Predicting the Outcome of the 49ers-Seahawks Game

This game could get ugly.

Grant Cohn | Oct 2, 2021

Here's where the 49ers stand.

Their run game currently is not working. Through three games, it's averaging 3.6 yards per carry -- eighth-worst in the NFL. Then there's the pass game, which is averaging a measly 5.7 air yards per pass attempt -- third-lowest in the NFL -- which means they're not getting the ball down the field. So the offense is slow, methodical and mediocre.

And the defense isn't much better. It's giving up 4.7 yards per carry -- sixth-worst in the league. And on Sunday, they'll start two backup cornerbacks.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks offense is averaging a whopping 5.1 yards per carry -- fourth-best in the league. Plus, they have a future Hall of Fame quarterback, Russell Wilson, who loves to throw downfield to his two excellent wide receivers, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

This game could get ugly.

The 49ers offense most likely will plod along, and Jimmy Garoppolo probably will struggle. The last time he faced the Seahawks -- last season in an empty stadium in Seattle -- he completed 11 of 16 passes for just 84 yards, 0 touchdowns, 1 interception and he left the game early with an ankle injury. The Seahawks have faced him lots of times and know how to take away his strengths.

Seattle certainly has big deficiencies on defense, and they lost their last two games, but the 49ers don't have the offensive firepower to take advantage, unless they play Trey Lance for large portions of the game, and you know they probably won't.

Let's see how the 49ers justify not playing Lance after this one.

Final score prediction: 49ers 20, Seahawks 30.

Published Oct 2, 2021

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.