Seahawks silence 49ers' offense in Week 18, win NFC's No. 1 seed

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Seattle Seahawks are heading to the playoffs as the NFC's No. 1 seed. They'll take a seven-game winning streak, a dominant defense and an emerging run game with them.

With the NFC West and conference's top seed on the line, Mike Macdonald's team grounded and pounded its way to a 13-3 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, getting just enough from Sam Darnold and the passing game to hold off their division rivals at Levi's Stadium.

In a battle of the NFL's second-best scoring defense and its hottest offense, the Seahawks won out. San Francisco had scored at least 37 points in their last three games, with Brock Purdy totaling 10 touchdowns over the last two, but Seattle smothered the 49ers' quarterback while holding them to a field goal.

With their win, the Seahawks improved to an NFL-best 15-2 on the road in two seasons under Macdonald, including 8-1 this year. Now, they won't have to leave home for the playoffs unless it's a return trip to Levi's Stadium for Super Bowl LX.

They look the part of a Super Bowl contender -- even with a passing game that makes you hold your breath at times.

Seattle Seahawks (14-3)

What to make of the QB performance: Darnold didn't throw a touchdown pass, and he had an opportunity for one on Seattle's opening drive only to bypass an easy throw in the flat to Charbonnet. But Seattle's quarterback did what he had to do - which was to not turn the ball over on a night in which their run game and defense were going to be enough. He avoided a disastrous moment when he fumbled after getting stepped on by an offensive lineman, but Seattle recovered. Darnold finished 20 of 26 for 198 yards.

Trend to watch: Seattle finally has a run game -- just in time for the playoffs. It's been a slog for much of the year, and not for lack of commitment. Over the first 15 weeks, the Seahawks ranked 28th in yards per carry at 3.9 while leading the NFL in designed rush rate. But Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet topped 100 yards, respectively, over the last two weeks before they combined for 171 yards on Saturday night. Charbonnet gave Seattle a 7-0 lead with a 27-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter -- the only touchdown of the game.

Turning point: Linebacker Drake Thomas' first career interception was a massive one. With the Seahawks leading 13-3 with around 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the 49ers were putting together one of their best drives of the night. But on a second-down play from Seattle's 6-yard line, Purdy's throw was tipped at the line of scrimmage before going right through Christian McCaffrey's hands and into Thomas' lap. Thomas, a 2023 undrafted free agent who's in his first year as a starter, has been one of the unsung heroes of Macdonald's defense.

Most surprising performance: The Seahawks have the NFL's top-rated special teams, according to ESPN Analytics, and kicker Jason Myers has been a big reason for that. But Myers had an uncharacteristically bad night. In the first half, he missed a 47-yard try and also sent a kickoff out of bounds, giving San Francisco 15 free yards on a drive that would end in a field goal. The miss was Myers' first since Week 11. He connected on his next two tries, hitting from 45 and 31 yards out, but then missed a chip shot in the fourth quarter that would have given Seattle a 13-point lead.

Playoff path: The Seahawks earned the No. 1 seed three times in franchise history before this season. All three times, they made the Super Bowl. They're now hoping to make it 4 for 4. As the NFC's top seed, they'll host the conference's lowest-remaining seed in the divisional round. They should have left tackle Charles Cross (hamstring) and safety Coby Bryant (knee) back by then after those starters missed three and two games, respectively. The Seahawks' waning success at Lumen Field in recent seasons led to questions about what happened to their once-famously strong home-field advantage. But they went 6-2 there this season with five straight wins. -- Brady Henderson

San Francisco 49ers (12-5)

One difficult to obtain but still within reach victory was all that separated the 49ers from the chance to carve the most favorable of postseason paths in this improbable season.

Facing a Seattle team that dominated them for most of Saturday night, the Niners, despite themselves, still had a chance to pull it off late in the fourth quarter. Surprisingly, that opportunity existed because of a 49ers defense full of warts kept them in a game where Seattle shutdown San Francisco's previously high-flying offense.

This time, though, there was no comeback to be had.

The result was a 13-3 loss that not only means the Niners won't be the NFC's top seed but will now have to do what they've done for most of the year: overcome large odds to make any sort of postseason noise.

All season, the Niners have proved adept at outperforming expectations following a significant offseason roster reset and a series of devastating injuries. The Niners' new reality is that there are no more easy victories to be had.

From here on out, the 49ers will likely be facing good teams with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. Teams like Seattle. And an already hard regular season is about to turn into an even more difficult postseason.

Most surprising performance: The 49ers offense had been the hottest in the league entering Saturday night, averaging more points than any team in the league since Purdy returned from a right big toe injury in Week 11. But that unit hadn't really seen a defense as good as Seattle's and it showed.

The 49ers didn't record a first down until there was a little more than 11 minutes left in the second quarter and their 105 yards was the lowest output in the first three quarters by San Francisco's offense since Shanahan took over in 2017. They finished with just 173 total yards, averaging 4.1 yards per play. It was reasonable to expect Seattle to hold the Niners below their recent production, especially without left tackle Trent Williams (hamstring) and receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee, ankle) but the lack of production was jarring given the stakes.

Turning point: In desperate need of a takeaway to give the offense a spark, the 49ers had a golden opportunity with 4:31 left in the third quarter. Seahawks quarterback Darnold tripped coming out from under center and muffed the handoff to Charbonnet. The ball bounced loose and Niners defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos had a clean chance to recover it deep in Seattle territory.

He didn't corral it and Charbonnet pounced on it for a 7-yard loss. Two plays later, the Seahawks converted a third-and-17 with a 19-yard run and would add a field goal to make it a two-score game which San Francisco could not overcome.

Playoff path: The loss drops the Niners to the fifth seed in the NFC... for now. While the Niners would undoubtedly prefer to stay there, the more realistic possibility is they end up as the sixth seed. If the Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the 49ers will drop to No. 6 while they'd stay at No. 5 with a Rams loss or tie. That's a significant difference since the fifth seed will travel to play the NFC South Division winner, either the Carolina Panthers or Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The sixth seed will go to either the Philadelphia Eagles or Chicago Bears and spend the NFC playoffs on the road barring a series of upsets before the NFC Championship Game. -- Nick Wagoner