Was the Seahawks’ win over San Francisco enough to restore faith in their season?

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – “We choose to believe,” quarterback Russell Wilson said.

It was a message that Seattle took out of last week’s loss to Carolina. One voiced by Wilson and then by defensive lineman Michael Bennett calling on the Seahawks to demonstrate faith in the system, in the teammates, in the team.

“We choose to believe as a collective group,” Wilson said.

How about you: Do you believe?

Do you look at Thursday night’s 20-3 victory over San Francisco and see a revival of the team that has reached the past two Super Bowls? Or was it a game in which Seattle tipped over another one of the league’s worst offenses?

Recap | Watch: Lockett’s TD | Game stats | Photo gallery

The Seahawks’ defense was nothing short of dominant. San Francisco crossed midfield twice in the game, failed to score a touchdown against Seattle for the second time in the past three meetings between the teams. Cornerback Richard Sherman pitched a shutout against Torrey Smith, San Francisco’s top receiver, while Bennett sacked Colin Kaepernick 3.5 times and the 49ers finished with 142 yards of total offense, their lowest single-game total in nine years.

Then again, the 49ers are the league’s lowest scoring team, and if we’re being honest, they’re not all that much worse than the two other teams Seattle beat this season. In fact, the Bears rank 27th in scoring and the Lions are 26th, which means that the Seahawks’ three victories have come against three of the seven lowest-scoring teams in the league. In the other four games, Seattle has given up an average of 28.8 points.

This isn’t to criticize Seattle’s performance. The Seahawks did exactly what they should do to an offense like San Francisco’s. They smashed it with a pass rush so relentlessly overwhelming that not only was Kaepernick sacked six times, but Bennett and Brandon Mebane were arguing afterward on who should get sole credit on one of those.

But let’s not pronounce the restoration of the Seahawks complete because they went and buried the 49ers in one of the ruts on that atrocious Levi’s Stadium field.

It was absolutely a step in the right direction. It was also a first step in that direction.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of things we need to clean up,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “It wasn’t perfect. But for the most part we were back on track to playing Seahawks football.”

Marshawn Lynch ground down the 49ers, rushing for 77 of his 122 yards in the second half. The offense featured a big play in receiver Tyler Lockett’s 42-yard touchdown catch, and Steven Hauschka continued to be the football equivalent of direct deposit when it came to kicking field goals.

Then again, Seattle failed to score a fourth-quarter touchdown for the sixth consecutive game while Wilson went and threw a ball up for grabs for the first time coach Pete Carroll could remember since the first game of his rookie season.

The 49ers were so inspired by that interception – their second of Wilson – that they went and drove across midfield for the second time in the game. They even made it inside Seattle’s 20, kicking a 35-yard field goal for their only points of the game.

“That was one of opportunities that things could have switched and could have flipped,” Carroll said, “but it didn’t. That was a really good job of bowing up and not letting them get a touchdown down there and it is the statement that you have to make at the ends of these games to finish games the way we want to finish.”

This victory was a good start in that regard. Whether you believe it will be the turning point of the season is more a matter of faith, though.

The Seahawks have chosen to believe. How about you?