One of the biggest plays in Thursday night’s 49ers win was a blown call that allowed the Seahawks to avoid a turnover, but it wound up being a sidebar because the Seahawks gave the ball away three other times during a 36-24 loss.
Quarterback Geno Smith threw two interceptions and Laviska Shenault lost a fumble on a kickoff return, which pushed the 3-3 Seahawks to 10 turnovers on the season. They have turned the ball over six times — they also had a field goal blocked in their loss to the Giants — over the course of their current three-game losing streak and they have forced just one turnover in five games since their opening win over the Broncos.
“It’s probably the single handedly, biggest thing that hurt our football team,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “We have to take care of the ball better. Practice it better. You get what you emphasize and apparently we’re not emphasizing that enough. Shoot, that’s my responsibility.”
The Seahawks rallied in the second half on Thursday, but the three turnovers turned into 13 49ers points and giving that much away is hard for any team to overcome. Macdonald said the Seahawks have to be “more precise” and failing to come through on that front is going to leave the team in a bad position over the rest of the year.