Richard Sherman and 49ers routed by Seahawks.
SEATTLE — Before Sunday, 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman had played 57 regular-season and playoff games at CenturyLink Field, meaning he was familiar with most every corridor and cranny in the stadium.
But there was at least one area he’d never entered: the opponent’s locker room.
“It’s a little smaller,” Sherman said, smiling. “They don’t leave a lot of space over there for the visitors.”
Of course, CenturyLink, widely known as the NFL’s most deafening stadium, can make opponents very uncomfortable for other reasons. And Sherman found that out firsthand Sunday in his first game on the opposite side of what is a comically one-sided rivalry.
In his first meeting against the team that employed him for his first seven NFL seasons, Sherman and his new teammates endured a 43-16 beatdown from the Seahawks.
The loss was the 49ers’ 10th straight in the series, including their eighth consecutive defeat in Seattle dating to 2011, and Sherman finally experienced what it was like to get smacked in Seattle.
Instead of giving a 49ers quarterback the choke sign, or
celebrating an interception by dancing with the Sea-Gals cheerleaders, the 49ers’ former antagonist took the beating instead and tried to make sense of what went wrong.
The 49ers dropped to 2-10, while the Seahawks (7-5) bolstered their playoff chances.
“It was just unfortunate,” Sherman said. “We didn’t play as well as we could have. Too many turnovers. Gave up too many plays. … That’s kind of the way things have gone this season.”
Sherman, a hypercompetitive trash-talker, finally failed to get the last word after these NFC West foes played. And that became clear when he joked with his friend, Seahawks inside linebacker Bobby Wagner, about Wagner’s lumbering 98-yard interception return for a touchdown that ended the scoring with about four minutes left.
After the game, Sherman told Wagner he was slow.
Responded Wagner: “I was telling him, if I’m slow, then what does that say about his team?” Ouch. Three days before kickoff, Sherman said he felt disrespected by the Seahawks, who released him in March when he was recovering from a torn Achilles, and he was particularly uncharitable when it came to quarterback Russell Wilson. Sherman said he didn’t have a relationship with his teammate for six seasons and took a shot at Wilson when a reporter noted Sherman had witnessed the elusive QB make countless plays with his feet.
Responded Sherman: “I’ve also seen him throw five picks in a game. … You understand that he can be defended.”
Not Sunday, when Wilson didn’t throw one pick, let alone five. Instead, the diplomatic quarterback who had been generous with his pregame praise of Sherman picked apart the 49ers’ secondary at key moments.
Wilson threw four touchdown passes, three before halftime, including an 18-yard, fourth-quarter score to wide receiver Jaron Brown, who was being covered by Sherman.
Asked about Wilson’s performance, Sherman noted his otherwise modest stat line: Wilson completed 11 of 17 passes for 185 yards while posting his second-best passer rating (140.9) of the season.
“He played well,” Sherman said. “I think he threw for 160, 170 (yards). Their run game was really effective. They let him get to his spots and kept the game plan simple.”
That quote isn’t brimming with affection, but there was plenty of love in the air Sunday despite Sherman’s messy divorce from the Seahawks.
In pregame warmups, Sherman had warm conversations with a large group that included Seattle head coach Pete Carroll, Wagner and wide receiver Doug Baldwin, who was also Sherman’s teammate at Stanford. At one point, even Wilson approached Sherman and they briefly exchanged a handshake and hug.
There were no boos for Sherman, whose jersey was worn by the son of Seahawks general manager John Schneider. And there was even an in-game homage to the most famous play in his decorated career after Wilson threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Brown late in the first quarter.
Four Seahawks celebrated by reprising the game-sealing play in which Sherman deflected a pass that was intercepted by linebacker Malcolm Smith in Seattle’s 23-17 win over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game in January 2014.
In the scoring celebration, Baldwin played the role of Sherman and tipped the ball to wide receiver David Moore, who mimicked Smith.
“That was a tribute to my boy,” Baldwin said. “… Sherm is obviously one of those guys that has done so much for this organization that we thought it would be nice to give him a tribute. I know it was kind of weird. We’re scoring, he’s on the other team, we’re doing the tribute. But that was in our hearts this week.”
The Seahawks mostly avoided Sherman. He was targeted just twice, and allowed a 21yard reception to Baldwin that included a missed tackle by Sherman.
As for Sherman’s teammates, plenty had more forgettable performances.
The 49ers had a slew of missed tackles, committed 13 penalties and had three turnovers that led to 13 points. Their special teams contributed three penalties and had a muffed punt by Richie James that the Seahawks recovered. They allowed an 84-yard kickoff return by Tyler Lockett to open the second half that led to a 20-yard touchdown run by Rashaad Penny one play later that gave Seattle a 27-3 lead.
It was, in other words, more of the same: The 49ers have lost their past eight games in Seattle by a combined score of 232-96, and left tackle Joe Staley, 34, is the only member of the team to have endured each defeat.
“I just want to f— win here so bad,” Staley said. “… This game means a lot to me. It just sucks to not have success here.”
Staley said that to a few reporters in the visitor’s locker room at CenturyLink Field.
It’s cramped and uncomfortable, as Sherman now knows.