Tyler Lockett, Offense Wakes Up Late as Seahawks Snag 26-23 Victory vs. 49ers
Despite being held to just six points in the first three quarters of play, the Seahawks came alive with three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter to orchestrate a 26-23 comeback victory over the 49ers and improve to 12-4 for the first time since 2014.
Pacing the offense, Tyler Lockett turned in his second monster game at State Farm Stadium this season, catching 12 passes for 90 yards and catching two touchdown passes from Russell Wilson in the final quarter. Running back Alex Collins sealed the victory with an eight-yard touchdown run inside three minutes left to play after Benson Mayowa forced a fumble on a strip sack deep in 49ers territory.
Here are five key takeaways from Seattle's fourth straight win heading into the playoffs:
Multiple records fell during a historic second quarter drive for Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
Throughout the season, few receiving duos have been more productive than Lockett and Metcalf, who at one point were both on pace for over 1,400 yards and 16 touchdowns. Though those paces cooled significantly in the second half as Seattle’s offense fell back to Earth, both players re-wrote the franchise record books in a matter of moments against San Francisco on Sunday. Early in the second quarter, Metcalf made back-to-back receptions to inch past Steve Largent as the franchise’s all-time leading receiver and wrapped up the game as the first Seahawk ever with 1,300 receiving yards. Only a few snaps later, Lockett set his own mark, surpassing Doug Baldwin and Bobby Engram with his 95th reception of the season. He eventually reached 100 receptions for the season during this game, becoming the first Seahawk to accomplish the feat. It’s truly been a special season for two of the best receivers in the sport.
Keeping a second half trend intact, explosive pass plays continue to evade the Seahawks offensively.
While Lockett and Metcalf both eclipsed significant team records on Sunday, the passing attack still hasn’t been able to rectify its downfield passing attack that caused opponents so many problems during the first eight games of the season. The Seahawks still only had three pass plays of 20-plus yards and two of them came on short dump off passes to running back Chris Carson and tight end Will Dissly as they were able to pick up big yardage after the catch. The longest pass through the air was a 26-yard completion to Lockett, which came in the second quarter on a broken play extended by Wilson scrambling. Wilson misfired on several downfield throws, including overthrowing Metcalf after he appeared to have separation down the right sideline heading towards the end zone and not being in the same zip code on a couple 40-plus yard shot attempts to Lockett and Freddie Swain. Continuing a second half swoon with the deep ball, Wilson again had to be reliant on the short and intermediate game to jumpstart the offense late.
After being in quicksand for three quarters, Seattle’s offense found traction late thanks to Wilson’s legs and contributions from Collins.
Just like last week in the second half against the Rams, the Seahawks seemed to catch fire in the final quarter after Wilson made a couple of big plays outside of the pocket to ignite a group that was sleepwalking and hadn't picked up a first down since the 10:18 mark of the second quarter. After they moved the chains on a dump off pass to Carson to open the possession, Wilson evaded multiple 49ers pass rushers bailing to his right to find Lockett, who was hit out of bounds after the short catch for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. Two plays later, Wilson rolled out to his left and connected with Lockett for another first down and followed up with a quick dump off to Dissly, who advanced the ball inside the 10-yard line on a 20-yard gain. From there, the Seahawks were rolling, rattling off 20 points and 171 yards of offense on three consecutive touchdown drives. Along with Wilson throwing a pair of scores, with Carson and Rashaad Penny both sidelined by minor injuries, Collins checked in for pivotal snaps, rushing five times for 29 yards while picking up two first downs and scoring his second touchdown in just three games this season.
As they have done all year, the defense came through with two clutch stops to aid the Seahawks comeback bid.
Though they didn’t turn in their best game of the second half by allowing a pair of touchdown drives to the 49ers in the second half, the Seahawks made stops when they absolutely needed them after falling behind by 10 points late in the third quarter. Following Wilson’s first touchdown to Lockett, Seattle allowed one first down from C.J. Beathard to River Cracraft but quickly held serve, forcing a punt three plays later when Poona Ford hit the quarterback and forced a low throw intended for George Kittle. Moments later, Wilson again found Lockett, this time on Fourth and Goal, giving Seattle its first lead since being up 6-3 in the second quarter. Sensing blood in the water like a shark, Mayowa went in for the kill shot three plays later, chopping the ball out of Beathard’s hand as he reared back to throw and forcing a fumble on a strip sack that was recovered by Rasheem Green. Putting the game on ice, Collins bulldozed his way into the end zone to push the Seahawks lead to 10 points with inside three minutes remaining on the game clock.
Another solid defensive showing may be overshadowed by two costly injuries.
While San Francisco scored 22 points, the most Seattle had allowed since Week 11, the last touchdown came during garbage time and for most of the game, Pete Carroll’s unit played sound football and forced numerous three-and-outs. Unfortunately, the team did so while potentially losing two vital players on that side of the football. Early in the second half, Jarran Reed hobbled towards the sideline bent over awkwardly and ultimately did not return with an abdominal injury. Later in the half, while blitzing off the edge in pursuit of Beathard, safety Jamal Adams took an awkward hit to his left shoulder and jogged off the field shaking his left arm. He briefly spent time in the blue medical tent before slamming his helmet to the ground and displaying not-so-positive body language on the bench. He didn’t play another snap and was replaced by Ryan Neal to close out the game. Losing either player for the Wild Card round next week would be a huge blow to a defense that has played so well over the past eight games.
