The 49ers could not run the ball well against Seattle in Week 18.
The San Francisco 49ers are facing the Seattle Seahawks for the second time in two weeks on Saturday, this time at Lumen Field as they hope for a different result than their 13-3 loss in Week 18.
That game was disappointing for the 49ers, who only mustered 173 yards of total offense as they just couldn’t get anything going on the ground or even in the air. Defensively, while San Francisco held Seattle to just 13 points, it felt like the score didn’t fully reflect how the game went, with the Seahawks having many missed opportunities in the loss.
Heading into the divisional round, the 49ers need to be better on offense. Their offense is the unit that has led the team since Brock Purdy returned from injury, and that will need to be the case again on Saturday against arguably the best defense in the NFL.
In Week 18, the Seahawks ran a ton of two-high shells to defend the pass better, playing almost exclusively in nickel, and still were able to stop the run game for the 49ers. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak knows that can’t be the case this week.
“That’s why you got to run the ball versus them,” Kubiak said on Wednesday when asked about the Seahawks and their two-high shells. “That’s why you got to try to get them out of that. When teams can defend the run in two-shell, that’s what they want. So that they can keep those safeties deep and be in the pass coverages they want to play.
“The thing [is] that, with these guys, they do a good job of playing their two-shell, but then all their coverages complement [each other] that they can kind of fit the run from their single high, from those two-shell looks. So, it’s a huge challenge, but the challenge is on us. We got to run the ball better. We got to be better on third down so we can get more ops to run the ball. That’s really the biggest thing, we got to stay on the field so we can keep calling runs. Then hopefully, you can get the defense to commit another guy in the box, which helps other things. So that’s the plan. That’s just football. We got to execute and stay on the field, and hopefully those runs will come.”
In Week 18, the 49ers just couldn’t run the ball at all on early downs. On first and second down, they averaged 3.2 yards per carry and had a long of just six yards with Christian McCaffrey and Brian Robinson Jr. More often than not, they were stopped for three yards or less, putting the offense in tough passing situations that they couldn’t convert.
The 49ers didn’t have Trent Williams in that game, which hurts the run game. He’ll be back this week (though it’s not likely he’ll be 100 percent yet). That should help the run game, but the 49ers need to get more momentum on the ground to force Seattle out of those two-shells, which can create matchups to open up the passing game more.
Of course, Brock Purdy will have to show up and likely elevate the team more than he did in that Week 18 game. But the run game is paramount to success on Saturday.
Category: General Sports
