sfgate.com photo: The Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson scrambles to avoid the San Francisco 49ers pass rush on Monday Night Football at Levis Stadium
By: Joe Lami
SANTA CLARA — The NFL has no undefeated teams remaining this season after the San Francisco 49ers were defeated by their arch-rivals, the Seattle Seahawks, in overtime 27-24 on Monday Night Football. The highly-anticipated game lived up to and even surpassed the hype, as we just witnessed the best home game played at Levi’s Stadium.
The game had everything, including substantial point swings, turnovers, defensive touchdowns, drops (lots of them), and game-winning field goal opportunities.
Niners’ fans can walk away disappointed after MVP front-runner, Russell Wilson, ran all over the field, totaling 53 yards, including a 19-yard scamper in overtime that set up the game-winner. But they shouldn’t. The red and gold balled out tonight, despite being without their star all-pro tight end, George Kittle and losing Emmanuel Sanders in the midst of it all. Sanders went down with a rib injury and didn’t come back. He’s scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday.
Other injuries include Matt Breida’s ankle acted up; he didn’t return. DJ Jones, who went down with a groin injury and didn’t return. He was a beast up until the point, getting a sack that included completely knocking the Seattle center over on a perfectly timed bullrush. Ronald Blair also went down with a knee injury after preventing Wilson from picking up a huge gain. The Niners finished the game with five sacks and have marked more than three for the sixth-straight game.
They just made mistakes, lots of them, and still took a 7-2 team down to the very seconds of overtime.
But as Richard Sherman said postgame, “you learn more in your losses than in your wins. We’re going to find things to correct and fix them”.
The Niners had a chance to win the game twice in the overtime period. The newly signed rookie kicker, Chase McLaughlin, was 3/3 heading into the potential 47-yard game-winner, but completely shanked it. On San Francisco’s second drive of the overtime period, they only expended 14 seconds off the clock thanks to three-straight incompletions (including one drop), leaving Wilson 1:25 to drive from his own 36 to win the game.
Only using 14 seconds off the clock proved to be costly, as it was enough time for Wilson to work his magic. But at the same time, Shanahan wasn’t shy about being aggressive; he was playing for the win.
One has to question, though, why he didn’t use Deebo Samuel on an end-around. Samuel experienced his best game in the NFL thus far, getting leaned on heavily after Sanders went down. He finished with eight catches on 11 targets for 112 yards. It was his first 100+ yard performance of his career.
Wilson had the first drive of overtime and was looking like an unstoppable object, driving the ball down to the 49ers’ 14-yard line. That’s when Dre Greenlaw made his biggest play as a 49er, intercepting the pass over his shoulder and returning it to midfield. It was only Wilson’s second thrown interception on his season.
Before the play, Greenlaw instilled confidence in his defense, “I told them they are not in the end zone yet, so it is up to us to get a stop. That’s the mentality that we have to have as a defense and the mentality we all have,” he said.
McLaughlin, replacing the injured Robbie Gould, played excellent up to that point. He even kicked the game-tying 47-yarder with just one second remaining after Jimmy Garoppolo drove from his own 26 on a ten-play drive.
The Niners were humbled tonight, getting handed their first loss of the season, yet they didn’t go down without a fight.
San Francisco grabbed an early 10-0 lead in the opening quarter thanks to Jimmy Garoppolo’s only passing touchdown of the game, finding Kendrick Bourne from ten yards out. Bourne was mediocre at best, catching four of eight balls for 42 yards. He had a few drops, including one that led to Garoppolo’s only interception of the game.
“It’s tough, especially how it got an interception off of it; that’s what gets at me more than a drop. Even the second one almost got picked. I am just down on myself because those types of things can happen. It’s just about focusing in on the ball, because I know I can catch the ball, it’s not hard. Sometimes, you squeeze it harder than other situations. When I’m more open, I tend to get more relaxed when someone is on me,” added Bourne.
Seattle looked dead to rights, until late in the first half, when Garoppolo fumbled the ball at his ten on a strip-sack from Jarran Reed. The ball was scooped up by Jadeveon Clowney for the touchdown and brought the score to 10-7 before the break. Clowney had a field-day against the banged-up Niners’ offensive line, finishing with the fumble recovery touchdown, as well as a forced fumble, five tackles, a sack, and five QB hits.
Seattle had a chance at back-to-back late second-quarter touchdowns, but a terrific play from Jaquiski Tartt punched the ball out of DK Metcalf’s hands at the two-yard-line to prevent the score.
However, they picked it up in the second half, scoring two more touchdowns, extending their 21-0 run. Russell Wilson found tight end Jacob Hollister in the end zone for his 23rd touchdown pass of the season, while Chris Carson ran one in from a yard out.
The Niners were able to stop the bleeding on quite possibly the strangest play anyone has ever seen to start the fourth quarter. The ball started with K’Wuan Williams strip-sacking Wilson. However, the ball fell into the lap of right tackle, Germain Ifedi, who fumbled on a Fred Warner punch-out. DeForest Buckner did the rest of the work and carried it in for his first touchdown since high school to bring the Niners back into the game. The Niners capped the play with a two-point conversion to Bourne, making it 21-18.
Field goals filled the rest of the fourth, with Jason Myers knocking down one and McLaughlin nailing two, including the buzzer-beater.
It was Garoppolo’s first experience in overtime. The much more experienced Wilson got the best of him, as he ups his record to 6-3-1 in extra time. More importantly, the win for Seattle now puts them right on the heels of the Niners are 8-2, just one game behind San Francisco for the division lead.
