Niners Fall Flat in Showdown with Seahawks

San Francisco dominated in long-awaited Thanksgiving matchup with NFC West rivals

After watching his team get dominated by the Seattle Seahawks in the first half Thursday night, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh wasn’t ready to concede anything.

 

His team was down 13-0, but San Francisco has made a habit of winning tough, close games this season. The 49ers, after all, were on a three-game winning streak and had fought their way back into the NFC playoff picture.

 

“We’re going to show up this half,” Harbaugh told a reporter.

 

Indeed, they showed up. There were players on the Levi’s Stadium turf in 49ers uniforms. But they hardly played like the team Harbaugh hoped to see, as the 49ers fell to Seattle, 19-3, to tumble to 7-5 this season and put their playoff hopes in jeopardy.

 

San Francisco now sits in third-place in the NFC West, a game behind the 8-4 Seahawks and the first-place Arizona Cardinals.

 

Though the Seahawks hadn’t won in San Francisco since 2008, they were the most physical team Thanksgiving night. They stifled the 49ers running game, picked off Colin Kaepernick twice and pounded the Niners run defense, with Marshawn Lynch rushing for more than 100 yards while averaging 5.2 yards per carry.

 

On offense, the 49ers never got into a rhythm. Kaepernick was off target, sacked three times and wide receiver Michael Crabtree -- the target of Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s rant after the NFC Championship Game -- managed just 10 yards on three catches.

 

With five games remaining in the regular season, the 49ers now have a difficutl road ahead, especially considering they have a game in Seattle in two weeks. Over the past three seasons, the Niners are 0-4 in Seattle.

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