Let’s examine what we learned on Sunday afternoon. Plus, with the way the Cardinals embarrassed the Seattle defense last Sunday night, expect a much better performance by the Hawks today.
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Seattle Seahawks running back Thomas Rawls (34) drops the ball after scoring a touchdown ahead of San Francisco 49ers inside linebacker Michael Wilhoite (57) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, November 22, 2015, in Seattle. Rookie Arik Armstead and Tony Jerod-Eddie replaced Dorsey.
BOWMAN’S BACK: Sunday will be NaVorro Bowman’s first game back in the stadium where he suffered a career-threatening knee injury in the 2013 NFC championship game.
Bruce Irvin has played every game this season.
RUN DEFENSE: If Jim Tomsula was still the defensive line coach, his job security would be in question after this outing.
Tight end Vance McDonald scored the first touchdown of his three-year career on a 19-yard pass from Blaine Gabbert, cutting the 49ers’ deficit to 20-7 nine seconds before halftime. On Seattle’s third offensive play, Rawls caught a swing pass from Russell Wilson and rather than stepping out of bounds after a healthy gain, rammed his way into and through San Francisco cornerback Tramaine Brock.
“We heard the news right before we left (Saturday)”. SF has handed the keys to Blaine Gabbert for the remainder of the season while the Seahawks are coming off only their second home loss in the last three seasons. “You hate to see anybody go down with a season-ending injury. I just hope the best for him as he recovers from his surgery”. All Rawls did was rumble for 209 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries (also had three receptions and one TD through the air).
Seattle roaring in the first half out to a 20-0 lead was a cure for what had been ailing the Seahawks all season.
“You can’t go into a tackle anxious about missing the tackle”, Tomsula said. Rapoport revealed that Lynch is confirming if it is a sports hernia and is determining his course of action with a specialist on Monday.
Why go for it on fourth down, trailing your bitter rival by 16 points in the final minutes, when you can punt two more times and make sure the Seahawks can’t score a bunch more points? “We rested him all week, and we rehabbed him all week long, and really the first time we took a real look at it was out here in pregame, and he just couldn’t get going”. As late as Friday, the Seahawks expected Lynch to play. The running back sat out the team’s Week 11 game against the San Francisco 49ers dealing with an abdomen injury.
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If this wasn’t a changing of the guard as the Seahawks’ lead runner, it was at least the changing of the tide. He calmly said this week that things aren’t as bad as they seem, and the Seahawks are set to make a run. Boldin returned and finished with five catches for a team-high 93 yards. He moved past Irving Fryar for 18th on the NFL’s all-time list with 12,871 receiving yards. In all, the Seahawks racked up 255 rushing yards, the most against the 49ers since September 24, 1978, when the NY Giants trampled them for 256. It was Smith’s only catch.
