How a Midseason Turning Point Sparked the Seahawks' Super Bowl Surge
SAN JOSE - The Seattle Seahawks didn’t just sneak into the Super Bowl - they stormed in, riding a wave of momentum that’s been building since a pivotal Week 11 win over the San Francisco 49ers. That 20-17 victory, sealed by a last-second touchdown run from Geno Smith, now looks like the moment everything started to click for a team that was still figuring itself out under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald.
Back then, the Seahawks were 4-5, still searching for consistency, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The 49ers, meanwhile, were 5-4 and trying to regain their footing as defending NFC champs. But what unfolded that day at Levi’s Stadium flipped the trajectory of both teams - and, in many ways, the entire NFC.
“We were kind of on a roller coaster,” Macdonald said this week from the San Jose Convention Center. “We had some roster turnover.
It felt like a moment for us to define who we wanted to be. Credit to the guys - they stayed committed, and it’s been a wild, fun ride.”
That ride has taken Seattle all the way to Super Bowl LX, where they’ll face the New England Patriots on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium. The Seahawks are 16-3, the Patriots 17-3. But rewind to that November afternoon, and you’ll find the spark that lit the fire.
Geno Smith, now replaced by Sam Darnold, engineered an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with his 13-yard touchdown scramble with just 12 seconds left on the clock. It didn’t just win the game - it galvanized a team that had been teetering on the edge.
Seattle would go on to win six of its final eight games to finish 10-7. While that wasn’t enough to make the playoffs last season, it laid the foundation for what’s become a 26-5 run since that turning point.
The 49ers, on the other hand, spiraled. After that loss, they managed just one more win the rest of the season, finishing 6-11.
It’s hard to overstate the contrast between those two arcs. Just a few weeks before that November showdown, the 49ers had steamrolled Seattle in Week 6, piling up 483 yards of offense - including 233 on the ground - despite missing Christian McCaffrey.
But the rematch told a different story. McCaffrey was back, but the Seahawks’ defense held San Francisco to just 277 total yards and 79 from McCaffrey himself.
That’s when the buy-in really began, according to safety Julian Love. Coming off a 26-20 overtime loss to the Rams before their bye week, the Seahawks needed a reset.
“Mike said, ‘What if when we come back, we’ve got the best defense in the league?’” Love recalled.
“It wasn’t rah-rah. It was just: forget what’s happened, let’s figure each other out and go be great.”
From that point on, Seattle’s defense became a problem - especially for the 49ers. Over three meetings this season, the Seahawks gave up just 26 total points to their division rivals.
After a narrow 17-13 loss in the season opener, they shut down San Francisco 13-3 in Week 18 to clinch the NFC’s top seed. Then came the knockout punch: a 41-6 dismantling in the divisional round.
Leonard Williams, acquired midseason in 2023, said that first loss to the 49ers was a wake-up call.
“We knew we had to be special,” Williams said. “We’d let a few games slip, and we had to work harder to get here.”
Slot corner Devon Witherspoon echoed that sentiment. The defense had been getting gashed, and that November game was about pride.
“We had something to prove,” Witherspoon said. “They got the ‘W’ the first time, but we didn’t feel like we really lost it. We had to make a statement - and we did.”
Defensive tackle Jarran Reed pointed to that same game as a moment of identity formation.
“We were trying to figure out who we were,” Reed said. “We bought into the mentality, and it’s carried through.”
Not everyone remembers it as a rallying cry - linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who was still settling in after arriving from the Rams, admitted he barely remembers the details. But the tape doesn’t lie: he led the team with 13 tackles that day.
As the Seahawks prepared for their most recent matchups with the 49ers, Love said they felt confident in the matchups - especially on defense.
“Coach Shanahan is a great coach, a great play-caller. But we felt good about our guys matching up with their guys,” Love said.
“It’s will vs. will. And we felt good going into it.”
That confidence is rooted in Macdonald’s ever-evolving defensive schemes. Players talk about him like a football savant - part coach, part machine.
“We joke that he has AI tendencies,” Williams said. “He’s constantly learning and adapting.
You need a Harvard degree to play in this defense. He might install something new on a Sunday morning, so you’ve got to be ready.”
For Williams, this run carries extra meaning. His father-in-law is none other than 49ers legend Ronnie Lott - a man who won four Super Bowls in the same stadium where Seattle now hopes to win its second.
“The Rams and the 49ers gave us some battles this year,” Williams said. “They prepared us for this moment.
And to be here, on this field, with that family connection - it’s special. After the last two games, I’ve been handing out hats and shirts.
It’s been beautiful.”
The Seahawks may have started the 2024 season as a team in transition. But since that defining November win, they’ve looked every bit like a team built for February.