The San Francisco 49ers came into Saturday night with NFC Championship aspirations. They left with more questions than answers after a lopsided 41-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks-a game that saw Seattle dominate in every phase and left head coach Kyle Shanahan facing some pointed scrutiny.
Let’s start with the quarterback situation. Sam Darnold was a question mark heading into the game after suffering an oblique injury during Thursday’s practice.
The injury kept him from throwing until pregame warmups, where he was limited and clearly not 100%. Still, he got the start under center, and the game plan reflected his condition.
Seattle, for their part, didn’t make things any easier. The Seahawks came out swinging, putting up a touchdown before Darnold had even taken a snap.
From there, they leaned on a punishing ground game, racking up 175 rushing yards on 33 carries. That allowed their quarterback to play within himself-just 17 pass attempts, 12 completions, 124 yards, and most importantly, no turnovers.
It wasn’t flashy, but it was efficient, and it was more than enough.
Meanwhile, Shanahan’s postgame comments raised some eyebrows. He acknowledged that Darnold had been on painkillers-specifically Toradol-and suggested that the effects kicked in just in time for kickoff.
“Warmups are like that, but it takes a while for the Toradol to kick in,” Shanahan said. “So we knew he’d be fine once kickoff came.
Which doesn’t really have to do with pressure. Sometimes it can affect how they throw, but usually when that Toradol kicks in, it doesn’t.
Sam played really well today.”
That comment sparked some online chatter, with at least one fan accusing Shanahan of “dry snitching” on his own quarterback. Whether you see it as transparency or oversharing, it was a rare moment of candidness from a head coach who usually keeps things close to the vest.
The loss itself was a gut punch for a 49ers team that had been building momentum. To get blown out like this, at home, by a division rival, is the kind of setback that forces a team to look inward. Seattle controlled the line of scrimmage, dictated tempo, and looked like the more prepared, more physical team from the jump.
Now, the 49ers will have to regroup and wait to see who they’ll face next-either the Rams or the Bears. But the bigger challenge might be internal.
They’ll need to get healthy, get focused, and find a way to recapture the form that made them a contender in the first place. Because if Saturday night was any indication, the road to the NFC title just got a lot steeper.