What To Watch In The Seahawks’ Week 14 Game At San Francisco

2. Can the Seahawks slow down the 49ers’ top offensive playmakers and limit explosive plays.

One of the many challenges of facing the 49ers is the number of quality playmakers they have on offense. In the previous meeting, for example, the Seahawks limited All-Pro tight end George Kittle to three catches for 19 yards, and San Francisco’s leading receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, to two catches for 50 yards, though one of those was a 28-yard touchdown. The limited production of those two was hardly an issue for the 49ers, however, because running back Christian McCaffrey rushed for 114 yards and two scores on 19 carries, adding 25 more yards through the air, and receiver Deebo Samuel had seven catches for 79 yards, as well as a rushing touchdown.

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is great at scheming players open, and quarterback Brock Purdy has been one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks all season long, meaning the Seahawks will need to figure out a way to slow down San Francisco’s playmakers better than they did two weeks ago to change the outcome.

“It is getting the ball in guys’ hands that can really make things happen, they’re really good at doing it,” Carroll said. “Kyle does a great job of using McCaffrey in all ways, in the multiplicity of it. They have really identified his talents and they’re using him to the max, same with Deebo and George and Aiyuk also. They use their people really well. They maximize the potential of their guys in a really consistent way. I think it’s really impressive of them to do that.”

While it will be impossible to keep the ball out of all of those players’ hands, the key for the Seahawks will be to limit the number of big plays the 49ers create after they had six plays go for 22 or more yards in the previous meeting.

“The biggest thing is obviously cut down on the explosive plays, just understanding what they’re trying to do,” defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt said. “Just understanding all the motions and whatnot to create the angles in the run game, but then obviously avoiding the zones when you end up chasing the ball as hard as you do in some of their wide zone runs. Just understanding that discipline and playing deep-to-short on stuff, so those are the things we’ll be working on in preparation for the match-up.”