SEATTLE - The Seahawks had one last chance to steal it.
Down 32-29 to the NFC West-leading 49ers late in the fourth quarter Sunday, Seattle moved into position for a game-winning push after surviving its own turnover trouble all afternoon. Sam Darnold took a shot down the left side on third-and-10, looking for Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a ball that would have gone for about 30 yards and put Seattle in the red zone with roughly a minute left.
Smith-Njigba rose up for it. The pass got over his shoulder. Then, in the moment that ended Seattle’s shot, the ball slipped through his hands.
A fourth-and-10 try from Cooper Kupp came up short after a diving attempt for the sticks, and the Seahawks were left with a 32-29 loss that dropped them to 3-2. San Francisco moved to 5-0 and took a firm early lead in the division.
“Catch the damn football, at the end of the day,” said Smith-Njigba when asked what he learned from the crucial miscue. “I know I’ll make the next one.”
Head coach Mike Macdonald didn’t mince words about how his team played.
“In terms of playing complementary football the way that we want to play here as Seahawks, and become the team that we want to become, we’re not there yet,” Macdonald said postgame.
The frustrating part for Seattle is that Smith-Njigba had already done plenty to keep the Seahawks alive. He finished with five catches for 102 yards and a touchdown, including a 35-yard catch-and-run that set Seattle up at midfield and a 16-yard score in the third quarter that had the home crowd buzzing. Darnold completed 18 of 29 passes for 195 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, bringing his season total to five picks in just three complete games.
“You gotta tip your cap to (the 49ers); they played a good game, but… those are all things that I can control,” Darnold said. “Just can’t be putting the ball in jeopardy like that.”
Seattle’s defense did its part to keep the game within reach. The Seahawks recovered two fumbles, including one on a muffed punt, and got an interception from Nehemiah Pritchett during a strong third quarter that they won 13-0. For much of the day, San Francisco had to work through longer fields before eventually breaking through.
The Seahawks also forced the 49ers into uncomfortable moments with Brock Purdy, but Purdy’s scrambles eventually helped San Francisco put the game away. He connected with Brandin Cooks for a touchdown, then the 49ers added a two-point conversion to Mike Evans. Eddy Pineiro’s 44-yard field goal at the two-minute warning became the difference in the final margin.
Seattle’s offense knew all afternoon that the defense was keeping the team afloat.
“There’s frustration, without a doubt there’s frustration,” Kupp said. “You’re very aware of how good the defense is playing… offensively, we put the defense in a lot of really tough positions.”
The Seahawks’ first-half mistakes piled up quickly. Darnold threw an interception on his first drive for the second straight game, this time when Renardo Green picked him off while he was targeting Smith-Njigba.
Evans, who finished with seven catches for 113 yards and a score, beat Josh Jobe on a slant route for a touchdown. Emanuel Wilson later tied it at 7-7 with his lone rushing touchdown, but the 49ers answered when Wilson was stripped by Fred Warner and Christian McCaffrey turned that turnover into an 11-yard touchdown run.
Seattle had a chance to settle things before halftime, but another mistake flipped the game again. The Seahawks got the ball inside the five-yard line with fewer than 20 seconds left in the half, then stayed with George Holani after he had already fumbled on the previous field-goal drive. On the next run, defensive tackle Gracen Halton got into the backfield, hit Holani, and recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown that made it 21-13.
Every point San Francisco scored came off a Seattle turnover.
“Defense, special teams, they deserve this win,” Smith-Njigba said. “As an offense, myself, feel like we let them down.”
Still, the Seahawks had enough going on defense to leave with some encouraging tape heading into Thursday’s matchup with the Broncos. Byron Murphy II sacked Purdy twice by the early second quarter, and he added three tackles for loss. Seattle’s defense also didn’t allow San Francisco to score off a non-turnover situation until Cooks’ fourth-quarter touchdown.
The group in the locker room wasn’t interested in pointing fingers.
“Nobody’s fault,” Jones said. “We could’ve executed better in the red zone… we got to get stops. You turn those touchdowns into three points, you may be looking at a different game.”
Even with the loss, Jones said he still feels the same as he did before the season.
“I feel good. Honestly, I still feel the same as I did before the season started,” Jones said, referring to “little things” being the difference in Seattle’s two losses. “We could very well be sitting in the same thing 5-0 just like (San Francisco).”
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