Brady Henderson
Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Henderson covers the Seattle Seahawks. He joined ESPN in 2017 covering the team for Seattle Sports 710-AM. You can follow him via Twitter @BradyHenderson.
Nick Wagoner
SEATTLE — The San Francisco 49ers jumped out to an early lead over the Seattle Seahawks and never looked back Thanksgiving night at Lumen Field. San Francisco handily defeated its NFC West foe 31-13 behind another stellar outing by running back Christian McCaffrey, who had two rushing touchdowns on the night. Here’s a look at each team’s performance.
San Francisco 49ers
As the 49ers embarked on the biggest three-game stretch of their season this week, it would have been easy for them to look ahead to next week’s clash with the Philadelphia Eagles. Which is why the Niners quickly turned their focus to Thursday night anytime the Eagles were mentioned during the week. After all, the 49ers believe they lost a bit of their one game at a time focus during their three-game losing streak. That down turn in the season now seems like a distant memory. Behind McCaffrey, a run game that was firing on all cylinders and a dominant defensive performance in which the Niners allowed zero offensive touchdowns, San Francisco pushed its lead in the NFC West division to two full games over Seattle with the tiebreaker in hand. It all sets up well for next week’s NFC championship game rematch with the Eagles, a game the Niners have been eagerly awaiting since the last one ended. What’s more, San Francisco will have a few extra days to heal up for what should be one of the most anticipated heavyweight fights of the season. Describe the game in two words: Total dominance. Those words could also be attributed to the Niners’ run through the NFC West, where they’ve now won 10 division games in a row and four straight against the Seahawks. Whatever spell Seattle held over the Niners for much of the past decade-plus seems to be officially broken.
Promising trend: Since Week 7, the 49ers had struggled to finish drives in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on just 42% of their trips inside the opponent’s 20. That ranked 26th in the league during that stretch. Improvement in that regard was a point of emphasis this week as the Niners head into the heart of their schedule. They took a nice step forward against the Seahawks. San Francisco scored touchdowns on each of its first three red zone trips Thursday night and finished 3-of-4 on the way to another convincing victory.