Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) runs with the ball against the San Francisco 49ers in the second quarter of their NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA – The 49ers’ road to Super Bowl LX now must begin, well, on the road.
Saturday night’s 13-3 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks means the 49ers won’t swipe the NFC’s No. 1 seed from their opponents. Instead, the 49ers will open the playoffs as a wild-card team, most likely as the No. 6 seed and possibly against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
“We’ve got to be road dogs. That’s what this team has kind of been,” right tackle Colton McKivitz said. “We’ve try to make it as hard as possible on ourselves. So we did exactly that We know what it would have been to have a home game throughout the playoffs and obviously finish up here at Levi’s. But we understand what’s ahead of us.”
Tight end George Kittle went public with a “Go Cardinals” in hopes Arizona (3-13) can upset the Los Angeles Rams (11-5) on Sunday, thus lifting the 49ers (12-5) from the Nos. 6 to 5 seed for a playoff opener at the NFC South winner, either Tampa Bay or Carolina.
So much for winning out at home — with two NFC playoff games after a first-round bye — en route to Super Bowl LX and the Lombardi Trophy here.
“This team’s been through a lot this year,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Now we’ve got to go do it the hard way and we’ll embrace the (heck) out of doing it the hard way and look forward to it.
Should the 49ers advance next week, they could be in Seattle for a divisional-round rematch if they’re the lowest remaining seed; Green Bay is locked in as the No. 7 seed.
The Seahawks (14-3) celebrated in the visiting locker room by not only dancing but smoking cigars, those distributed by safety Julian Love for having recently become a father.
Before their No. 1-seed bid was fully extinguished, the 49ers saw star quarterback Brock Purdy sustain a left-shoulder stinger from a hit with 1:51 remaining, when he got clobbered in the back by Derick Hall and then leveled by Leonard Williams.
“I got hit and the left shoulder sort of lit up,” Purdy said. I feel good right now. We’ll see how I feel (Sunday).”
His final play summed up how inept the 49ers’ offense was against arguably the NFL’s top defense, getting outgained 361-173 yards in their lowest-scoring output since Shanahan’s 2017 debut, a 23-3 loss here to Carolina.
In Week 1, the 49ers overcame a 10-7 fourth-quarter deficit to claim a 17-13 win in Seattle, with Jake Tonges making a go-ahead touchdown grab with 1:34 left. In Week 18, they faced a 13-3 fourth-quarter deficit, and the goal-line theatrics instead came from Seattle’s defense early in the fourth quarter.
That’s when a Purdy pass got tipped at the line and careened off Christian McCaffrey’s hands into Drake Thomas’at the Seattle 3 for a comeback-crushing interception. Such was life against the league’s second-stingiest scoring defense, even if the 49ers had averaged 35.6 points per game over their six-game win streak.
“It’s a play I absolutely have to make. I expect nothing less. That’s on me,” McCaffrey said.
Purdy finished 19-of-27 for 127 yards with three sacks, while Seahawks counterpart and 2023 49ers backup Sam Darnold was 20-of-26 for 198 yards with no turnovers.
McCaffrey ran for a season-low 23 yards on eight carries, and he had 34 yards on six catches. Seattle’s running back tandem of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet combined for 173 yards.
The 49ers didn’t score until 66 seconds before halftime, via Eddy Piñeiro’s 48-yard field goal. Neither left tackle Trent Williams (hamstring) nor wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee, ankle) suited up, and although Kittle returned from a one-game absence, he had just 9 yards on his first four catches before a 20-yarder early in the fourth quarter.
Not only is the 49ers’ defense seemingly in a freefall entering the playoffs, starting linebackers Tatum Bethune (groin) and Dee Winters (ankle) left injured Saturday night. That will intensify speculation on just how quickly Fred Warner might be able to join their playoff charge if cleared from his Oct. 14 ankle surgery.
Bethune said he’ll learn his injury’s severity through an MRI exam Sunday. As for why he and the 49ers defense missed multiple tackles, Bethune said: “I see it as we were playing aggresive but still have to make the tackles.”
No play was more alarming than the Seahawks converting on third-and-17, not via pass but rather a 19-yard Walker run that was stopped by defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos, who nearly recovered an opening-drive fumble in the backfield. That drive finished with the game’s final points, a 31-yard field goal with 14:15 remaining.
Explosive plays and penalties could have doomed the 49ers to a bigger first-half deficit, but the Seahawks failed to score on a goal-to-go opening drive and Jason Myers missed a 47-yard field goal before making a 45-yarder.
Myers failed again on a 26-yarder off the right upright with 2:20 remaining to tease a last-chance 49ers rally in what could be their final home crowd this season.
“Obviously we wanted that one, but onward. We’re in the playoffs and we don’t have time to sulk,” McCaffrey said.
Seattle settled for a 45-yard field goal from Myers and a 10-0 lead after Ji’Ayir Brown broke up a potential 27-yard touchdown catch by Jaxon Smith-Njigba at the goal line. Earlier, Darnold scrambled for a third-down conversion to the 49ers’ 31, and in the process, he avoided Winters, whose right ankle got stepped on by left tackle Josh Jones.
Turned away on fourth-and-goal on their first drive, the Seahawks took a 7-0 lead on their next possession, with Charbonnet’s 27-yard, third-and-2 touchdown run as he cut back around the left edge past Ji’Ayir Brown and avoided Malik Mustapha inside the 5. That possession started at the 49ers’ 35-yard line, compliments of linebacker Garrett Wallow’s 15-yard facemask penalty on the Seahawks’ 10-yard punt return.
The 49ers’ offense went 3-and-out on its opening two possessions, with those two punts equaling Thomas Morstead’s total the previous three games combined. They breached midfield on their third series, only for Purdy to get engulfed in the pocket on a fourth-and-1 throw that fell incomplete to Kyle Juszczyk from the Seattle 39.
The 49ers’ defense opened with a goal-line stop on Seattle’s opening drive, with Darnold sailing a fourth-down pass wide of Cooper Kupp against rookie Upton Stout’s coverage. Deommodore Lenoir’s pass-interference penalty against Smith-Njigba in the end zone teed up the Seahawks for first-and-goal from the 1, but then came a Bethune sack and then solid tackles on Charbonnet runs by Jordan Elliott, Keion White and Brown.
“They were just the better team tonight. They wanted it more,” Bethune said.
Originally published at Cam Inman