49ers 41, Seahawks 23: Grades
SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers just advanced to the Divisional Round of the NFC Playoffs with a 41-23 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Here are the 49ers' grades for this performance.
BROCK PURDY: A
He just had one of the greatest playoff performances ever by a 49ers quarterback, and it didn't start well. He seemed nervous early as he missed his first pass wildly and finished the first half with 9 completions on 19 passes and a passer rating of 91.3. For the first time in his career, he looked like an actual rookie, because he made bad decisions and forced passes that nearly got intercepted by linebackers. But something flipped at halftime, and in the second half Purdy completed 9 of 11 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns and his passer rating was a perfect 158.3. He also had a third potential touchdown pass that was dropped by Brandon Aiyuk. And Purdy made these plays on his own by scrambling around the field and buying time. No offense to Jimmy Garoppolo, who's history with this team, but he couldn't make those improvisational plays because he's not quick enough. Purdy's ability to make defenders miss and extend plays is extremely special and a big reason he is establishing himself as a franchise quarterback who makes the offense elite. Imagine how Garoppolo and Trey Lance must feel watching Purdy take the team from them.
RUNNING BACKS: A-MINUS
Christian McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass in the red zone and broke off a beautiful 68-yard run. But other than that long gain, the Seahawks held McCaffrey to just 3.6 yards per carry by shutting down the runs between the tackles. Elijah Mitchell seemed rusty as he gained just 2 yards on 9 rushes.
WIDE RECEIVERS: A-MINUS
Deebo Samuel looked sluggish the first half until a Seahawks defender yanked his ankle after a play and seemingly tried to injure him. Then Samuel turned it up, and in the second half he caught a pass in the flat and exploded through the Seahawks defense for a 74-yard touchdown. To be fair, the Seahawks had quit by this point, but it still was an impressive play. Brandon Aiyuk also played well, gained 73 yards through the air and made the key downfield block on Samuel's touchdown. But Aiyuk also dropped what would have been Purdy's fourth touchdown pass of the game.
TIGHT ENDS: B
George Kittle caught just 2 passes for 37 yards, but also scored on a two-point conversion.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: B
They gave up just one sack, but that's largely because Brock Purdy avoided lots of hits that Jimmy Garoppolo wouldn't have avoided. And although the 49ers averaged 5.5 yards per carry, the offensive linemen struggled to get push when running between the tackles (until Seattle quit, of course).
DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: C
Nick Bosa seemed to be on a pitch count, which is odd considering it was a playoff game. And when he was on the field, the Seahawks largely neutralized him, as he finished the game with no sacks or quarterback hits, although he did recover a fumble which Charles Omenihu forced. Omenihu was the star of this unit today, as he recorded two sacks. Arik Armstead also recorded one in the first quarter. Collectively, this group gave up more than 100 rushing yards for the second time in the past three games, which is troubling. The run defense was elite earlier in the season but has taken a step back recently.
LINEBACKERS: C
Dre Greenlaw recorded 11 tackles but also gave up a touchdown run to Kenneth Walker, who outran Greenlaw to the pylon. Fred Warner recorded just six tackles.
DEFENSIVE BACKS: D
Deommodore Lenoir came into the game with a target on his back, but he played surprisingly well -- he intercepted a pass and broke up another. In fact, he played much better than the 49ers No. 1 cornerback, Charvarius Ward, who got whooped repeatedly by D.K. Metcalf, who finished with 136 yards and two touchdowns. Ward talked lots of trash all season and showed Metcalf no respect early in the game by lining up right in his face and giving him no cushion. Then Metcalf beat him for a 50-yard touchdown catch, and Ward played passively the rest of the game. You could see the confidence leave his body. Bad sign for the rest of the playoffs. In addition, Jimmie Ward committed a 15-yard late hit on Geno Smith that gave the Seahawks three points and the lead before halftime.
SPECIAL TEAMS: A
Robbie Gould made all of his kicks and Mitch Wishnowsky boomed a 57-yard punt.
COACHES: C
This game was much closer than the score indicates. The Seahawks had the ball at the 49ers' 19-yard line down by six points midway through the third quarter -- they were in field goal range. Then Geno Smith, who has no pocket presence, held the ball too long in the pocket, fumbled on 3rd and 14, the 49ers recovered and the Seahawks folded shortly after. Huge gift. Then he threw an interception which essentially ended the game. Another gift. He's not that good, and yet his passer rating was 98.9 and the Seahawks still scored 23 points. This is concerning, considering the 49ers will face much better quarterbacks than Smith going forward. What will happen to the 49ers defense if the opposing quarterback doesn't hand them turnovers on a silver platter? Frankly, the 49ers defense hasn't played well in about a month, and today they showed upcoming opponents lots of ways to attack them. On offense, the 49ers scored 41 points which is extremely impressive, and in the second half definitely looked like a unit that can carry the 49ers to a Super Bowl victory. Still, Kyle Shanahan needs to get his entire team ready to play a full 60 minutes of football next week. Today it looked like the 49ers expected the Seahawks to fold immediately. Then the Seahawks punched them in the mouth. The Seahawks had a good game plan -- they just didn't have a good enough team to execute it for four quarters. They're 9-9, the essence of mediocre. Other teams will do what Seattle did, only better. The 49ers better be ready.
