Kyle Shanahan coached his first game with the 49ers on September 10, 2017. In his debut, Shanahan’s team lost to the Panthers, 23-3.
In no game since that day had the 49ers scored three points or fewer.
Advertisement
The 49ers mustered just three against the Seahawks on Saturday night in the showdown for the NFC’s No. 1 seed. San Francisco’s offense tallied just nine first downs and 173 net yards.
Seattle, on the other hand, had 23 first downs and 361 total yards.
It’s incredible that the final score was so close. Still, the 49ers were chasing a potential touchdown with 10:37 left in the 13-3 game. A tipped pass from quarterback Brock Purdy bounced off the hands of running back Christian McCaffrey. It was intercepted by linebacker Drake Thomas, and that was essentially it.
Seattle went from its three to eight for the 49ers, falling behind by more than eight minutes. Despite a missed field goal, the 49ers (who were out of timeouts) failed to get a single first down in a last-ditch effort to add points with 2:25 left.
Obviously, the 49ers will need to do a lot more than that offensively in the wild-card round, or if they end up in Seattle after that.
