Seahawks close out regular season with win over 49ers; set for wild-card matchup with Detroit

Through their up-and-down 2016 season, the Seahawks have been brilliant at times and incompetent at others, occasionally dysfunctional and ultimately just good enough.

They were all of those things Sunday as they closed out the regular season with a 25-23 win over the 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif. That victory secured the NFC’s No. 3 seed for the Seahawks. They’ll host Detroit Saturday at 5:15 PST in the wild-card round, a matchup that was set after the Lions lost to Green Bay in the night game to finish as the conference’s sixth seed.

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The Seahawks entered Week 17 with a shot at the No. 2 seed and the first-round bye that comes with it, needing a win over San Francisco as well as a Falcons loss to New Orleans. But Atlanta jumped ahead early and hung on for a 38-32 win to secure the No. 2 seed behind Dallas.

The Seahawks’ end of that equation was more tense than you’d expect considering they were playing a two-win 49ers team that fired general manager Trent Baalke before the game and head coach Chip Kelly afterward. The Seahawks took a 3-0 lead after recovering a fumble on San Francisco’s opening possession but fell behind by 11 points after a pair of 49ers rushing touchdowns, at times not looking the part of a team still playing for postseason seeding.

Issues that have plagued the Seahawks all season showed up again Sunday as they started slow, struggled to run the ball and also made a pair of special-teams blunders, first allowing an extra point to be blocked and then air-mailing a snap out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

The Seahawks finished the first quarter with only 10 yards of offense on two possessions. They didn’t convert a third down until their opening series of the second half after starting 0 for 4. And they had all of 20 rushing yards until Alex Collins ripped off a 26-yarder late in the third quarter.

The Seahawks’ saving grace during a lackluster first half: a pair of 49ers fumbles that led to 10 Seattle points. The first was on a botched exchange that was recovered by Bobby Wagner on the second play from scrimmage while the other was forced by Ahtyba Rubin and returned 27 yards by Frank Clark. That set up an 11-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Luke Willson, which made the score 14-13 in favor of the 49ers.

The Seahawks took a 19-14 halftime lead on a 1-yard Thomas Rawls touchdown run, which capped one of the more impressive scoring drives of Seattle’s season. The Seahawks envisioned their offense looking like it did on this possession. Doug Baldwin made a juggling catch for a 41-yard gain. Wilson scrambled away from pressure and threw deep to Jimmy Graham, who boxed out a defender for a 42-yard catch near the goal line. And Rawls punched it in, finishing off a five-play, 91-yard drive that gave the Seahawks some momentum heading into halftime.

Stephen Hauschka connected on all four of his field-goal attempts Sunday, including a 33-yarder in the third quarter and from 28 yards out in the fourth quarter to provide the Seahawks’ only scoring in the second half. They gave two points back in the third quarter when Nolan Frese’s snap sailed well over Jon Ryan’s head and out of the back of the end zone.

It wasn’t over until quarterback Trevone Boykin, playing with several other backups on offense, converted a pair of third downs in the closing minutes after the 49ers pulled to within two points with a Colin Kaepernick touchdown pass to Garrett Celek. Boykin entered the game when Seattle pulled Wilson with 10 minutes left, a most curious decision with the Seahawks only ahead by nine points and still needing a victory to secure the No. 3 seed.

Boykin’s 19-yard completion to Marcel Reece with 2:27 left iced a victory that was harder to come by than the Seahawks would have preferred, which is pretty much how their season has gone.

Reed, Clark scuffle. An odd game got even odder in the fourth quarter when defensive line-mates Frank Clark and Jarran Reed got into a tussle on the sideline. Reed had just been ejected for a personal-foul penalty on the extra point that followed San Francisco’s final touchdown. Clark confronted Reed as he walked off the field, pointing in his face and then hemming him up before teammates separated them. Coach Pete Carroll said Reed deserved his ejection for throwing a punch on the field and said the issue with Clark was quickly resolved.

Monster games for Wagner, Clark. Bobby Wagner was Seattle’s defensive star Sunday, leading the team with 12 tackles (10 solo) to go along with two sacks, two more tackles for loss and a pass breakup. It was another stellar performance in what’s been a career year for Wagner, who leads the NFL in tackles, set a franchise record in that stat and earned his third trip to the Pro Bowl. Clark filled up the stat sheet as well. In addition to his fumble recovery, he was in San Francisco’s backfield all game, finishing with four tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. The sack was his 10th of the season, which is quite the accomplishment for a rotational pass-rusher.

Running struggles. Collins finished with 55 yards on seven carries, putting together his third consecutive strong performance. But Rawls was a non-factor outside of his touchdown run, gaining only 14 yards on his eight attempts. Seattle finished with 87 net rushing yards, which looks even worse when you consider San Francisco entered Week 17 with the league’s worst rushing defense.

Passing grades. Wilson’s passing numbers weren’t spectacular: 19 of 32 for 258 yards, a touchdown and a 95.6 rating. But he didn’t commit a turnover, playing his second straight relatively mistake-free game after a stretch in which he was at times uncharacteristically careless with the ball. He topped 4,000 passing yards for the second straight season, fishing with 4,219 to beat the career high he set last year. Boykin shook off a rough start in which he lost control of the ball on his first passing attempt and had to fall on it for a 5-yard loss. He looked crisp on Seattle’s final drive, converting twice on third down with throws to Tanner McEvoy and Luke Willson before sealing the game with the completion to Reece.

More kicking issues. The blocked extra-point attempt and the high snap that resulted in a safety were two more instances of Seattle’s season-long issues in the kicking game. Seattle has now missed six of 35 PATs, five of them resulting from blocks. The snap and hold appeared to be fine when Hauschka’s PAT was blocked from up the middle after Rawls’ touchdown run. Frese has struggled with some errant snaps, though none have been as off as the one that sailed over Ryan’s head. Carroll said Frese sprained his ankle in the first half.

Another 10-win season. The Seahawks finish the regular season with a 10-5-1 record, marking the fifth straight year they’ve won at least 10 games. Seattle only had five seasons with double-digit victories from the franchise’s inception in 1976 to when Carroll arrived in 2010. As inconsistent as the Seahawks have been this season, they’ve been remarkably consistent on a larger scale.