It's the opening week of the playoffs in most leagues, which makes those Thursday results extra satisfying, painful, or depressing. A positive is that we've got three more games tomorrow, so you can start making up or losing ground from last night a little sooner than normal. Some of the big and quiet games last night were predictable. Some.
QUARTERBACKS:
Brock Purdy started out hot, completing his first 11 passes. As an aside, I think Purdy's performance since taking over highlights the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo, while a good quarterback and probably a swell guy and all, benefits from playing in Kyle Shanahan's offense. If Garoppolo leaves in the offseason, and signs with, I don't know, the Saints or Bucs or something, the results with that team almost certainly won't be as good as they've been for a lot of his tenure in San Francisco. If a seventh-rounder can run the offense about as efficiently as Jimmy G, do they really want to play him $30 million plus or whatever the going rate is for starting quarterbacks that hit free agency these days?
Anyway, Purdy did a nice job of building the lead, making crisp throws to Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, with the sweet touchdown where he dropped back and faked left, faked right, and then hit a wide open Kittle over the middle. I'm not sure Jimmy makes that play (and Trey Lance? No). After the hot start, Purdy didn't do much. He was lucky to have an easy interception dropped right before the half, and further lucky to have his defense then set him up with a short field that put San Francisco up 14-3. Not much needs to be said about the second Kittle touchdown that all but ended the game -- a ridiculously easy throw against a badly blown coverage followed by two laughable attempts at tackles that should get someone yelled at in the film room. Anyway, Purdy did fine, and with the team around him I think a deep playoff run is likely.
Geno Smith had a rough start, including a fumble on a blindside blitz that it looked like he was going to be killed on (though his teammate fell on it). But he hung in there, and got Seattle within a score at the end of the game, giving Seattle more of a chance than it seemed to have for most of the game. Granted, Smith did get helped by the latest ridiculous roughing the passer penalty, when Nick Bosa hit him, landed on him, and was flagged, negating a Pick Six that would have put the 49ers up 28-3 (and would have given the San Franciso D/ST an extra 8 points, which I'll probably end up needing in a playoff matchup -- very frustrating). But the throw itself was probably impacted by being hit. I know most will blame the NFL, but I choose to blame individual officials. There is a difference between a pass rusher intentionally putting the full weight of his body on a quarterback, and just happening to end up on top of him after tackling him. Good refs know the difference. Bad ones don't. That was a bad call by a bad ref. I simply don't believe the refs are instructed to call that play roughing.
Really, I have nothing bad to say about Geno, who's made a nice second career for himself and will be a Week 1 starter, probably for Seattle, a year from now. He had one interception dropped and one erased; it wasn't a perfect night. But San Francsico is making most offenses look bad these days. The announcers were talking about defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans being a hot head coaching candidate this offseason. Yeah, I'll go along with that. Impressive the way this team plays defense, and Smith did about as well as anyone should have expected.
RUNNING BACKS:
Nice trade by San Francsico for Christian McCaffrey. All these years of draft players early and late, with the later ones usually turning out much better until they got hurt and hurt again, and signing free agents like Jerick McKinnon and whatnot, and turns out all they really had to do was trade for a really talented guy on another team and let him go to town. If you had him going for you last night, you're thrilled. If you faced him, you're not. But honestly the way he was being featured it looked like he could easily have gone for 40 points, so 25, while rough to face, isn't as bad as it could have been. Once again, all of Jordan Mason's carries, maybe all of his snaps, came in the second half. The 49ers don't use a committee when they don't have to, and they don't have to now. Mason did, however, have the key 55-yard run to salt the game away in the final minute, preventing Seattle from getting a chance to tie things up.
If you had to start Kenneth Walker last night, you should have no complaints. We knew he wasn't going to have any success running the ball on San Francisco. No one has. Obviously he was fully healthy (played three quarters of the snaps, was one of only three backs healthy, one of whom only played special teams, and got all but one carry). Would have been nice if he scored, but in no way surprising that he didn't. Wound up catching 4 passes, including a late one that went for 33 yards, giving him a double-digit PPR game. Take it and be glad it wasn't worse, because he sure wasn't going anywhere on the ground.
Travis Homer was involved in probably the biggest play of the game, catching a pass before halftime, getting hit by two players and fumbling it away, setting up the touchdown that put San Francisco up 14-3 (which was essentially the end of the mystery here). Homer's got his passing downs role and continued to get snaps after that; certainly it was good defensive play. But I'm not sure there's anything he brings to the table compared to Walker for it to make sense that he's getting those chances.
WIDE RECEIVERS:
On the one hand, it was a brutal matchup for Geno Smith. And yet, the way Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf have been producing and dominating targets, catches and yards in the offense, they were ranked favorably anyway. And in PPR, although they didn't score, they did produce, with 12-14 point games. Something to be said for offenses that run their passing games through fewer targets. Even with the quarterback putting up lesser numbers, they were OK, and with a late touchdown (which unfortunately went to the tight end, which will get to in a moment) could have been great. On the downside, Lockett apparently broke a finger on the game's final drive.
Brandon Aiyuk disappointed. Happy as I was about the Kittle night, I was bummed about the Aiyuk call not working out. Some will remember that at times Aiyuk got in Kyle Shanahan's doghouse in the past, and I wonder if there was some of that at play last night. On one early incompletion he seemed to run a soft route. On another running play he drew a stupid blocking penalty. Maybe he wouldn't have been a big part of the game plan anyway, which seemed content primarily to throw short passes to McCaffrey and take deeper shots with Kittle. Bottom line is that 3 points from San Francisco's No. 1 wideout in my playoff game (two of them) stings. No. 2 Jauan Jennings saw one more target and caught one more pass. I do not think anyone should be adding Jennings.
There was some chippiness in general last night, some with Aiyuk and mostly with Metcalf against Charvarius Ward. Metcalf got a correct offensive pass interference penalty for dragging Ward to the turf by his jersey before catching a pass; there was a lot of jersey pulling going on. Ward missed some of the second half due to a concussion, though he apparently cleared the protocol but San Francisco kept him out anyway.
TIGHT ENDS:
The big game by George Kittle was rewarding. Did what I could to recommend the guy and it's great when those calls work out. Nothing special about either touchdown (as noted, nice bit of fakery by Purdy on one, and some laughable defense by Seattle on the other), but good to have him on your side last night.
Noah Fant. As a fantasy writer, as a fantasy player, and frankly as a gambler, the Seahawks' use and non-use of Fant and Will Dissly bugs the living hell out of me. They're not the only team who alternates which tight end they feature from week to week (the Colts are about the most annoying example, the Titans and Texans are also in the discussion), but they're the ones that draw my ire today. Against Carolina last week, Fant had all of 1 pass thrown his way, while Dissly and Colby Parkinson combined for 5. Last night, maybe because Fant's feewings were hurt or something, the team was throwing passes his way from the get go, he wound up catching 5 passes on 6 targets. Dissly played a little more often but saw only 1 target, same as Parkinson. No rhyme or reason, you just have to watch Fant score on your bench or bust your $75 parlay that hit on everything else and move on. Next week I guarantee Fant will see 1-2 targets and Dissly will catch a touchdown, and after the game Pete Carroll will spew some nonsense about what a great week of practice Dissly had or whatnot. Never again.
MISCELLANEOUS:
The 49ers have now clinched the NFC West. They can still catch Philadelphia for the No. 1 seed, and earning the No. 2 seed compared to the No. 3 still has value even without a bye (I'm sure they'd rather face the Vikings at home than on the road). But there may come a point, including Week 17, when they have little or nothing at stake and decide to scale back Christian McCaffrey's workload. That's not a given, especially because sometimes coaches do stupid things, but I think Jordan Mason should be rostered.
The Seahawks have had a surprisingly good season, but as things stand right now they're on the outside looking in at the playoffs. They're at Kansas City next week, so they're almost certainly headed for 7-8. They then host the Jets. Regardless, I don't think 9-8 is getting into the playoffs in the NFC, although Seattle does own the head to head tiebreaker with 6-7 Detroit, a win that didn't seem as important way back in Week 4 but might end up deciding the NFC's last wild-card team. (Unless a pair of 9-7-1 NFC East teams get in ahead of 9-8 Seattle or Detroit, which is certainly possible.)