Another sour day in Seattle for 49ers
Sherman on losing end for once in lopsided matchup; S.F. hurt on defense, special teams
SEATTLE >> Losing here is an annual ritual for the 49ers, and Sunday’s eighth straight losing visit came with all the familiar trappings en route to a 43-16 defeat.
Their offense couldn’t produce nearly enough points, not even with a 414-yard outburst from Nick Mullens.
Their defense couldn’t get out of their own way, whether it was bungling pass coverages or committing penalties to make Richard Sherman’s Seattle return moot.
Their special teams also chipped in with blunders, from
muffing a punt return to allowing an 84-yard kickoff return right after halftime.
Even coach Kyle Shanahan drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty — and one more would have gotten him mercifully ejected.
“There were a number of things that were building up, and
I made a dumb mistake and said something I shouldn’t have, and it won’t happen again,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers (2-10) have lost their past 10 meetings with the Seahawks (7-5), and they’ve failed to score more than 23 points in any of those games. Heck, the 49ers have not scored 20 points in any game at Seattle since 2008.
“If you don’t play well, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing,” Sherman said. “If you don’t play well, they’ll advantage of turnovers, if you drop punts, if you give up special-teams plays.”
Left tackle Joe Staley, the longest-tenured 49er in Year 12, agonized at his locker over the 49ers’ victory drought in Seattle.
“I just want to (expletive) win here so bad,” Staley said. “This is the one place, for some reason, this is always like my Super Bowl every year. Don’t take that out of context. You know what I mean: This game means a lot to me. It just stinks not to have success here.”
Mullens (30 of 48, 414 yards, 2 touchdowns, one interception) lost his third straight start since his flawless debut against the Raiders, and aside from a 75-yard touchdown pass to Pettis, chunks of his yards came via screen passes. The last 49ers quarterback to pass for 400 yards was Tim Rattay in 2004 (417).
“Yards are yards, and points are what we’re after, obviously,” left tackle Joe Staley said. “We were able to move the ball because we were down so much. You play the game to win. You don’t play the game to gain yards. You play to score points.”
Rookie Dante Pettis, channeling his University of Washington stardom, came through with two touchdown receptions after halftime to make the score more respectable than the 49ers’ deserved.
The 49ers were down 3716 when neither Mullens nor any other 49er could catch linebacker Bobby Wagner on a 98-yard interception return for a touchdown with 4:04 to play.
Wagner relived the play in a postgame chat with Sherman. “He was just telling me that I was slow,” Wagner said. “I was telling him if I’m slow, what does that say about his team.”
Mullens had attempted a short pass to Jeff Wilson Jr., who surprisingly got cast Sunday as the primary running back once Matt Breida aggravated an ankle injury in warmups.
Mullens’ counterpart, Russell Wilson, three TD passes among only four completions and six attempts before halftime. The Seahawks have won three in a row, and they play three of their remaining four games at home, and their only road game is a Dec. 16 rematch with the 49ers. QUIET SHERMAN >> Sherman
was a Seahawk when they enjoyed 29- and 26-point routs of the 49ers in 2012 and ’13, and there was little he could do to prevent this one on the 49ers’ side. What was it like in the visitors locker room?
“It’s a little smaller. They didn’t leave a lot of space over there for the visitors,” Sherman said. “Otherwise it feels the same. Standing on the other side didn’t make a difference for me.”
Wilson didn’t target a pass toward Sherman until after halftime, and of his four touchdown passes, only the last one came with Sherman in the vicinity, on what Sherman dismissed as a “scramble drill.”
On the first pass that came Sherman’s way, instead of limiting it to a 4-yard completion, he missed a tackle as Doug Baldwin then produced a 21-yard gain.
PETTIS PRODUCES >> Pettis started a second straight game in place of Marquise Goodwin (personal leave) and delivered his first twotouchdown game and had five catches for 129 yards.
“The loss kind of takes over whatever else you do,” Pettis said.
A 17-yard TD catch pulled the 49ers within 27-10 with 11:24 left in the third quarter. Pettis made a nifty move to reverse course and get in the end zone, a better move than one earlier in the game when he ran sideways on his first reception rather than ahead one more yard for a first down.
Early in the fourth quarter, Pettis opened a 49ers possession with his 75-yard scoring catch for a 34-16 deficit. “Those were two good routes and he did a good job when he had the opportunities,” Shanahan said. MYSTERY BACKFIELD >> Wilson, a former practicesquad player who debuted last Sunday in Tampa, produced 134 all-purpose yards (15 carries, 61 yards; eight catches, 73 yards). He sustained a first-half foot injury but returned to action after having an X-ray.
Breida, who entered on pace for a 1,000-yard season, produced 3-yard gains on the 49ers’ first two snaps before being replaced by Wilson. Breida finished with just 9 rushing yards (five carries) and 51 receiving yards (three catches).
• DeForest Buckner recorded two sacks to raise his team-high total to nine his season. Ronald Blair also had a sack.
• Jimmy Garoppolo watched from the 49ers sideline for the first time since his Week 3, seasonending knee injury. He was on crutches for nearly six weeks after his reconstructive surgery and is moving well in his rehabilitation.
“It’s nice to have him around the team and stuff, now that he can protect himself,” Shanahan said. “He’s watching, listening to the calls. But it’s just nice to have him down there.” Garoppolo declined to comment after the game.