Tough Seahawks defense provides lessons for Kaepernick

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SEATTLE -- Coach Jim Harbaugh knew there would be games like this for Colin Kaepernick.

The second-year player struggled with the crowd noise Sunday night against the Seattle Seahawks in the 49ers' 42-13 loss in front of a national television audience. He threw an interception in the end zone, and had a couple other attempts that could have been picked off, too.

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But Harbaugh said he is giving no thought to making a switch back to Alex Smith. When asked if there's any question that Kaepernick is his starter, Harbaugh said, "Yeah, I don't believe there's a question about that."

Kaepernick completed 19 of 36 passes for 244 yards with one touchdown and one interception for a season-low passer rating of 72.0 in his six starts. Harbaugh wanted Kaepernick to get seven starts to finish the regular season to prepare his young quarterback for the playoffs.

"Everybody's going to feel the same way after this," Harbaugh said. "This wasn't good. Can't feel like you coached well. Can't feel like you played well after this one."

Said Kaepernick, "Every time you're on the field you learn something, so we just have to take what we can from this game and move on."

Kaepernick opened the game with three consecutive incompletions. Seattle immediately scored a touchdown. After the 49ers' first two possessions, Kaepernick completed just 1 of 5 attempts for minus-1 yard. And after just 10 minutes, the 49ers trailed 14-0.

"He did his job," 49ers tight end Delanie Walker said. "It takes the other 10 players to help him and make plays for him, and we didn't do that."

In the first half, the 49ers were called for two delay-of-game penalties. Kaepernick called timeouts on two other occasions with the play clock winding down.

"It's loud in other stadiums, too," said Kaepernick, who was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week after throwing four touchdowns in the 49ers' win last week over the New England Patriots. "It's something you just have to get used to on the road. . . We just have to get in and out of the huddle. That is something that we can control."

Said Seattle coach Pete Carroll, "They had a little bit of trouble tonight with the clock. They got some delays tonight for whatever reason. They are very deliberate, one of the slowest teams in terms of that. Tonight it caught them a couple of times."

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