Reactions to 49ers win, Seahawks’ collapse: ‘You’re not getting Super Bowl XLIX back!’
While it’s a good time to be a 49er, it might be a better time to not be a Seahawk.
The national and local media had harsh words for the Seahawks after their 26-21 loss to the 49ers on Sunday night. It all boiled down to the final 30 seconds of the game. With the ball at the half-yard line and a second down coming up, the Seahawks took a delay of game penalty that cost them five yards. When they came up inches short of a win on fourth down, The Seattle Times’ Matt Calkins minced no words, laying the defeat squarely at the feet of the coaching staff.
“Russell Wilson led the Seahawks from their 27, completed an 11-yard pass on fourth-and-10 from the 12, spiked the ball and then … a DELAY OF GAME?!?!?!” Calkins wrote. “You have got to be kidding. The only way that’s fathomable is as a practical joke. No way the coaches’ brains were capable of that level of flatulence, right? Alas, they were. Those guys gave the division away.”
Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone said the Seahawks’ flaws were exposed and they now face a much tougher road to the Super Bowl.
“Thus did the Seahawks ramp up their degree of difficulty, beginning with a 3,000-mile journey to Philadelphia made necessary because they couldn’t gain a lousy inch at the end,” Stone wrote.
The national media was just as sharp about the Seahawks’ loss. The Ringer’s Riley McAtee found myriad faults in the Seahawks’ efforts: “Let’s review what not to do when a game is on the line. The Seahawks (1) threw to a player who had never caught a pass before; (2) spiked away what may have been their best chance at punching the ball in the end zone; (3) called on a player who had been signed just days before, wasn’t ready, and wouldn’t be very useful in this specific situation anyway; (4) botched a goal-line substitution; and (5) lost track of the play clock. Not all of those mistakes are equal (and no. 1 even worked for the most part), but they all add up to one bitter loss.”
NBC Sports’ Peter King was critical of the coaches bringing in Marshawn Lynch. If Lynch was stopped on a run attempt, the Seahawks would have to scramble to even get off another play. “Seattle took too long,” King wrote. “Now Lynch, who probably shouldn’t have been on the field to begin with, jogged off, and the ball got moved back to the five-and-a-half-yard line. ‘Honestly, I was shocked a little bit,’ Niners corner Richard Sherman told me after the game. ‘I’m sure they regret whatever they did.’”
Shannon Sharpe might have thrown down the biggest slam on coach Pete Carroll. The Hall of Fame receiver and sports commentator hammered the decision to bring Lynch into the game, citing another famous goal-line whiff from the Seahawks in the Super Bowl four years ago.
“Why not just run to the line? They’re trying to run packages on the field to get Marshawn. You can’t make up for four years ago. You’re not getting Super Bowl XLIX back! That is over. So, getting Marshawn in there on this situation — let it go, Pete. All you wanna do is score the ball.”