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Brady HendersonESPN
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — While talking this week about the damage a resurgent Seattle Seahawks team is capable of doing in the playoffs, veteran receiver Doug Baldwin noted that they’ve still got to get there first.
In all likelihood, they still will. FPI still gives the Seahawks a 99 percent chance to make the playoffs, but their 26-23 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday means that berth will have to wait.
And it means you can put on hold for now any talk of the Seahawks (8-6) making a deep run in the playoffs, because that’s hard to imagine after a performance like Sunday’s against a team that entered the game with three wins and a backup starting at quarterback.
The Seahawks would have clinched a wild-card berth with a win at Levi’s Stadium. Instead, they turned in one of their sloppier performances of the season, which included 14 penalties for 148 yards and some baffling defensive breakdowns in the first half.
It snapped the Seahawks’ 10-game winning streak over the 49ers, which dated back to their win in the NFC Championship Game five seasons ago.
They started poorly and didn’t have the finishing touch that propelled them to recent wins against Carolina, Green Bay and Minnesota. They had a chance to win it in regulation on their final drive, but Russell Wilson didn’t see Baldwin running open up the seam on third-and-15. And their opening drive of overtime stalled thanks to a holding penalty on right guard Ethan Pocic, which wiped out a big gain to J.D. McKissic.
Robbie Gould won it for the 49ers with a 36-yard field goal.
This was the type of letdown loss the Seahawks have rarely experienced under coach Pete Carroll. The good news for them: The NFC’s fifth seed is still there for the taking, starting next Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs at CenturyLink Field.