By: Jack Machulski
I have no idea where to start with this game. First of all, it was my favorite football game of the year, and the second half may have been my favorite half of football I have ever watched. This game had everything: big plays, huge hits, and one of the most exciting endings ever followed by the greatest post-game interview ever.
I have no idea where to start with this game. First of all, it was my favorite football game of the year, and the second half may have been my favorite half of football I have ever watched. This game had everything: big plays, huge hits, and one of the most exciting endings ever followed by the greatest post-game interview ever.
The biggest storyline after the
game was obviously the brilliant final play and post-game interview by Richard
Sherman. However, that has turned the
focus into Sherman V. Erin Andrews/Crabtree/Cranky old people and racists that
think he is a “thug”, when the focus should be on Seahawks V. 49ers.
The Seahawks had a nightmare of
a start to this game. After electing to
receive, Russell Wilson was sacked and stripped on the first play of the game
by Aldon Smith, giving the 49ers the ball inside the 20. Russell Wilson is the second best QB in the
league at extending plays with his feet and making throws downfield (Big Ben is
the best) but sometimes the scrambling can get him in trouble. On this particular play, he was holding the
ball low around his waist, making it an easy target for Smith to swipe at. Fortunately for Wilson, he has the league’s
best defense behind him and the Hawks were able to get a stop on third down,
holding the Niners to only a field goal.
(3-0 Niners)
Things didn’t get better for the
Seahawks as their offense went three and out on the next drive, and the teams
exchanged punts for the rest of the first quarter. There were some exciting plays such as Kasim
Osgood downing a punt at the 1 yard line and Lamichael James getting absolutely blown up by Ricardo “Rocket” Lockette,
but no scoring and after one quarter it was still 3-0 Niners.
The 49ers caught a break after
James got lit up, he muffed the punt but all the Seahawks were going for the
big hit, and SF was able to recover the football. The SF offense looked like it was stalling
but then Richard Sherman committed an unnecessary holding penalty on Crabtree,
which gave the 49ers a crucial first down.
After that, the Hawks defense were victims of Kaepernick’s legs, who went
into full “Turbo Ostrich”
mode, scrambling for a 12 yard run for a first down then a 58 yarder down to
the Hawks 10 yard line. Frank Gore runs
to the 1 yard line and after the first try was unsuccessful, Anthony Dixon was
able to leap over the pile for the touchdown.
Things are not looking good for Seattle.
(10-0 Niners)
The Hawks desperately need to
get something going on offense, a two score lead is tough to come back from
against the great Niners defense but if they let it get any worse it could have
proven fatal. The offense had looked
anemic so far, but they finally got a big play from Wilson. This time, we saw the positive results of his
long scrambles as he was able to extend the play and hit Doug Baldwin for a 51
yard gain and put Seattle in the redzone.
The offense wasn’t able to do anything else and they had to settle for a
field goal, but at least they got on the board. (10-3 Niners)
After the Seahawks score, the
49ers go 3 and out and the Seahawks put together a drive but turn it over on
downs with 20 seconds left. Going into
the half its 10-3 SF and they also get ball to start the third quarter. This game was definitely in San Francisco’s
favor.
Much like the Seahawks in the
first half, the 49ers were unable to capitalize on receiving the ball to start
the half and went three and out. A
terrible punt by Andy Lee gave the Seahawks the ball on the 40 yard line and in
excellent position to score.
On this drive, the Hawks went to
their rock Marshawn Lynch, who picked up 12 yards on the first play of the
drive and got the ball to the Niners 40.
Then on 3rd and 1, Lynch busts open the 49ers defense for a
40 yard touchdown. Skittles for almost
everyone!! (10-10
Tie)
All the momentum seemed to be in
favor of the 49ers, but Kaepernick responded by piecing together a beautiful drive. Kaepernick made a beautiful pass to Michael
Crabtree for 22 yards and had another scramble for 22 yards. After getting a very friendly bounce on a
fumble, Kaep threw a 26 yard dart to Anquan Boldin that was just out of the reach of Earl Thomas. Touchdown San Francisco. (17-10 Niners)
After taking every bit of
momentum away with the great touchdown drive, the 49ers special teams gave it
all back, allowing Doug Baldwin to return the kick 70 yards to their own 33 yard
line. But the 49ers defense was able to
hold strong as they forced the Seahawks to kick a 40 yard field goal, which
Hauschka nails. (17-13 Niners)
The 49ers go three and out, as Gore
is stopped for no gain, Chancellor blows up Vernon Davis, and Kaepernick overthrows Crabtree.
Seattle commits a running into the kicker penalty on the punt which the
forever annoying and douchey “rules analyst” Mike Pereira told us should have
given the 49ers the first down. It
looked like the punter landed on him on purpose so I’m glad that the refs didn’t
listen to Mike.
After getting the ball back, the
Seahawks are driving it down the field with a steady dose of short passes and
Lynch runs. At 2nd and 6 at
the 35 yard line, bad scrambling Russell Wilson strikes again as he runs all
the way back to the 50 then commits an intentional grounding (which caused John Harbaugh to explore his musical talents while looking for the call),
making it 3rd and 22 .
So far Russell has had a 51 yard pass but a huge intentional grounding
penalty and strip sack while scrambling, bad scrambling Russell 2, good scrambling
Russell 1. However, Wilson makes up for
it. On 3rd and 22 he gets a
nice dump pass to Zach Miller to make it a manageable 4th and
7. Then Pete Carrol makes an incredibly
ballsy playcall, sending all 3 receivers deep to the endzone. Russell hooks up with Jermaine Kearse for a
35 yard touchdown. Wow, just wow. (20-17 Seattle)
Kaepernick leads his offense
back out onto the field but this time he is trailing for the first time in the
game. After converting a third down to
Boldin, the Niners get it to third and 1, which looks like it will be easily
picked up with a short run. However, a delay
of game penalty makes it 3rd and 6 and forced the Niners to
throw. On the play, Cliff Avril beats
his man, and Kaep is rolling out to his left, holding the ball with only one
hand, and Avril is able to strip it out.
Michael Bennet scoops it and runs to the 6 yard line, huge play for the
Seahawks and it looked like they were going to put away the game.
The Seahawks get a false start
penalty which made it second and goal from the 9, and after Wilson overthrows
Golden Tate it brought up third and goal from the 9. This turned out to be one of the most
interesting plays of the game. Russell
Wilson throws it to Jermaine Kearse, who makes the catch, but Navorro Bowman
comes up to make the tackle and wrestles it away from him, Eric Reid hits
Kearse but pins Bowman’s leg underneath, which completely tears up his knee (click at your own risk). It was clearly either a catch and forced fumble,
or an incompletion and interception because the ball didn’t touch the ground,
but it was called a catch and runner down on the field and for some stupid
reason it was not a reviewable play, seriously NFL please fix this. I really wish this was an INT because Bowman
made an amazing play while getting his knee torn apart, he is a true warrior. Sucks to see one of the best linebackers in
the NFL go down making such a great play, but for it not to count because of a
dumb rule. However, the football gods/spirit
of Navorro Bowman restore balance to the football universe, as Pete Carrol
stupidly decides to go for it on fourth down.
Lynch and Wilson mess up the exchange and fumble it, giving the 49ers
the ball.
Since the fumble bounced a long
way, the Niners actually end up with the ball on the 15 yard line. Kendall Hunter runs through a few tackles and
picks up 11 on the first play and it looks like the 49ers might put together a
drive. However, on the very next play,Kaepernick throws a terrible interception right to Kam Chancellor. Just a horrible decision by Kaepernick
and it was his second straight turnover.
Wilson has the ball at the 40
for the drive, he gets them to around the 30 but then offensive pass
interference brings them to 3rd and 18. Wilson is able to get the ball to the 29 for
a manageable 47 yard field goal, which Hauschka nails. (23-17 Seattle)
The Seahawks give the ball back
to the 49ers with the dreaded 6 point lead and 3:37 left on the clock. The first thing I noticed about the 49ers on
this drive is that they played with 0 urgency, letting the play clock run all
the way down to one second before snapping the ball, which cost them precious
time. On third and 2, the Niners ran a
slant route to Crabtree, who made a “business decision” and decided to let the
pass go and avoid the huge incoming hit from Kam Chancellor. Luckily, Kaepernick was able to make a play
on 4th and 2, rolling out to his left and hitting Frank Gore for a
huge first down. Kaep continues to drive
the ball and gets into Seahawks territory with 1:19 left to play after hitting
Boldin for a 4 yard gain bringing up 3rd and 2. On third and 2 he hits Crabtree on a play
that looked very similar to the one he threw an interception on earlier, it
picks up 15 yards and the Niners are at the thirty. Next play is an 11 yard pass to Vernon Davis
which moves them only 17 yards away from the endzone and a birth to Super Bowl
XLVIII. However there is only 30 seconds
left and Kaepernick decides to take a shot at the endzone, and he threw just
about a perfect pass to Crabtree in the corner.
The only mistake Kaepernick made was challenging Richard Sherman, the
best cornerback in the league, who contorted his body and tipped the ball and the super bowl dreams of the Niners into the arms of Malcolm Smith. Game Over. Seahawks win. Richard Sherman does it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment