Seahawks lost battle of ‘Hidden Yards’ against 49ers

Last year the San Diego Chargers were the best team in the NFL in both total offense AND total defense yet they finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs because of special teams, turnovers and penalties. This is where the hidden yards in a football game reside, and the Seahawks found that out the hard way Sunday.

Here’s the good news: The Seahawks are second in the league in total defense after holding the 49ers to just 209 yards of offense. The Hawks D is No. 1 in third down conversion percentage having limited the Niners to just one for 12 on third down. Anytime you can hold an opponent to less than 300 yards of total offense, you’re doing really well. Besides the Chargers, only the Jets and the Steelers held opponents to less than a 300-yard average last season.

On third down, if you can limit a team to less than 35 percent you are tops in the league. One for 12 – or 8 percent – is unheard of.

But we all know better.

Yesterday the Seahawks lost that battle of Hidden Yards. In obvious ways and not-so-obvious ways, it cost them the game.

The Hidden Yards tally for the day goes as follows:

• Minus-3 in turnover ratio. The 49ers collected an interception and two fumbles while the Seahawks got none.

• 11 penalties for 72 yards. This not only means 72 lost yards, but also opportunities nullified. If you look in the box score, an illegal block by Atari Bigby on Leon Washington’s punt return in the third quarter goes down as a 10-yard penalty. But Leon returned the punt to the 49ers 15-yard line. Instead, after the penalty was enforced, the ball was on the Seahawks 15-yard line. Math majors, help me out here … that’s a 70-yard “opportunity cost” penalty!

• Returns. Five punt returns for 92 yards and one TD and four kickoff returns for 176 yards and a TD.

This still doesn’t tell the whole story.

When Leon Washington failed to field a 49ers punt on the Seahawks 40-yard line in the 1st quarter, the ball rolled to the 26. This set off a chain of events that eventually resulted in the Niners returning a punt to the Seattle 27-yard line, putting them in field goal range.

It went:

• 3-and-out by the Hawks that forced them to punt from their own 25.

• The Hawks D holds and forces the Niners to punt from their 34.
• This allowed San Francisco punter Andy Lee to drop a punt on the Hawks 2-yard line.

• The Seahawks went 3-and-out again and then were forced to punt from their own 6-yard line.
• Ted Ginn Jr. fields the punt at the Niners 42 and returns it 31 yards to the Seattle 27.
• The defense holds and the 49ers kick a field goal.

Of course you can look at the offensive and defensive series and make the case that both sides of the ball can do better. But all things being equal, the field position battle that takes place in the kicking game really matters, especially in a low scoring game.

Safety play

Coming into the season, there was a lot of concern about the young safety duo of Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas. These two answered the bell, combining for 17 tackles that felt like more. The Fox television color analyst, John Lynch, who was a Pro Bowl safety himself, gushed over Thomas’ speed and ability to tackle in the open field.

Chancellor led all Seahawks defenders with nine tackles and has the ability to “drop” ball carriers when he makes contact. In other words, once he hits someone, they stay hit! Each had a special teams tackle and each had two tackles for loss, which is impressive considering they both typically line up eight to 10 yards off the ball.