Marshawn Lynch got a hero’s welcome back to Seattle.
And in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s NFC West title game, after he leaped over a pile of linemen for a 1-yard touchdown, Lynch did what he usually did in his first Seahawks go-round: He stood in the end zone and shook the hands of his linemen.
That got the jacked up crowd off the hook, and the Seahawks within five points with 10 minutes left.
“It was like old times,” quarterback Russell Wilson said.
But just like at the end of Super Bowl 49, Lynch didn’t get the chance to win a championship from the 1-yard line. Again.
With Lynch lined up behind Wilson poised for a poetic score, the Seahawks got called for an inexcusable delay-of-game penalty on second down from the 49ers 1-yard line with 22 seconds left. That took Lynch off the field, because the ball was at the 6.
On fourth down from there, Wilson completed a pass to Jacob Hollister. But he was tackled a half yard short of the goal line. That’s how San Francisco and not Seattle won the division championship.
Niners 26, Seahawks 21.
“I felt good, man. But at the end of the day I play to win,” Lynch said after his 34 yards on 12 carries in 23 of 75 offensive plays, with his first Seattle touchdown since Nov. 2015, a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter that cut the 49ers’ lead to 19-14.
“So, (shoot). …You feel me? I ain’t did nothing. I’m fresh off the couch and hella (stuff). So, your boy just want to get some legs, man. It was a great opportunity for that, you know. A good defense. No shortage of a challenge out there. At the end of the day, you feel me?”
What did Lynch feel from the roaring CenturyLink Field crowd, many of them wearing his Seahawks number-24 jersey?
“Straight love, bruh. Straight up,” Lynch said. “12s (mess) with your boy tough. They made your boy feel right at home. That’s some solid (stuff).”
Thing is, Lynch and the Seahawks must now take their playoff show on the road.
The Seahawks (11-5) lost their last two games of the regular season. That makes them the fifth seed in the conference playoffs and sends them to NFC East-champion Philadelphia (9-7) Sunday for a wild-card game. Kickoff is will be 1:40 p.m. PST on NBC.
Seattle beat the injury-filled Eagles 17-9 in Philadelphia last month, behind Rashaad Penny (who is now on injured reserve). Its defense pressured quarterback Carson Wentz and forced five turnovers.
That was part of Seattle going a franchise-record 7-1 on the road this season.
“It’s a new season, where we’re going is a new season,” Wilson said. “Man, the great thing is, it all starts at a 0-0 record. …We’ve been great on the road all year. We’ve battled through.
“We have everything we need. We have what it takes…We believe in that locker room.”
Still, this was an opportunity lost for the Seahawks. They coveted home playoff games. They had a realistic shot, until their face-plant home loss to Arizona last week, of a first-round bye.
Now they play again in seven days, on the other coast. And if the Seahawks are going to make the Super Bowl for the fourth time in franchise history, they have to win three consecutive road games.
If they get past the rematch with the Eagles, the Seahawks will play the 49ers again in the divisional round, in Santa Clara, Calif., where Seattle won last month. That is, unless Minnesota upsets second-seeded New Orleans Sunday. Then a Seahawks win next week would send them to second-seeded Green Bay for the divisional round.
“We’ll see them again,” Seahawks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said after his two tackles, one for loss, no sacks and no hits on 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in Sunday night’s loss.
“It won’t end like that next time.”
Wilson (25 for 40, 233 yards, two touchdowns) rallied the Seahawks with a TD pass to rookie DK Metcalf with 3:36 remaining. Then, aided by a dead-ball roughness foul on San Francisco lineman Ben Garland to create a third and 17, Seattle’s defense finally got a stop. That was after Garoppolo, Deebo Samuel and the 49ers had scored two touchdowns to answer Seattle’s two previous TDs in the second half.
Wilson and the Seahawks offense got the ball back down 26-21 with 2:26 and two time outs left, at their own 31. Two completions, to rookie Travis Homer (who ran impressively, shoulders forward, in his first NFL start and gained 92 yards from scrimmage) and to Metcalf, got Seattle to near midfield.
“Oh, he did great. …He was so aggressive,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said of Homer, his sixth-round pick who appeared to earn another start next week with Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny and C.J. Prosise all out for the season. “What a tough kid he is. That’s all he’s ever shown us.”
With 51 seconds left and second down from the 49ers’ 12-yard line, Wilson got smacked as he overthrew open Jacob Hollister near the goal line. Hollister lowered into Fred Warner before the ball arrived, then the 49ers linebacker grabbed back at Hollister as Wilson threw his pass. Hollister looked for a flag as the crowd booed and screamed, but none came.
Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president for officiating and its final authority on all replay reviews, said he checked out the contact but ruled no foul occurred.
“We actually did perform a review,” Riveron told a league pool reporter. “But based on what we saw, we didn’t see enough to stop the game. But we did review it…we see the offensive player come in and initiate the contact on the defensive player—nothing that rises to the level of a foul which significantly hinders the defender. The defender then braces himself. And there is contact then by the defender on the receiver.
“Again, nothing which rises to the level of a foul based on visual evidence.”
So it was third down and 10 from the 12, with 46 seconds to go. Then Wilson and Metcalf appeared to be on opposite thoughts. The rookie receiver went inside. Wilson’s throw sailed far outside incomplete.
Fourth down with 42 seconds left. After a timeout, Wilson completed a pass for rookie John Ursua’s first career reception, to the 1, for the first down.
A clock-killing spike with 22 seconds left preceded the Seahawks trying to get Lynch on the field for second down. All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner was on the sideline and saw Lynch entering, and presumed Lynch was about to cap his return night with a perfect finish.
Lynch started onto the field from the sideline. Then he turned back and paused, looking at the coaches. Then he continued on. That delay ate more than 10 seconds of a rapidly expiring 40-second play clock. Chaos ensued. The play clock expired with the Seahawks still getting into formation.
“We were all kind of shocked,” Lockett said, adding it seemed to be an unusually quick 40-second play clock, faster than his mind’s clock.
Lockett said he now wishes he had looked at the play clock as he usually does to warn his teammates.
Carroll said adding Lynch to the plan for second down started the delay.
“We were in ‘no backs’ (formation) the play before,” Carroll said of Ursua’s catch on fourth down and then the rushed spike by Wilson. “And we called the personnel (for second down from the 1) and we just didn’t quite get it communicated with the backs. We were just late. We were late getting in there. We burned the time.
“We just didn’t get it done. We just didn’t function cleanly. …I was disappointed that we screwed that up, time-wise…it does change the situation, obviously. Because you are at the 1, or inside.”
Now the Seahawks were back at the 6-yard line. No Lynch, all passes from there.
Asked if the plan was to run Lynch from the 1-yard line for a storybook finish he didn’t get to end Super Bowl 49 against the Patriots in February 2015, Carroll said: “You’ll never know.
“Yes, it would have been (quite an ending). It was pretty storybook as it was.”
The final, failed sequence from the 6 for Seattle ensured its trip to Philadelphia and longer playoff road.
“If we’ve got to play every, single game on the road (in the playoffs), that’s fine,” wide receiver Tyler Lockett said. “We’ll find a way to get it done.”
Green Bay’s last-play win at Detroit earlier Sunday ensured the Seahawks would not be playing for a bye Sunday night.
The 49ers go into the playoffs as the NFC’s number-one seed.
After getting blasted throughout the first half yet trailing only 13-0 at halftime, the Seahawks got back in the game at the start of the third quarter. K.J. Wright’s huge hit on a catch highlighted Seattle’s defense getting a three and out. Then the offense converted three third downs. The third was Wilson scrambling right up the line of scrimmage, then flipped a 14-yard touchdown pass in the middle of the end zone to Lockett.
A rout was suddenly a 13-7 game. The crowd’s roars were echoing through SoDo.
But the 49ers answered decisively, ruthlessly.
Garoppolo found fullback Kyle Juszczyk free 10 yards behind Seahawks linebacker Mychal Kendricks down the right sideline for a 49-yard completion on the first play after Seattle’s touchdown. That short answer drive ended with Rasheem Mostert’s 2-yard touchdown. Bobby Wagner denied the 49ers’ two-point conversion pass before the goal line, so San Francisco’s lead stayed at 19-7 entering the final quarter.
“As we have kind of grown to understand about our team, we’re never out,” Carroll said. “We didn’t play well in the first half, and just couldn’t get going, at all. We really felt fortunate to be at 13-zip.
“Then, our guys did what they do, and found a way to get back and get rolling. We didn’t dominate the second half. But we certainly put ourselves in position to win a championship right there. …
“We have to move on. We gotta go.”
Overwhelmed in the first half
The 49ers romped for 220 of the game’s first 250 yards gained. It was 10-0 Niners, with San Francisco in the red zone going for more late in the first half.
Then Seahawks rookie safety Marquise Blair stopped Samuel short of the line to gain on a third-down catch. The second-round pick was again curiously reduced to a spot role—four snaps as an extra defensive back on long-yardage downs—despite the fact Lano Hill has been ineffective with missed tackles and bad angles as the fill-in free safety for injured Quandre Diggs the last two games.
On fourth and 2 with the Seahawks having yet to slow the Niners on consecutive plays, San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan chose to kick a short field goal instead of go for the first down. Robbie Gould converted to make it 13-0.
Seattle moved into 49ers territory on the next possession, after a third-down catch by Metcalf on a sideline comeback route. Lockett was stopped 1 yard short of the line to gain on a third-down catch and run. On fourth down at the San Francisco 31 with 45 seconds left in the half, Wilson handed the ball to Lynch. He ran behind left tackle George Fant’s missed block into a wall of 49ers for no gain.
The 49ers had two time outs and 42 seconds from their own 31, 30 or so yards from a field-goal try, at least. But Shanahan had Matt Breida run a dive play into the line, then let the rest of the half expire without attacking the wounded, wobbly Seahawks defense.
Never did a 13-0 deficit feel so relieving for Seattle.
The 49ers out-gained the Seahawks 222 to 79, had the ball for more than 17 of the first 30 minutes, averaged 7.7 yards per play to Seattle’s mere 3.3—yet led by “only” two touchdowns.
Lynch’s return night
Lynch’s first play came on Seattle’s second possession of the game. On his first play, he was a decoy on a play-action pass, then left back to the sideline. His second play, later in that drive, was a galloping 5-yard run through the right side of the line.
The sold-out crowd at CenturyLink Field roared.
Lynch had three carries for 7 yards with two fake handoffs to him as a decoy in the first half. After his two plays, one rush for the 5 yards, on a possession he asked a Seattle fireman behind the Seahawks bench for an oxygen mask. The firefighter complied, and Lynch sucked on that while reviewing images of the Niners defense on a mobile table from his seat on the bench.
Lynch got free for consecutive runs of 8 and 15 yards in the third quarter, on the drive to the Seahawks’ first touchdown.
The first of those two runs was memorable for how Lynch ran directly at Richard Sherman. The former Seahawks All-Pro cornerback looked completely disinterested in slowing Lynch; he watched a 49ers teammate tackle him at the end of the 8-yard gain instead of trying to stop Lynch.
Asked what Lynch brought to the Seahawks in his return game, Lockett said: “Everything.”
Carroll was pleased—and proud.
“I thought he did incredible. I thought he was incredible just to be out there, “Carroll said. “He played hard and tough, and he came out OK. …I’ve always wanted to see him go over the top (for a touchdown).
“You don’t all know Marshawn, but you should all be really proud of the way he’s handed this. He handled it in extraordinary fashion. He has been all in, every aspect. Everything that he could have done to get ready and try to help this team. …He handled it impeccably.”
Lynch finished the first half with four carries for 7 yards. He was in for eight of the offense’s 24 snaps in the half.
Homer started and played 16 of the first 24 snaps. The rookie finished with 50 snaps in Seattle’s 75 plays, including almost exclusively in the final, frantic minutes. The Seahawks called pass plays on 20 consecutive snaps to end the game.
Robert Turbin, signed with Lynch on Monday in a dual reunion of former Seahawks Super Bowl backs, did not play a snap on offense. He played a few on special teams.
Injuries
Starting weakside linebacker Mychal Kendricks sprained his knee chasing Jusczczyk on the fullback’s 44-yard catch and run.
“I don’t know anything more than to say, generally, that,” Carroll said.
Rookie Cody Barton finished the game for Kendricks, a former Eagles Super Bowl starter.
Asked the chances Diggs plays Sunday at Philadelphia, Carroll said: “He has a really good chance to make it back. …We won’t know until probably late in the week.”
