Seahawks vs. 49ers score & recap (2024)

The NFL wild-card weekend kicked off Saturday with the 49ers beating the Seahawks 41-23 in the 2 seed-7 seed matchup of the NFC playoffs. Check in with The Athletic for all the latest news, highlights, reaction and analysis.

Helpful links

• Final stats and boxscore (49ers def. Seahawks 41-23)
• NFL beginner’s guide to the postseason and path to the Super Bowl
• NFL wild-card round scores and schedule
• The Athletic's season-long coverage of the Seahawks and 49ers

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The 49ers haven’t lost in nearly three months, so there hasn’t been a lot for Nick Bosa to be anxious about lately. But the halftime dynamic of Saturday’s wild-card playoff game was an unfamiliar one. The Seahawks led the 49ers, 17-16, and the way they grabbed the advantage — an undisciplined personal foul penalty to set up a late-half field goal — made the home team seem unusually shaky at the break.

“I was a little nervous,” Bosa acknowledged, “at how the tide was going.”

At around the same time, Bosa’s fellow defensive lineman Charles Omenihu spoke to his cohorts. He delivered words that Bosa so often actualizes on the football field.

“I told the guys, ‘Big-time players step up in the big-time games,'” Omenihu said. “And I said, ‘We’re all big-time players, now who’s going to step up?'”

The 49ers answered that question collectively, roaring to life in the second half to smoke Seattle, 41-23, and advance to the divisional round. Engines across all three phases of the game hit full throttle. But it was Omenihu’s particular contribution — a strip sack recovered by Bosa — that sent the 49ers into full overdrive.

Here’s how the sequence went down because it might be tough to remember that the 49ers were actually struggling before their overpowering second-half deluge.

Pete Carroll trains his players and coaches to treat every game like a championship bout, no one battle bigger than the next. But the playoffs are different. The losses, in particular, tend to be more revealing than regular-season defeats.

Playoff losses can reveal the difference between mediocre and good. Between good and great. Between great and heavyweight. Between contender and pretender.

The 49ers clearly belong in this type of fight. But the Seahawks do, too. They earned it by being better than most in the regular season, earning an above-.500 record while outscoring their opponents; the latter is a feat that can not even be claimed by all 14 playoff teams. The Seahawks’ placement among the final 14 was no fluke.

However, there’s a difference between sharing a ring and sharing a weight class. The San Francisco 49ers — through home-run hits in the draft, top-tier talent acquisition and sensational scheming — are punching with a much heavier hand. They hit different. They hit hard. And it doesn’t take long for them to put the opponent on the canvas for good.

The Seahawks are set up to bridge that gap in the future. As they turn the page to the offseason, they’ll have north of $30 million in effective cap space, many of their core players under contract and five top-100 draft picks. They can make weight soon enough.

Read more here.

Bad news for playoff defenses: Deebo Samuel is back to full strength and Christian McCaffrey has a full understanding of the 49ers’ playbook.

That combination accounted for 301 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s 41-23 wild-card playoff rout of the Seahawks, a strong signal that the 49ers have the weaponry to keep pace with any NFC team — and perhaps, unlike three years ago, the AFC’s top team.

“Quite honestly, those are two of the best players in the NFL with the ball in their hands,” said fullback Kyle Juszczyk. “So if you can have them in the backfield together — just on the field together — man, it’s going to be hard to stop.”

A backfield with Samuel and McCaffrey isn’t new.

Kyle Shanahan used it eight times — and to great effect — when the 49ers emerged from the bye in Week 10. But it had to go on the shelf shortly thereafter when Samuel suffered knee and ankle injuries against the Buccaneers.

It was back on Saturday, this time with Brock Purdy distributing the football. The result was 505 yards of total offense, a season high for San Francisco and only the third time that a franchise that boasts Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice among its all-time greats has gone over the 500-yard mark in a playoff game.

Read more here.

Asked if Geno Smith will be his quarterback next season, Pete Carroll told reporters, “I hope so.”

Moments earlier, Carroll glowed when asked about Smith’s season:

“He’s for real. Geno’s the real deal,” the coach said. “He can do all of the things that a terrific quarterback does. … His ability to stay poised and calm throughout the season, throughout the year — with all the hype and the buildup, he could have gone south five different times, and he didn’t. He never wavered. His leadership really stood out. His voice in the locker room, his voice with our players. He’s said the right stuff all year, right up to today.

“It’s a great story. … I thought he had an unbelievably great season for us.”

The 49ers defeated the Seahawks 41-23 behind 25 unanswered points in the second half. Here’s what you need to know:

• The 49ers will face the second-highest seed remaining in the NFC divisional round next week. San Francisco won’t know its opponent until after wild-card weekend wraps up Monday night.
• 49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy dazzled in the win, completing 18-of-30 passes for 332 yards with three passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and a two-point conversion.
• Seattle took a 17-16 halftime lead following touchdowns from Kenneth Walker III and DK Metcalf. Metcalf hauled in a 50-yard touchdown from Geno Smith, who finished with 253 passing yards on 25-of-35 passes with two touchdowns, one interception and the aforementioned lost fumble.
• San Francisco star running back Christian McCaffrey finished with 119 yards and a receiving touchdown. In the first quarter, he ripped off a 68-yard run to set up Purdy’s rushing score.

Read more from Michael-Shawn Dugar, David Lombardi and Matt Barrows here.

49ers QB Brock Purdy threw for more than 300 yards and tossed three touchdown passes today.

Per Stathead, he joins Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh and Cowboys star Dak Prescott as the only rookie quarterbacks to do this in a playoff game in NFL history.

After a win over Miami in early December, after he threw for 210 yards and two touchdowns, Brock Purdy was greeted by right guard Spencer Burford cracking up.

“He was laughing really hard in the locker room,” Purdy said.

Burford wasn’t laughing at Purdy. His cachinnating was born of amazement. Belief had produced something unbelievable, and all Burford could do was laugh.

See, back in November, during a week the 49ers spent practicing on the campus of the United States Air Force Academy, Burford made a declaration to Purdy. It wasn’t exactly a premonition. More a vibe he detected. An aura he witnessed. A fellowship he felt.

So Burford, on that freezing day in Colorado Springs, Colo., verbally anointed his fellow rookie.

“Something special is coming to you,” Burford told Purdy. “You’re special, bruh. I don’t know what it’s gon’ be, but something special is coming.”

Three weeks later, Jimmy Garoppolo broke his foot in the first quarter against the Dolphins, forcing Purdy into action. Ten snaps later, the rookie was throwing his first career touchdown pass, to Kyle Juszczyk, and was well on his way to a victory in a clutch performance in relief.

And when he got to the locker room, Burford reminded him of their conversation.

“He’s like, ‘I called it! I called it!’” Purdy said. “Spencer spoke it into existence.”

Read more here.

Thanks to Brock Purdy's heroics and a dominant defense, the 49ers pulled away from the Seahawks for the 41-23 win and will advance to the divisional round of the playoffs.

They will play the higher-seeded winner of tomorrow and Monday’s games. The No. 1-seed Eagles will play the other:

• Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET on Fox: No. 3 Vikings vs. No. 6 Giants
• Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN/ABC: No. 4 Buccaneers vs. No. 5 Cowboys

Seahawks WR DK Metcalf will finish two touchdown catches, his second career playoff game with multiple touchdown grabs.

Metcalf is the first player in Seattle franchise history with multiple playoff games with two or more touchdown catches, per Stathead.

The Seahawks will be very disappointed with today’s result, especially given they led at halftime. But by almost every measure, this season was still a success, as the team exceeded everyone’s expectations to start the post-Russell Wilson era.

Pete Carroll proved he’s still got it. Geno Smith came from nowhere to play like a top-10 QB. Tariq Woolen looks like a defensive cornerstone. The team drafted potential long-term answers at RB and both OT spots.

The focus will quickly turn to Smith’s future and contract status — as the veteran is due a massive raise — and the draft (where Seattle has the No. 5 pick courtesy of Denver), but those are good problems to have.