The game: Seattle at San Francisco (+6.5)
It’s been a surprisingly rocky start to the season for the Seattle Seahawks (2-4) who enter tonight’s game with the San Francisco 49ers (2-4) not only needed a win to stop a two-game skid, but even stay in the playoff race.
The 49ers have struggled as well, but I’m as surprised about that as I am that Jim Tomsula’s ruined every toilet stall in the 49ers locker room. The janitors there have to be drawing hazard pay.
The History
While the teams have played 33 times since 1976, the rivalry really didn’t begin until Jim Harbaugh was hired by the 49ers in 2011. Pete Carroll was hired by the Seahawks the year before. Harbaugh immediately led the 49ers to a three-game win streak over the Seahawks.
The biggest and best game in the rivalry came in the NFC Championship on Jan. 19, 2014. The Seahawks beat the 49ers 23-17 after splitting the regular season conference match-ups. The Seahawks would go on to beat the hell out of the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl, claiming that the game with the 49ers was their “real Super Bowl.”
The Seahawks are currently on a three-game win streak dating back to that NFC Championship game. The longest streak in the series belongs to the 49ers, who won four straight from December, 2010 to October, 2012. The Seahawks, under Mike Holmgren, beat the 49ers six straight times from Octover 2003 to December, 2005.
The Seahawks lead the series 18-15. Since the Seahawks joined the NFC West in 2002 they lead the series 16-11.
The Seahawks on offense
Regardless of the importance the media and casual fan has given running back Marshawn Lynch, the best player on the Seahawks’ offense and on their entire team is Russell Wilson and he proves it every time he’s on the field. Wilson has helped the Seahawks build fourth-quarter leads in every game this season, almost single-handedly, only to watch the once highly-regarded defense crumble late.
Lynch is still a great weapon and with the emergence of rookie Thomas Rawls, can slowly get back into the line up after his recent groin issues. The Seahawks receievers are underrated and know how to make plays with Wilson. The offensive line is the problem and has been since the Week One loss to the St. Louis Rams. They’ve not come close to fixing it yet.
The 49ers on offense
There was an M. Knight Shamalayan twist to quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s career and it turned out he was terrible the entire time. I keep hearing writers and commentators asking “What happened to Kaepernick?” and the answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. If you can look at his career stats and find a significant difference in his performance over his four-year career as a starter, you’re looking at different numbers than me.
Kaepernick has always been this terrible. The difference in years’ past is that he was consistently bailed out by one of the best defenses in the league and the playcalling of Greg Roman, who did everything he could to hid Kaepernick’s inability to read defenses from their opponents. Now Roman is working the same magic in Buffalo and Kaepernick looks like ass.
The Seahawks on defense
The Seahawks boasted the most elite defense in the NFL for the last two seasons. This is a new season though. Quarterbacks have finally learned how to attack this defense with speedy receivers that Richard Sherman and Carlos Williams simply can’t run with. Kam Chancellor’s return at strong safety made the defense better, but the lack of a consistent pass rush can expose him in coverage as well. The 49ers do not have a single offensive weapon to take advantage of any of these problems.
The 49ers on defense
Navorro Bowman has returned to form in the linebacker corps but unfortunately there’s not a single player of his caliber around him. The 49ers can’t get a pass rush, they can’t stop the run and the can’t stop the pass. Other than that, they’re terrible. Since Week Two, the 49ers have given up an average of over 31 points per game.
The pick: Against the Seahawks, Kaepernick is even worse than normal. In fact, against Seattle he’s not only the worst quarterback in the NFL, he’s the worst quarterback int he history of the NFL with a career 18.3 quartback rating. To put that into perspective, Jamarcus Russell’s career quarterback rating was 18.7. So against the Seahawks, Kaepernick is not only horrible against Seattle, he’s not even as good as Jamarcus Russell. The Seahawks defense isn’t what it was, but Kaepernick is here to save the day. Seahawks 42, 49ers 13
