The San Francisco 49ers are, in many ways, a much different team than they were a year ago. In other ways, they are quite the same. Either way, the last time they faced the Seattle Seahawks, they actually won.
This is huge because the 49ers in 2018 stunk. They lost Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 3 to a torn ACL and had Nick Mullens as their quarterback. What followed was the 49ers piling up an injury list of players and trying to get out of 2018 without anyone dying. I wish I were joking with that extreme statement, but that was kind of the mentality.
There were a few bright spots. George Kittle getting the record for most receiving yards by a tight end comes to mind, but there’s also this. The 49ers got to be really annoying and put a dent in the Seahawks’ plans in their previous visit to Levi’s.
All the Seahawks had to do was beat the 49ers to clinch a playoff spot. Beat them, and they got a postseason berth. Given that the 49ers were not good, this should have been easy, right? Wrong. The 49ers took care of their business and managed to walk out of there with a win.
This is one of those games where it may not have mattered much in the 49ers’ season, but it was a success they could build on for the future. Dwight Clark made a point in the 1980 season that while the 49ers didn’t win many games, they had a lot of success in other ways and knew it was a matter of time (as you know, a year later, the 49ers won the Super Bowl). In 2018, this was a very similar episode.
The other point to make? The 49ers beat the Seahawks without Jimmy Garoppolo. They have Garoppolo but don’t have tight end, George Kittle. Losing Kittle will hurt if he’s not ready to go, but if the 49ers can beat the Seahawks without their starting quarterback, maybe they can get something together without their star tight end.
The video is below, but knowing the DMCA biscuits, it will be blocked, so go here to watch it.