- WHERE: Lumen Field (Seattle)
- WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET | Prime Video, NFL+
The 49ers and Seahawks have fallen on unexpectedly hard times recently, with Week 5 twisting the knife harder into both teams.
The defending conference-champion Niners started the season slowly with back-to-back road losses in Weeks 2 and 3 and lost a shocker at home Sunday to the Cardinals, coughing up a 13-point halftime lead in the process.
Seattle coasted to a 3-0 start under new head coach Mike Macdonald but has lost two straight games, including Sunday’s home loss to a Mailk Nabers-less Giants team in spite of a 102-yard fumble return putting the Seahawks up early.
On Thursday, the 49ers will travel to Lumen Field to face a Seahawks team they’ve beaten five straight times, including playoffs. There’s a lot riding on this early-season division tilt. With a win, the Seahawks would be up two games over the 49ers, who would drop to 0-3 in NFC West games. A 49ers win would kick the Seahawks out of first place and drop them to 0-3 in conference games.
Here are four things to watch for when the 49ers visit the Seahawks on Thursday night on Prime Video:
1) The 49ers have some deep-seated offensive worries. A quick scan of the 49ers’ offensive rankings -- first in time of possession, second in yards per play, fifth in third-down proficiency -- doesn’t reveal the issues. Those become clear when you dig in further. They’re 18th in sack percentage allowed. Twenty-first in interception percentage. Ghastly rankings in the red zone (40.91%, 29th best) and in goal-to-go situations (50.00%, 31st). This is not the Kyle Shanahan offense we’ve come to know. Granted, injuries to Christian McCaffrey and others have tainted the product, but the 49ers had George Kittle and Deebo Samuel back in the lineup and still were held scoreless for the final 30 minutes last week. Brock Purdy has thrown four picks and fumbled four times, losing two of them. The biggest issues have come after halftime. They’ve outscored their opponents by 20 points this season, but in the past two division losses to the Rams and Cardinals, the 49ers have been outscored by 24 in the third and fourth quarters. Not having a kicker for the second half changed the strategy dramatically Sunday, but it can’t explain away their chronic issues punching the ball over the goal line this season.
2) Seahawks need to unleash Walker early. RB Kenneth Walker III has played in three games this season, missing two with injury. He’s averaging a career-best 5.5 yards per carry and has four touchdowns, but his usage has been curious. Perhaps there was some fear of overworking a back who now has missed multiple games to injury in each of his three NFL seasons. Yet there’s no good reason why Walker has only 16 first-half touches total, including four on Sunday after he’d worked over the Lions in Week 4. They’re getting him the ball more in the pass game than the previous coaching staff did, but Walker can help the offense and defense avoid what happened Sunday, with the Giants controlling the clock for more than 37 minutes and further taxing a shorthanded defense. The Niners allowed Arizona to run for 169 yards, and even if nearly half of those came from Kyler Murray, it appeared as if there were some gap-integrity issues Sunday that must be cleaned up fast. The Seahawks need to test them early with a dose of Walker’s physicality.
3) The 49ers will get a stiff test from Seattle’s passing game. Safety Talanoa Hufanga (wrist) will head to injured reserve, pushing rookie Malik Mustapha into the starting lineup and making the challenge of slowing down Geno Smith and Seattle’s three talented receivers even tougher. Deommodore Lenoir will be challenged in the slot by WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba. DK Metcalf, even with fumbles in his past two games, will always be a threat. Tyler Lockett is coming off his best game of the season. Smith had his worst game of the season Sunday but has played at a Pro Bowl level most of this season, currently leading the NFL in completions (143), pass attempts (199) and pass yards (1,466) and is completing 71.9% of his passes. Of course, the 49ers sacked Smith six times in 33 dropbacks in Seattle last season, and Nick Bosa will be hunting again vs. Seattle’s vulnerable tackles. But can the back end hold up? Niners DBs have no interceptions this season, and tackling has been a consistent issue across the defense.
4) Seahawks defense has issues of its own. The season has reached a bit of a flashpoint for Mike Macdonald and especially his defense. Against Bo Nix, Jacoby Brissett and Skylar Thompson, the unit showed out in helping the team start off 3-0. But in the past two weeks, Jared Goff and Daniel Jones have carved up this injury-riddled group. The news got worse Sunday with the loss of CB Riq Woolen. Taking Woolen’s place last week was Tre Brown, who’d played well previously but had a tough outing vs. the Giants, allowing 100 yards and a touchdown, per Next Gen Stats, as well as being penalized twice for defensive holding. Derick Hall also could miss this game, and Byron Murphy II and Uchenna Nwosu will be out. This certainly will sap the front-seven depth, even if Boye Mafe returns to the field, as expected. This defense has produced only one turnover in the past four games and has allowed far more explosive plays the past few weeks after the strong start. Slowing down RB Jordan Mason will be a tough challenge, but so will be containing the 49ers’ big-play weapons in the pass game. Macdonald had a field day as Ravens defensive coordinator last year, short-circuiting the 49ers offense in a big way in San Francisco, but the challenge with his current defense figures to be much harder.
