The most disappointing unit in the 49ers blow out loss

Brutal.

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The San Francisco 49ers were blown out by the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round. It was a full team loss in all three phases. While the defense is likely the group that deserves the least blame due to what they had to endure this season, their performance against the run in particular was stunningly disappointing. 

The San Francisco 49ers' run defense failed in the biggest moments 

The 49ers run defense has been an issue all season. However, they faced a Seahawks rushing attack that was equally as poor. A bit of a scheme to beat Seattle had come out since Week 10, and it started with defending the run and forcing Seattle to pass to beat you. 

This obviously did not happen for the 49ers in the Week 18 loss. Seattle running backs had 33 rushes for 171 yards in that game. So, this was a chance for redemption for the 49ers. 

The reality was that San Francisco knew that Seattle would lean on the run in this game as well. Sam Darnold popped up on the injury report with an oblique issue. Darnold has already been limited as a passer in recent weeks, and now that he was banged up, it was clear that the Seahawks would lean on the run.

So, the run was predictable; the 49ers had to have spent the whole week focusing on their issues from the last game, and the Seahawks' rushing attack was not even a strong suit to begin with. The Seahawks even lost Zach Charbonnet early in the game. None of that mattered. 

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Walker tapped out of the game with 19 carries for 116 yards and three touchdowns. He was unstoppable in this game. They were able to run the outside, run inside, convert short yardage, and Walker was ripping runs into the second level. 

Darnold won the game with 124 yards passing and two sacks. He hardly had to do anything. 

The special teams and offense did not step up, but the defense had one job as well, and they failed in this regard. 

It will be interesting to see if this loss has any impact on Robert Saleh. Last week he looked like an incredible coordinator who could come up with a gameplan on the fly but this week the gameplan seemed obvious, and his group failed to execute.

The loss is disappointing, but the run defense failing when it was so obvious it was coming was tough to watch.