Gifted: Seahawks waste Chris Carson bullish TD, Doug Baldwin’s 2 scores in 26-23 OT loss at SF
Russell Wilson’s, Duane Brown’s, heck, just about every Seahawk’s head in the locker room was shaking.
But not down.
The nods were more of disbelieving, of mostly lacking explanation, for why Seattle became so sideways against a drooping, 4-10 team. Why it set a team record for penalties on day raining day by the Bay, when taking care of business would have meant clinching a playoff berth.
“Just can’t happen,” Brown, the veteran left tackle, said of the 14 penalties for 148 yards Seattle gifted San Francisco on Sunday. “Got to find a way to fix that.
“We’re disappointed. Whenever you have a chance to clinch a playoff berth and don’t get it done, it’s very disappointing.”
Yes, the Seahawks are still likely to make the playoffs. All they have to do is beat a 3-11 Arizona team that just lost 40-14 at 5-9 Atlanta and seems to have quit weeks ago. And there’s still a scenario an 8-8 Seahawks team makes the postseason, even on a three-game losing streak.
But this team won’t last long in the Super Bowl tournament playing like it did Sunday, giving away chances to win late in regulation then in overtime.
Yes, the Seahawks fully earned their 26-23 overtime loss at San Francisco at rainy, half-empty Levi’s Stadium.
Really, they got what they deserved here.
San Francisco finally cashed in on all the pre-holiday gifts with Robbie Gould’s 36-yard field goal with 3:06 left in overtime.
“To be honest with you, all it came down to was some penalties,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to be better.”
Seattle’s four-game winning streak ended in such a blown fashion it felt on this day like it never happened.
But it did. That’s why the Seahawks still hold the inside track to the playoffs with two weeks left in the regular season.
“Maybe there’s a great sense of, I don’t want to say wake-up call, but I think maybe it was great sense of lesson learned,” Wilson said.
Chris Carson ran for 119 yards on 22 carries, including a wowing touchdown to tie the game in the fourth quarter. Doug Baldwin had two touchdown catches in his return from injury for the Seahawks (8-6).
They host Kansas City (11-3) on Sunday, then host Arizona (3-11) in the regular-season finale Dec. 30.
“Where we want to go didn’t stop today,” Wilson said, correctly.
“We will respond, the right way.”
In some ways, there’s no way to go but up.
Seattle did what it had while winning eight of its previous 11 games to surge to into the fifth of sixth playoff seeds in the NFC, a spot the Seahawks still hold. They rushed for 168 yards, the same total they had against the 49ers in their 43-16 win at home two weeks ago. They converted 47 percent of their third downs (9 for 19).
The defense held San Francisco to 133 total yards and two field goals in the second half. It sacked Niners quarterback Nick Mullens three times in the fourth quarter. It forced the game’s only turnover, Bradley McDougald’s hit and Tre Flowers’ recovery.
But, man, the flags. It looked like the front of the United Nations. And it was spread across all three units.
Unsportsmanlike conduct, on special-teams captain Neiko Thorpe in the third quarter well after a San Francisco punt return ended.
Unnecessary roughness, on nickel defensive back Justin Coleman for wacking at Niners receiver Trent Taylor 50 yards away from a play on the opposite sideline to set up San Francisco’s field goal that made it 20-13 in the third quarter.
The offense had five penalties for holding. Four negated first downs in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Guards J.R. Sweezy and fill-in Ethan Pocic each had two of those fouls.
On the first drive of overtime, Wilson (23 for 31, 237 yards) connected down the right sideline with J.D. McKissic on third down, for 32 yards to the San Francisco 48-yard line. But referee Pete Morelli emphatically flagged Pocic for holding.
Wilson dropped to one knee in disbelief in the backfield, in front of Morelli, as the referee made his call.
“That was kind of the tale of the day, I guess,” Wilson said. “I mean, too many penalties. We’ve got to be sharper. We’ve got to be cleaner.”
Pocic was playing right guard because Jordan Simmons got hurt starting for injured D.J. Fluker.
“He didn’t work out very well,” Carroll said, flatly.
The coach said the Seahawks’ pregame analysis on Morelli’s crew did not show a higher amount of holding calls than fellow NFL officiating crews, adding this crew was middle of the pack in the league for such flags.
Seattle punted after Pocic’s crucial penalty. Undrafted rookie defensive tackle Poona Ford dumped San Francisco’s Matt Breida for a 5-yard loss to back the 49ers into second and 15 at their own 44. Former University of Washington receiver Dante Pettis then ran an in route on Seahawks cornerback Shaquill Griffin. Griffin waited to close on the ball until it arrived. As he knocked it away with his left arm coming around Pettis, a back official from 20 yards away darted a flag on Griffin. Pass interference. Fifteen more yards of gifts and a first down at the Seattle 41.
Jeff Wilson Jr. bolted off right guard for a 16-yard run on the next play, and the 49ers played out the drive to get the winning field goal.
“It was a terrible call,” Griffin said.
“I wouldn’t change nothin’. ... I kind of knew they were going to call a penalty on someone, the way they were calling penalties on the offense. I made sure as soon as I saw the pass in the air I wasn’t going to touch him or grab him. I was just going to stick my hand out, knock it down, and roll over. That’s exactly what I did.
“When I stood up, I looked at the ref, he looked at me. And he threw it.
“It sucks the way it ended,” Griffin said, adding he never got an explanation from the official.
It could have been for Griffin’s right, back arm away from the ball curl around Pettis’ back-side hip before the ball arrived.
“Just a terrible call,” Griffin said, again.
The two sacks by Reed and one by Clark late in the fourth quarter set up Wilson for a final-minute rally to win, while tied at 23 with 1:38 left. A screen pass to Mike Davis went for 5 yards. Then Davis caught a check-down pass from Wilson and ran through four defenders to get a first down at the Seattle 43 with 1:02 left.
But Pocic was caught holding for Seattle’s 12th penalty on a 19-yard run by Davis. Instead of the ball first down at the San Francisco 38, it ended up third and 15 from the 38. The Seahawks eventually punted with 15 seconds left in regulation.
Seattle’s defense struggled in the first half, and not having McDougald for the last three quarters was a large reason. He continued his standout season at strong safety replacing franchise icon Kam Chancellor early when he forced a fumble with a hit on the ball at the end of Jeff Wilson Jr.’s 14-yard run to the Seattle 28-yard line in the first quarter. Flowers recovered for the Seahawks’ first takeaway Sunday.
But that was McDougald’s final play. He left with a re-injured knee, he said afterward a flare up of his tendinitis that had been bothering him for months. Delano Hill replaced him. The 49ers repeatedly targeted the Seahawks’ 2017 draft choice by throwing at him to tight ends George Kittle and Garrett Celek for big plays. One was to Celek for a 41-yard touchdown in the second quarter, past Hill standing still. That put San Francisco ahead 14-6.
Baldwin began the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown pass to end Seattle’s first offensive possession. Sebastian Janikowski’s shanked point-after kept it 6-0, or else the game may never have reached overtime.
San Francisco answered that score on the ensuing kickoff. Richie James returned that 97 yards for a touchdown. Justin Coleman was the only Seahawks with a chance to tackle James, and he missed early in the return. Janikowski just walked off the field into the Seahawks bench, crossing James’ face, instead of even getting in the way of the first kickoff return for a touchdown against Seattle in three years.
Outside the Seahawks’ locker room and team headquarters in Renton, people will see a loss to a 3-10 team entering Sunday, a team they’d just smoked by 27 points two weeks earlier, and see a letdown.
“Rightfully so,” Baldwin said.
But he and Carroll and every other Seahawk said that wasn’t the issue on this wet, woeful Sunday they intend to mean nothing by the first week of January when they are preparing for their first playoff game.
“I don’t think any of that is what happened,” Carroll said, cutting off the question. “We were sloppy with our penalty situation. All of the numbers matched up to how we play: the running numbers, the third-down numbers were the best we had in quite a while. Defense kept the numbers down, played really well in the second half, kept them to field goals.
“So we did a lot really good things, like we normally do. But, two of the last three weeks, we had four penalties. So...it’s really hard to overcome that.”
Carroll realizes his remade Seahawks are still in control of goal one for this and any season. One more win over the season’s final two weeks, and this rainy Bay day will wash away.
But still...
“We’re well aware of (their playoff positioning),” Carroll said. “But just not today.
“There’s no silver linings in this day.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2018 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Gifted: Seahawks waste Chris Carson bullish TD, Doug Baldwin’s 2 scores in 26-23 OT loss at SF."
