by Daivid Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–This is the first time in the last two years where the crowd didn’t have a huge role, the Niners did a good job these were two really good teams battling it out Seattle did have a slight edge with the crowd I’d be reluctant to say it had no effect on the game. It certainly wasn’t as drastic as we’ve seen in the past. For the most part this was pretty evenly played.

The Niners played hard even though the outcome wasn’t what they wanted they truly proved that they could play a decent game up in Seattle even though losing 23-17 this game went to the end and remember the interception came with 15 seconds left on the clock. Giving some slightly better time management the Niners would have had a few more shots at the end zone.

If the 49ers protected the ball a little bit better they might have had a better outcome but for the most part. this is a frustrating game for the 49ers because they had their opportunities and the real sad part about it for the team is that they kind of missed those. Early in the game on the very first play the offense forces a fumble and recovered it and gave the ball to the 49ers on the 15 yard line of Seattle and they only kicked a field goal.

Plays like that can’t happen you get a big play like that and we saw that happened time and again in the playoffs, the 49ers against Carolina early on we get deep into opposition territory and getting into the end zone and settle for a field goal when they need touchdowns. It’s okay to kick a field every now and then you got to score more touchdowns then your kicking field goals especially in the playoffs.

Then later in the game the Niners just had a couple of bad turnovers the interceptions thrown by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor in the fourth quarter coming off that great stand they had against Seattle in that last game they had with them at Candlestick to win that really hurts, that gave the Seahawks a chance to kick another field goal to make it a six point game.

That was a huge difference if they had moved down the field and scored or at least kept Seattle off the board the 49ers would have been able to at least tie it with a field goal instead of having to go all the way down the field and score a touchdown and force the issue.

This was a very good game, two really good teams, battling it out, the Seahawks won so in theory you can say Seattle was better but if you get these two teams together ten times on a neutral site it’s probably going to be a draw your going to see it as a 5-5 match. These teams are so well matched up their built to beat each other that’s how they measure each other.

The Niners labored this season, lost in the NFC Championship and now look to the future in the fall of 2014 and will open a new stadium in Santa Clara this August. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and Kaepernick will have to build for the future.

David Zizmor covered the NFL for Sportstalk and will be doing commentary for Warriors basketball starting next week for Sportstalk radio