was a factor too, as SF-Bears had perfect weather.
SF will need to help their backup with RB's & TE's if Williams is indeed out. They need Trent and Kittle for their mauling run game, and even WITH them we did a pretty good job vs Mccaffrey in the first game. Kittle probably back but I'd be very surprised if Trent plays and risks further injury before playoffs.
My biggest concern is containing Purdy in the pocket: he's a slippery mofo. I see Emmanwori coming up big as a spy on him.
We should get an idea on Tuesday when the first injury report comes out. Have they already been ruled out? Shaheed might be back, but it seems like all contagion miss at least one game. I still think we’ll be okay if we dont tune it over more than twice, preferably only once.
No, but Stout also concussion protocol and don't think you come back from a hammy in 6 days. Cross is much younger than Trent and he's possibly out a month.
I’m with you. I just want the offense to play better in the first half. And protect the ball better. The other side of the coin is our defense gets three turnovers to even things out.
It is, as usual, a game of attrition. Not having Shaheed will matter. As SSJ wrote, in theory this "should" be easier than you'd guess based on SF's weaker defense. Seattle just put 27 on one of those defenses, but SF's offense is stronger than Carolina's by a lot. It's really going to be up to Seattle's D to get to Purdy, but have discipline against screens and scrambles. SF punished Chicago with both. Screens to Mccaffrey and scrambles for Purdy. I don't think there's a better play designer than Shanehan—but Purdy was picked once for being very predictable and I'd expect Seattle to have his number at least once. Look out for SF to emulate the tight-end screen that the Rams threw to Nacua last night with wideouts blocking. Look for a ton of motion to get mismatches. I'm sure Seattle knows all this; every team does. It's players seeing through the eye candy...
And then on offense, somehow Seattle has to get more hands out on the field, especially underneath. Charbonet and Ken Walker should both be bigger targets, and it would be clever to see both on the field simultaneously to force SF to cover 1:1 against JSN. Seattle has to make SF (Saleh) struggle against mismatches. Seattle's talent is everywhere on D. If they can play SF to a draw against their lesser D and suffocate their offense, that's how they win. And this test has to be emulated and repeated for 2 (or 3) more games coming up. Seattle could be one and done even with the 1 seed if they're not more creative at exploiting weaknesses than they have been....
Really stinks they give the east coast traveling Hawks a shorter week to prepare for another road game. Semi ridiculous. Get it in that Steelers and Ravens also playing for Division title but they could’ve been the Saturday night prime time game.
If we can keep the 49ers close in the first half, I think we win the game. I don't like our chances in a shootout. (See our most recent Rams game and their win over da Bears.) Our advantage in D is our best thing. As good as they are, they still miss Bosa and Warner.
Be good to keep CMC hemmed in (he’ll likely get a big play). Issue is to stay after Purdy. And hope Coach Mac decides to cover Tonges and/or Kittle.
ESPN shows the Hawks as 1.5 favorites
Seaside has it as SF as a 4.5 favorite???????????
Everything I’ve seen it’s Whiners with the odds to win it.
This time of the year, I'm all for playing against 49ers best. We win and they immediately have doubt as the Rams surely do. Placing a little fear in these teams just before the playoffs begin is invaluable. That is my dream scenario anyway :)
Yes! Lets crush their spirits and send them to Philly to finish the job. I want to see Purdy cry.
Something to keep in mind when thinking about the big bad forty whiners….courtesy of John Fraley.
“The victory was Seattle’s seventh by two touchdowns or more. The Seahawks have beaten five probable playoff teams and eight teams .500 or better. They have the best point differential in all of football by 23 points.”
And let’s not forget what team is 10-1 in their last 11 games.
I figure a week from now Brock Purdy will be having recurring nightmares of Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence.
As we suspected it might, all year long, that stupid loss in week one to this stupid team has put us in this stupid position. We could be a 13-win team having to go on the road to play the defending champions in round one. The significance of this week 18 win cannot be overstated.
I think we all want to see the early Seahawk offense reappear on Saturday. I especially want to see Sam playing loss and going deep and throwing into tight windows. This is the game you play to WIN, you don’t play it safe for the 6th seed! Cut it loss.
I want to see the pocket moved to one side and then the other, I want to run plays that let the defense flow thought one way with the running back designed to cut back around the D, I want to see deep crossing routes, I want to see the Hawks jump out early and often and find rhythm. I don’t want to see a 13-4 number six seed.
It all feels rigid and predictable.
Saturday game makes MM's decision to give the team Thursday (Christmas) off before flying to Carolina all the wiser.
I kinda like that we're underdogs, for whatever motivation the locker room needs. It does seem a bit disrespectful...
Only a slight disrespect. I think the home team always gets a field goal so you’re automatically +3 on the road — the other +1.5 is how they’re separating the two teams.
I watched the Bears niners game last night too. Watching McCaffrey I couldn't help but to think 'what does he have that K9 doesn't?' because the answer certainly isn't quickness and ability -and that's saying a LOT because CM is super all of that .... My takeaway is that CM can juke in more than one way. K9 jukes only backwards and to the outside, and CM never ever jukes backwards behind the LOS (at least not in this game that I watched with this question in mind). What's weird is that juking only to the outside means that you can still juke in 2 directions, but he doesn't because he runs with a lean to the outside until he hits the 2nd level; meaning he can only juke in that direction ... or all the way around in that direction. He doesn't run with his weight balanced until he's off to the races, if he's off to the races. I still think he's missing holes set up by the zone run that he'd hit with a stronger inside juke. I've been hard on K9 in the past with my opinions, and I've always come around but man I just can't shake the feeling that this far into his career he just is what he is: a <10% big play chance or nothing. Not a reliable bellwether like Zach. I think Zach should start, and I can't help wondering what we could get for K9 after watching a full 9ers game comparing the insane abilities of K9 and McCaffrey. Sucks that 9rs fans have to type that name so many times because they weren't creative enough to find him a nickname.
...and that inside cut by Zach to spring that huge run in the 2nd half was awesome!
Wouldn't want to take anything away from that one. Great cut.
I think one thing CM has that K9 doesn't is volume. I think if K9 got the touches CM had, he would be thought of differently. The opportunity cost is time spent on the IR.
K9 is healthy because he not getting CM volume. I don’t think K9 on the team next year, I believe MM wants a more dynamic power back suck as Beast Mode.
Here is one difference, McCaffrey never hesitate, he perpetual mention. K9 can’t really stop hesitating looking for the next step.
The 49'ers offense has looked really good of late, so it will be a challenge. I think our defense will be up to the task. The 9'ers defense has not looked good lately. So can our offense take advantage of their defense more than their offense can get against our defense? Should be a good contest, and will probably be decided in the 4th quarter. I am worried about our WR situation though.
That’s the $64 question. Will our offense be able to score enough against them.
If the 49er defense is as incapable of stopping us as they were the Bears, we should have a decent opportunity to score. By the same token, if our defense plays like they have, they are far better than the Bears defense and should be able to stop the 49ers from scoring on nearly every drive.
Our receivers better but Bears offense is much better than ours. Their HC clearly better than Coach K, unfortunately. But Whiners defense didn’t look that great. Man if only he got that ball to his guy on that last play….
I'll be interested in seeing what the ratings are between the Saturday night game and the Sunday night game.
SF beat themselves up tonight, marginalizing more of their starters. Upton Stout looks to be out after exiting tonight's game (concussion?). Williams at LT looks like he's also sitting out from a hamstring. I watched McCaffrey getting special attention on the sidelines with a back issue, which was a big problem after he wore himself out getting to their last Super Bowl appearance. Maybe Kittle makes it back next week with an ankle issue? How valuable will the first round Bye be to them? Playing us at 80% next week can only diminish their ability to be effective in the Playoffs. Might they decide to rest crucial players, knowing the first round should be fairly easy victories using bench players?
Will they get Kittle back?
No indications.
If no Shaheed, Hawks will have to depend on three WR, all of whom are big and physical, Young, White and Bobo. I trust any of them to come through.
Let's have all of them mobilize 'n come through, Mobilizer.
Next men up, sorry to see Cody might not be one of 'em
The 49ers are the slipperiest team in the league. Our defense needs to play disciplined and tough. Fortunately, their defense lets others slip past them.
They gave up 24 (Titans), 27 (Colts), and 38 (Bears) recently. If our defense gets a reasonable number of stops, Seahawks win. Our offense should not play scared and should not hold anything back. We should treat this as an early Wild Card game.
Thinking back to those 49ers games of the past have me a little concerned about this upcoming game. It seemed all to often that we would fumble or throw an interception on the opening drive and then have to fight to get those points back by the end of the game. Couple that with the fact we have a QB with a turnover issue and I'm going to be on edge for this one.
And they lost a very talented CB in Upton Stout. His replacement is a rookie. I know that would keep me awake at night.
Our offense hasn’t looked good for a month…
I don't know what I'm really talking about regarding offensive play calling but it seems to me that Kubiak has just been calling very conservative first half's over the last month or so. Not sure if that might be a directive from the MM?
I’d say the offense has been patchy, frustrating, and off-kilter for a month. As a team, we’ve scored 37, 18, 38, and 27 points over the past month. Walker had 100+ yards last week and Charbs did it this week. The Niners defense is below average.
But the Niners offense has been almost unstoppable at times. We won’t win a boat race. We need sound tough play and exceptional tackling to give Sam a chance.
I hope that Shaheed is cleared quickly, but I’m not optimistic that he’ll be ready by Saturday. Great field position and more targets than JSN and Kupp are difference makers.
With home field advantage and an offensive that’s clicking, I can see why the Niners are favored. But I think people are discounting the Seahawks defense and letting the bad offensive plays overshadow the successes.
Biggest game of the year - just two weeks after the previous biggest game of the year!
The forty whiners offense is a juggernaut. I’m sure the Hawks defense can do better than the Bears, but we will need 4 quarters of quality play from Sam Darnold and the offense. Shaheed will be a big loss. The Saturday game will make it more likely he won’t clear protocol in one fewer days. Horton does not sound promising for return this week. Kupp is going to need to have one big swan song for the Gipper.(Does anyone remember, “Win one for the Gipper?”) Only 4 targets for 88 vs the Panthers. (Barner) He caught three. I’d like to see Kubiak up the ante on Barner’s targets to 8 for next week.
A thought I had watching the Panthers game replay on NFL+. K9 is a more explosive runner, but it’s looked to me all year that Charbs is the preferred pass blocking RB and I wonder if one reason the Hawks run so much on 1st down with K9 on the field is his liability as a pass blocker. Playing Charbs on 1st down more frequently might make the pass game more effective with the added backfield protection. I think we’ll see more Charbs on 1st downs on Saturday. After all, it’s not like he isn’t an effective runner, he’s just not as explosive. But I’ll take 4 yards on 1st down.
I think if we lose, it will be due to turnovers. Can we keep it to one turnover, please! If we have three, I can’t see it coming out in our favor vs the SF offense. They will take advantage of them. I know Sam can play a more clean game. Let’s go do this! Go Hawks!
I feel kinda surprised that the narrative is Charbs is the better blocker...I just don't see it that way.
I absolutely agree that Charbs is better in pass pro and is why he gets the 3rd down reps.
I know our D will show up and show out. Our offense does not look pretty and often looks lost. but they seem to find ways to put points on the board.
I’d list Kittle as the biggest injury for the 9ers. He always seems to come up with key plays against us.
I just feel it’s time to be more consistent and not be the worst team in the NFL at protecting the football
“That’s one for the Gipper!”
https://youtu.be/_e7rmpjBSR8?si=eMmLi-KvfA_6NYpe
They don’t make um like they use to :(
Perhaps Trent Williams and Upton stout are bigger loss than Shaheed on a short week.
Man, it sure didn’t look like it last night. Purdy still had tons more time than Darnold and in theory Bears have both a better pass rush and a better secondary than Panthers. And McCaffrey had himself a game too. Loving that Williams may be out, but they didn’t miss a beat.
Plus our customary 2-3 turnovers…
Ugh.
Right. But zooming out, no Trent vs Seahawks front is the bigger story than vs Bears front. Weather was a factor too, as SF-Bears had perfect weather.
SF will need to help their backup with RB's & TE's if Williams is indeed out. They need Trent and Kittle for their mauling run game, and even WITH them we did a pretty good job vs Mccaffrey in the first game. Kittle probably back but I'd be very surprised if Trent plays and risks further injury before playoffs.
My biggest concern is containing Purdy in the pocket: he's a slippery mofo. I see Emmanwori coming up big as a spy on him.
We should get an idea on Tuesday when the first injury report comes out. Have they already been ruled out? Shaheed might be back, but it seems like all contagion miss at least one game. I still think we’ll be okay if we dont tune it over more than twice, preferably only once.
No, but Stout also concussion protocol and don't think you come back from a hammy in 6 days. Cross is much younger than Trent and he's possibly out a month.
I like our chances in SF
I’m with you. I just want the offense to play better in the first half. And protect the ball better. The other side of the coin is our defense gets three turnovers to even things out.