By Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
Bobby Wagner had had it. His words said it. His body language displayed it.
And his relentless, rebounding play Sunday showed it.
Wagner swarmed Jimmy Garopplo and the 49ers like it was 2014. And certainly not like it was the previous week, he and the defense getting ransacked at Arizona.
Eleven tackles, that’s nothing new for the All-Pro middle linebacker. But this was: two sacks, four hits on the quarterback, three tackles for losses.
Wagner symbolized a more attacking Seahawks defense that went from last-ranked to lethal in a sunny Seattle day. The defense that did nothing to affect the quarterback in 48 pass attempts the week before had three sacks and seven hits on Garoppolo in just 16 drop backs. Blitzing more, Seattle eventually knocked San Francisco’s quarterback out of the game.
That, more of receiver DK Metcalf’s freaky athleticism plus four more touchdown passes from Russell Wilson while the offense was down to one healthy running back are why the Seahawks rolled to their first easy victory of the season, 37-27 over the even-more-battered 49ers at empty-by-COVID-again CenturyLink Field.
Metcalf had a career-high 12 catches (double his previous most) on 15 targets from Wilson, for a career-best 161 yards. They connected for two first-half touchdowns.
It was 30-7 with 10 minutes left before backup quarterback Nick Mullens threw the 49ers to three touchdowns late.
Wilson and the Seahawks answered San Francisco’s second score in that span with rookie running back DeeJay Dallas’ second touchdown of the game, his first career rushing. That made it 37-20 with 3 1/2 minutes left.
Wilson completed 27 of 37 passes for 261 yards and four more touchdown passes. He has 26 this season, one short of Tom Brady’s NFL record for most through seven games of a season.
He came a yard and half short of tying Brady’s record, and from a fifth touchdown Sunday, when Tyler Lockett got tackled short of the goal line on a catch with 4 minutes left. Dallas ran it in from there.
It was Wilson’s fourth game in seven starts this season with four or five touchdown passes. He had three in the two full seasons prior to this year.
The Seahawks extended equaling their best start to a season. Seattle is 6-1 for the first time since 2013, the team that won the Seahawks’ their only Super Bowl championship.
Plus, the Rams lost at Miami before the Seahawks took the field Sunday. That means Seattle has a two-game lead on Los Angeles (5-3) in the loss column and maintained its one-game lead on idle Arizona (5-2) atop the NFC West.
Further in Seattle’s favor across the NFC: Green Bay lost at home, to 2-5 Minnesota. That means the Seahawks are the only one-loss team atop the conference standings after week 8, almost halfway, of the NFL season.
This season, for the first time, only the top seed in each conference gets a first-round bye in the NFL’s playoffs that have expanded by two teams, to seven each in the NFC and AFC.
By the end, the Seahawks’ last-ranked, maligned defense had realigned. By blitzing.
Coach Pete Carroll didn’t wait too long to turn up the pressure as he admitted he did the week before in Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona. Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. turned up the pressure on Jimmy Garoppolo by blitzing linebackers Wagner and Jordyn Brooks more often in quarters two and three than they did in the first quarter.
The result:
* Three sacks of Garoppolo in the first three quarters. That was one-third of Seattle’s total for the entire season entering Sunday.
* The last-ranked defense that had been surrendering 479 total yards per game and a league-worst 369 yards per game passing allowing 61 net yards passing and 120 yards total by early in the fourth quarter. It was 30-7 Seattle by then.
* And Garoppolo limping around and eventually hobbling into the locker room early in the fourth quarter. Backup Nick Mullens replaced him. Garoppolo finished 11 for 16 passing for 84 yards, an interception, the three sacks and a meager passer rating of 55.2.
Seattle pressured the quarterback on 17 of San Francisco’s 45 dropbacks to pass, according to ESPN. That 38% was the Seahawks’ most frequent pressure rate in two years, since a 27-3 blowout win over the Raiders in London in October 2018.
San Francisco lead running back Raheem Mostert was already on injured reserve. Tevin Coleman came off IR Saturday, burst for 20 yards on his first three carries when San Francisco was controlling the game in the first quarter Sunday — then left injured.
With their 49ers’ top available run threat out, the Seahawks blitzed more often. And Garoppolo couldn’t get away.
By the end, All-World tight end George Kittle joined Garoppolo as out of the game with an ankle injury.
The Seahawks seized control of this uneven game midway through the third quarter.
Wagner, on a personal rebound after fuming last weekend about how the defense gave up three double-digit leads in the overtime loss to the Cardinals, stormed free into Garoppolo on a third-down blitz in the second quarter and again in the third.
After his second sack, the 30-year-old captain let out a roar that could be heard throughout the stadium that again did not have fans, per local restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Wilson kept throwing.
The Seahawks were without their top two running backs; Chris Carson was out with a sprained foot and Carlos Hyde missed the game with a strained hamstring. That left second-year man Travis Homer and Dallas.
Homer was playing, but only on third downs and mainly to pass block. That’s because the running back had a bruised knee.
So Seattle threw.
Wilson passed on 11 of the offense’s first 16 plays. And why not?
Wilson completed 13 of his first 15 throws, for 155 yards. He completed his first six throws to Metcalf in the opening half, for 102 yards and two touchdowns.
The first was on a simple, short in route. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Metcalf showed off his 4.3-second speed in the 40-yard dash in open turf for the second consecutive game.
After he caught Wilson’s short pass he zoomed as if Budda Baker was in front of him. Metcalf sped past four San Francisco defenders and down the right sideline for the longest touchdown allowed by the 49ers this season, 46 yards. It was the game’s first score.
After San Francisco answered with a 14-play drive playing opposite of Seattle — eight runs, six throw — Wilson and Metcalf connected for a second score. With San Francisco’s Emmanuel Moseley grabbing and hugging Metcalf like a twin brother, the Seahawks’ hulking receiver simply would not let go of the ball in the end zone. Seattle led 13-7.
That gave Wilson another elite milestone. He joined Dan Marino and Peyton Manning as the only players with 250 touchdown passes in the first nine seasons of a career.
Early turning point
The game began with the 49ers much more aggressive, flying around and basically beating up the slower, tentative Seahawks. Dallas’ hesitating runs showed San Francisco that Seattle wasn’t going to run much, and the 49ers pass rush was swarming in on Wilson early.
After the 49ers’ 14-play drive to a touchdown run by JaMycal Hasty and a 7-6 lead in the second quarter, Wagner — and Seattle’s All-Pro punter Michael Dickson — limited how much the Seahawks’ last-ranked defense had to defend.
Wagner ended the 49ers’ next possession after the drive by double-blitzing with rookie linebacker Jordyn Brooks and getting an unblocked sack on Garoppolo.
Wilson and the Seahawks appeared to put their 13-7 lead in jeopardy by throwing three incomplete passes during a hurry-up drive. On two of the plays it appeared tight end Greg Olsen ran into teammates’ routes, or vice versa. The 13-second three and out was set to give San Francisco the ball back with 1 minute and time outs left.
Then Dickson, an All-Pro and Pro Bowl punter as a rookie in 2018, continued his 2020 season that’s been even better. He blasted a 65-yard punt that stopped moving after one bounce at the San Francisco 2-yard line. It was exquisite. It was as if he placed it there, by hand.
Pinned against his own goal line, 49ers coach Kyle Shananan decided to run the ball and the final minute of the half off, rather than try for points. Seattle’s lead remained 13-7.
