What We Saw: Week 12

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49ers @ Seahawks

Final Score: 49ers 31, Seahawks 13

Writer: Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL on Twitter)

If you stayed awake long enough after an enormous Thanksgiving dinner, you were lucky enough to see an elite uniform matchup on your TV. As for the game, well, it wasn’t all that close. Seattle’s only touchdown came on a twice-deflected pass that was intercepted deep in San Francisco territory. Otherwise, it was all the San Francisco show. The usual suspects found the end zone for the 49ers (Christian McCaffrey x2, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel), and they found themselves up 24-3 at halftime with the game all but over. For the Seahawks, Jaxon Smith-Njigba made the most noteworthy play on offense, a ridiculous one-handed catch on the anniversary of Odell Beckham Jr.‘s catch against the Cowboys. It was a forgettable game for Seahawks fans, and despite a 24-13 score at the beginning of the 4th quarter it never really felt close.

Three Up

Christian McCaffrey – No surprise here. CMC did what CMC does, score touchdowns and put the game out of reach early
Charvarius Ward – Locked down DK Metcalf all game, making him look mortal
Deebo Samuel – He was all over the field and San Francisco found unique ways to get the ball in his hands

Three Down

Geno Smith – Looked like a guy who didn’t practice all week. Wasn’t very sharp and looked out of sync at times
Brandon Aiyuk – Salvaged his day with a late touchdown and almost had a second earlier in the day, but he just wasn’t really part of the offense in this one
Seattle’s secondary – They haven’t been the Legion of Boom for a while, now they’re more like the Legion of Whom?

San Francisco 49ers

Quarterback

Brock Purdy: 21/30, 209 yards, TD, INT, sack | 3 carries, 1 yard

Purdy did a lot of scrambling in this game, especially early. He did a good job of evading pressure and getting rid of the ball whenever he needed to. I don’t want to use the term game manager, because Purdy is obviously better than that, but with the game never really in question he did a good job of not forcing any throws into tight coverages that he didn’t need to. His lone mistake on the night was a pick six, one that was tipped at the line and then tipped again by Christian McCaffrey. He hesitated initially and didn’t look comfortable making the throw. He probably should have held it but that’s revisionist history. Purdy threaded the needle later in the game on his only touchdown of the night, a dart to Brandon Aiyuk downfield for 28 yards after Aiyuk made a nice move to get open across the middle of the field. This was a good game for Purdy despite his fantasy performance saying otherwise.

Running Back

Christian McCaffrey: 19 carries, 114 yards, 2 TD | 6 targets, 5 receptions, 25 yards

Do I need to say anything? McCaffrey was a monster, showing his elusiveness all game long by turning short run after short run into long gains by making defenders miss and cutting through holes to find open space that most guys simply can’t do. He’s a magician. He had 47 yards from scrimmage on their opening drive and received the first goal line carry, where he was stuffed, only to cede the next carry to Deebo Samuel for the score. That was nice of him.

Elijah Mitchell: 7 carries, 39 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, -3 yards

Seattle really just couldn’t stop anything on the ground. Once Mitchell got some reps late in the game, he had no problem earning yards.

Kyle Juszczyk: 1 target

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Deebo Samuel: 9 targets, 7 receptions, 79 yards | 4 carries, 15 yards, TD | 0/1

Deebo Samuel was all over the place in this game. He was lining up in the backfield taking handoffs (one for a score), running jet sweeps and attempting to throw it downfield, and finding himself wide open downfield against Seattle’s poor zone defense. Deebo has not returned a solid investment in fantasy this year due to an injury that has lingered for a while, but he was heavily involved in this game and it’s clear that he’s still a major part of this offense. They were going out of their way to put the ball in Deebo’s hands throughout this game. If you roster Deebo anywhere you’ve got to love it.

Brandon Aiyuk: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 50 yards, TD

Aiyuk scored midway through the second quarter after making a great move to get open across the middle of the field. Brock Purdy hit him with a great throw and Aiyuk dove into the end zone for the touchdown. He very nearly had a touchdown earlier in the game as well, finding himself open downfield having beat his man, however, future defensive rookie of the year Devon Witherspoon made a fantastic play to come out of nowhere and deflect the pass away from him. It was the difference between a decent night and a great night for Aiyuk on a night where Deebo and McCaffrey were the clear focus of the offense.

George Kittle: 5 targets, 3 receptions, 19 yards

George Kittle was an afterthought in this offense with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and Brandon Aiyuk all ahead of him in the offensive pecking order for this game. It was clear that Kyle Shanahan wanted to find creative ways to put the ball in Deebo’s hands, which likely cut into Kittle’s production in this game. He has been prone to these types of games this year, but he’s still able to put up 100+ yards with a score on any given Sunday.

Ray-Ray McCloud III: 1 target, 1 reception, 23 yards, fumble

Charlie Woerner: 1 target, 1 reception, 9 yards

Jauan Jennings: 2 targets, 1 reception, 7 yards

Seattle Seahawks

Quarterback

Geno Smith: 18/27, 180 yards, INT, 6 sacks | 4 carries, 47 yards

Despite injuring his elbow less than a week ago, Geno Smith played the entirety of this game while Drew Lock rode the bench. Maybe Lock should have played after all, though. Geno has always struggled against man coverage and San Francisco’s great secondary did a great job of covering Seattle’s weapons while their front four continuously pressured Geno. Geno was not sharp. He had some poor throws at times and seemed a bit out of sync at times as well after missing practice all week. His lone interception came on a ball to the sideline for Tyler Lockett. He underthrew Lockett and the defender jumped the route to intercept the pass. It wasn’t clear whether it was just a bad, underthrown ball or if Lockett simply ran the route deeper than Geno expected. Either way, it was a turnover and a poor one at that.

Geno made a couple nice throws towards DK Metcalf that were knocked away by Charvarius Ward. He also made a couple poor throws that almost resulted in interceptions. He did not look comfortable with pressure in his face and didn’t do much scrambling, either. He’s a trick or treat asset for fantasy purposes and this was not his best game.

Running Back

Zach Charbonnet: 14 carries, 47 yards | 4 targets, 4 receptions, 11 yards

Game script was not in Charbonnet’s favor after San Francisco jumped out to a big lead rather quickly. However, it should have been a favorable situation for him to rack up plenty of targets in the passing game. For whatever reason, Geno Smith decided to target his downfield weapons in tight coverage far more often than he decided to dump off to Charbonnet with pressure in his face. I lost track of how many times Seattle faced third and long, Charbonnet was open in the flat for the dump off, but Geno threw incomplete downfield. Sure, Charbonnet probably wasn’t going to get the first down in any of those instances, but at least the receptions would have been nice for PPR.

As a runner, Charbonnet didn’t have much room to run. San Francisco’s defense looked vicious in the trenches and Charbonnet was often wrapped up right away. I only recall seeing him get to the second level once. For the second week in a row he didn’t impress me at all. It’s unfair to compare him to Christian McCaffrey, but CMC is just so darn good at slithering through the line and turning three yard runs into ten yard runs. I see none of that in Charbonnet’s game, and there certainly wasn’t any of it in this one.

Notes

Tripped Geno on second drive, went down at their own one yard line

DeeJay Dallas: 2 carries, 10 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 5 yards, fumble (lost)

Wide Receiver/Tight End

DK Metcalf: 9 targets, 3 receptions, 32 yards

Charvarius Ward had DK Metcalf locked down all night long. Metcalf led the team in targets and Geno made a few good throws his way, but Ward made multiple plays to knock passes away from Metcalf. One was a deep ball down the left sideline on the opening drive of the second half, and had Ward not jumped to swat away the pass it would have been a touchdown. Metcalf also had another would-be touchdown earlier in the game, on another ball down the left sideline. The throw from Geno wasn’t great, and Metcalf caught the ball but one of his feet came down out of bounds. He had Ward beaten and would have easily run it the distance for the score. The story of this game for Metcalf was really just that of missed opportunities against a great defender.

Tyler Lockett: 5 targets, 3 receptions, 32 yards

Where was Tyler Lockett? After watching this game I had no notes for him besides Geno’s interception where it wasn’t clear if Geno underthrew Lockett or if Lockett ran the route deeper than Geno expected. Two of his five targets came in garbage time with the game out of hand and with San Francisco in their zone defense. One of those was against Charvarius Ward in the end zone, and Lockett almost came down with the grab. I couldn’t tell you who was covering Lockett otherwise, but whoever it was they obviously did a good job of it. This was just a bad night for Seattle’s offense and Lockett was hurt as a result.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 41 yards

The highlight of the night for Seattle was JSN’s unreal one-handed catch on the sideline that absolutely has to be seen. He was also targeted in the end zone later in the drive but couldn’t make the catch. He was obviously interfered with but there was no penalty flag thrown. JSN clearly has immense talent, and it’s only a matter of time before he starts making an impact in this offense. It may not happen this year, but it will happen.