Kyle Shanahan coached his first game with the 49ers on September 10, 2017. In his debut, Shanahan’s team lost to the Panthers, 23-3.
In no game since that day had the 49ers scored three or fewer points.
The 49ers mustered only three against the Seahawks on Saturday night, in the showdown for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The San Francisco offense mustered only nine first downs and 173 net yards.
Seattle, in contrast, had 23 first downs and 361 total yards.
It’s amazing the final score was as close as it was. Even so, the 49ers were driving for a potential touchdown with 10:37 to play in the 13-3 game. A tipped pass from quarterback Brock Purdy bounced off of running back Christian McCaffrey’s hands. It was intercepted by linebacker Drake Thomas, and that was basically that.
Seattle drove from their own three to the 49ers’ eight, taking more than eight minutes off the clock. Despite a missed field goal, the 49ers (who were out of timeouts) failed to get a single first down in a last gasp effort to add points with 2:25 to play.
Obviously, the 49ers will need to do a lot more than that offensively in the wild-card round, or if they end up in Seattle after that.
