A tremendous game and an impressive performance by Russell Wilson.
If the NFC championship is a rematch of this Monday Night Football game, we’re in for a treat. The Seattle Seahawks’ 27-24 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10 was wild, messy and exciting. It may have been the most fun game of the season.
The 49ers’ and Seahawks’ defenses gave their offenses every opportunity to win — and did some scoring, too, with each team logging a defensive touchdown. Because of those strong units, Jimmy Garoppolo and Russell Wilson had a few gaffes, which had the teams in a tight contest until kicker Jason Meyers hit the game-winner as time expired in overtime.
Wilson, even with an almost-costly interception, should be a front-runner in the MVP race, and because of him, the Seahawks will be in the hunt for the top seed in the NFC, with the 49ers entering an absolutely brutal stretch in their schedule. They are no longer unbeaten — along with the rest of the league — and perhaps their weaknesses were on display for upcoming opponents.
Here are four takeaways from the Monday night thriller.
1. Russell Wilson finds a way to win, even amid struggles.
He didn’t put together the spotless performance we’ve grown accustomed to seeing this season. His interception, for example, was out of the norm for him. He entered the game with preposterously efficient touchdown-interception ratio at 22:1, but threw that INT in overtime, when the Seahawks seemed to be on the verge of putting the game away. It was also a bad sign that the passing stats between Wilson (232 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 5 sacks) and Garoppolo (248 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 5 sacks) looked similar.
But make no mistake: Wilson was by far the better quarterback, going 3 of 3 for 15 yards on the Seahawks’ final overtime drive to set up the game-winning kick. He also scrambled for a third-down conversion on an 18-yard pickup on that final drive. He did that without top wideout Tyler Lockett and with an otherwise unimpressive supporting cast.
This 49ers defense has challenged every quarterback they’ve faced. Wilson’s struggles are minor in that context. And the fact that we’re picking nits is probably a testament to how superb he’s been this season. Wilson is clearly still an MVP candidate. This win over the 49ers keeps him in the discussion as the favorite for the award.
Even when — and perhaps especially when — he was running for his life, he was making jaw-dropping plays.
2. It’s hard to feel good about Jimmy Garoppolo.
On the 49ers’ final offensive drive of the fourth quarter, Garoppolo seemed intent upon throwing an interception. Both Seahawks linebackers K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner dropped passes that were gimmes. Garoppolo may have put together one of his best games in his career in Week 9, but his performance in Week 10 was another reminder of why Kyle Shanahan seems to keep telling Garoppolo to do less, do less. He looked a little bit like a liability.
Garoppolo was frantic in the pocket, and was inaccurate in the fourth quarter and in the overtime period. Perhaps more poise and comfort will come with time. For the time being, Garoppolo looked like he was playing scared. He was probably a microphone away from admitting he was seeing ghosts.
The running backs are the key to this offense for a reason. And Shanahan went to them in overtime, with three runs and two passes on their opening overtime drive. When he let Garoppolo throw the ball on the second drive, he threw three consecutive incompletions, which made him 1 of 5 in overtime for seven yards.
It’s unfair to say that the young quarterback was a total mess. After all, he did get San Francisco into field goal range on that final fourth-quarter drive. But even when he was effective, his play was ugly.
3. I’m kind of in love with this punt formation.
If you’re a football nerd like me, you might appreciate this oddity.
It looked almost like a formation from the Canadian Football League. (Shanahan actually stole this strange play from the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick, who probably stole it from a team in the 1940s.) The 49ers put a gunner in the backfield near the punter. That allowed him to run free without getting pressed off the line. In this instance, it ended up backfiring, with the player hitting the returner before he had time to field the ball cleanly. That’s right: he got there too quickly.
Still, it could make for an interesting opportunity to run a fake punt. In the meantime, it allows a 49ers’ gunner a free run and a head of steam in the open field for a tackle. With the except of the penalty, this seemed to work nicely.
4. Fantasy football thought: Where did Tyler Lockett go?
Not only did he finish with just three catches for 26 yards, but he suffered an injury in overtime, and the Seahawks turned to Josh Gordon, D.K. Metcalf and Malik Turner. (Turner, by the way, managed a clutch 28-yard catch on third-and-16 to extend the Seahawks’ first drive in overtime.) So after Lockett exploded in Week 9 (13 receptions, 152 yards, 2 TDs), he was a relative non-factor and may be a concern in the coming days with a leg injury.
To make things worse for Lockett’s owners, Gordon looked competent in the Seahawks’ offense, and his role is sure to increase in the coming weeks. Seattle doesn’t throw often — it’s bad news Lockett is losing a share of the targets.
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