SEATTLE – After scratching and clawing their way back into the game, the Seattle Seahawks needed one more defensive stop to give themselves a chance at completing a massive second-half comeback.
Instead, the San Francisco 49ers ended things in the most fitting way possible.
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Third-string running back Isaac Guerendo took a first-down handoff, burst through a gaping hole on the right side and scampered down the sideline for a back-breaking 76-yard gain that killed any hope of a last-minute Seattle miracle. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk followed with a 6-yard score two plays later, putting the finishing touches on San Francisco’s 36-24 win over the Seahawks at Lumen Field.
It marked Seattle’s sixth consecutive loss to its Bay Area nemesis. And although this one came with new head coach Mike Macdonald on the sideline instead of Pete Carroll, the latest chapter of this NFC West rivalry had an all-too-familiar feel for the Seahawks.
The 49ers pummeled Seattle on the ground once again, amassing a 228-52 advantage in rushing yardage. In the teams’ past six meetings, San Francisco has outgained the Seahawks 1,110-420 on the ground and outscored them 184-96.
“They’re trying to do it the right way,” Macdonald said of his team’s run-defense struggles. “We’re just either stopping them right now at the line of scrimmage or the ball’s spitting and it’s explosive. So when that happens, it’s either front-line guys getting out of their gaps, the second level not fitting it correctly, and not getting it on the ground in the third level.”
The Seahawks (3-3) were missing a trio of key defensive players in outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, defensive tackle Byron Murphy II and cornerback Riq Woolen. But the 49ers (3-3) were beat up too, with star running back Christian McCaffrey on the injured reserve and backup Jordan Mason sustaining an injury in the second quarter.
San Francisco’s high-powered rushing attack kept marching on, exploding for 228 yards and 6.9 yards per carry. Mason set the tone with a 38-yard run on his team’s opening drive and Guerendo shut the door with his game-sealing 76-yard burst.
It was reminiscent of this past Sunday, when the Seahawks gave up 129 rushing yards to New York Giants backup running back Tyrone Tracy Jr.
“You can’t have 10 people communicating, doing the same thing, and one off,” Seattle safety Julian Love said. “It’s been killing us. And so I take that on me. I’ve gotta communicate better. … Guys want to play fast. Guys want to make plays. And I think that last play, I mean, we had a chance there. And just a little bit of miscommunication and missed fits.”
Thursday marked the fourth time in six games this season that the Seahawks have allowed an opponent to reach the 100-yard rushing mark. They surrendered 185 rushing yards to New England in a Week 2 overtime win, 116 to Detroit in a Week 4 loss and 175 to the Giants in Sunday’s Week 5 defeat.
Love said the defensive struggles are fundamental issues and not a product of adjusting to Macdonald’s defensive scheme, which produced immense success the past two seasons when he was Baltimore’s defensive coordinator.
“I don’t want to excuse it to being the new scheme and all that stuff,” Love said. “I think it’s just fundamental stuff. We have to just keep it black and white in the meeting room and address what needs to be addressed in terms of simple stuff.
“And that’s the good part. That’s the promising part. It’s bread-and-butter things that we’re not executing on. Mike’s really trying to dial it up, and we just have to find a way to mesh and catch our flow. And so we’re still kind of catching that stride and trying to figure it out.”
Meanwhile, the Seahawks again couldn’t get their ground game untracked. Starting running back Kenneth Walker rushed for just 32 yards and a TD on 14 carries, while backup Zach Charbonnet added 20 yards on five carries.
After totaling just seven running-back carries in Sunday’s loss to the Giants, Seattle made a point of getting its backs more touches early in Thursday’s game. But as the Seahawks fell behind 16-0 late in the first half and 23-3 early in the second half, they were forced to lean heavily on the pass.
“We certainly tried,” Macdonald said of his team’s rushing attack. “We ended up with like 20 rushes or something. It’s really a team stat, because if you’re behind multiple scores deep into the second half, you’re not gonna be able to run the ball. It’s just the way it goes. So we’re gonna keep working on it, we’re gonna keep finding our identity, and that’s one on the list of things that we’re gonna be attacking over the next week.”
After a brutal stretch of three consecutive losses in 11 days, Seattle now gets a mini-bye with 10 days to prepare for a Week 7 road matchup against Atlanta.
“You can’t fix everything overnight, so you’ve gotta pick one thing at a time,” Macdonald said. “We’ve gotta be really surgical in our approach. You’ve gotta be positive. There are good things on tape. The effort was there. The guys are trying to play physical, they’re trying to play the right way, and we’ve gotta look at what we’re asking and how we’re coaching it and how teams are attacking us and then go from there.”
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