flopped in his playoff debut last season<\/a> with the Minnesota Vikings by taking nine sacks in a 27-9 loss to the Rams, Darnold completed 12 of 17 passes for 124 yards and connected with Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a touchdown in the star receiver\u2019s playoff debut.<\/p>\nSeattle hadn\u2019t played in the postseason since the 2020 season, when it lost at home to the Rams with no fans in the stands because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The 49ers (13-6) were never competitive in the second-most lopsided playoff loss in franchise history. San Francisco lost 49-3 to the New York Giants in the divisional round in the 1986 season. <\/p>\n
The Niners were missing three injured All-Pros: tight end George Kittle, linebacker Fred Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa. Star left tackle Trent Williams, who played through a hamstring injury, was proud of his team for getting as far in the playoffs as it did. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing with guys you\u2019re signing off the practice squad,\u201d Williams said, \u201cguys (you are) taking off the street \u2014 you got to temper expectations a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brock Purdy completed 15 of 27 passes for 140 yards with an interception and a lost fumble against the Seahawks\u2019 \u201cDark Side\u201d defense. Seattle also recovered a fumble by tight end Jake Tonges.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s working for us, to be honest,\u201d safety Nick Emmanwori said. \u201cEverything\u2019s working. We fly to the ball, we\u2019ve got (a) great scheme, great coaches, great players. I (think) it\u2019s hard for teams to find a way to score on us or beat us straight up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker waltzes to career night<\/p>\n
Walker\u2019s three rushing touchdowns tied him with Shaun Alexander for the most in a playoff game in franchise history. Two of the scores came after halftime, and he celebrated one by chucking the ball into the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d do it more,\u201d Walker said, \u201cbut I\u2019d get fined for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker finished with 116 yards rushing, his most since his rookie year in 2022, and he picked up the slack after Zach Charbonnet was injured during the game. The Seahawks ran for 175 yards, their third most this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see it, how they\u2019re breathing, they\u2019re tired, they\u2019re slow to get up,\u201d Walker said. \u201cYou can see it\u2019s demoralizing to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pursuit of Purdy<\/p>\n
The Seahawks\u2019 front seven made life difficult for Purdy, chasing him across the field while sacking him twice. With the Niners thin at receiver, Purdy scrambled five times for 37 yards and frequently threw on the run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no secret in terms of their style of play,\u201d Purdy said. \u201cTrying to make a quarterback check it down and play deep to short. Then within that, have a good pass rush. That\u2019s a good defense, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
49ers: RB Christian McCaffrey (stinger) was injured in the second quarter and returned in the third quarter before exiting the game for good. Tonges injured a foot and did not return. <\/p>\n
Seahawks: Charbonnet injured a knee in the second quarter and did not return. LT Charles Cross injured a foot in the third quarter and did not return.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
49ers: Heal and reload for next season.<\/p>\n
Seahawks: Are one victory away from the fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history and first in 11 years. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Doug Baldwin hyped up the famed \u201c12th Man\u201d crowd in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[879,70285,7,54236,878,70283,949,297,8757,70284,19865,34456,63187,70286,6446,752,8735,44081,11453,70288,54234,70289,54021,101,296,103,102,33553,6427,104,106,105,70287,127,25053,567,558,63188],"class_list":["post-138753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brock-purdy","tag-byron-murphy-ii","tag-california","tag-charles-cross","tag-christian-mccaffrey","tag-doug-baldwin","tag-football","tag-fred-warner","tag-george-kittle","tag-grey-zabel","tag-jake-tonges","tag-jaxon-smith-njigba","tag-kenneth-walker-iii","tag-leonard-williams","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-football","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-nick-bosa","tag-nick-emmanwori","tag-rashid-shaheed","tag-richard-sherman","tag-sam-darnold","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-seattle-redhawks","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-shaun-alexander","tag-sports","tag-trent-williams","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington","tag-zach-charbonnet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}