Seahawks’ Love deems 49ers ‘first-half team’ after latest collapse originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The 49ers, for the third time this season, blew a fourth-quarter lead to an NFC West division rival.
San Francisco, who led the Seattle Seahawks 17-13 with 3:56 remaining in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, squandered an opportunity to pad its lead and ice the game on its final drive before Seattle’s eventual game-winning touchdown on its ensuing possession.
Trailing by just one score instead of two, the Seahawks then marched down the field for an 11-play, 83-yard drive capped off by a Geno Smith rushing touchdown to take a 20-17 lead with 0:12 remaining in the game.
The 49ers went on to lose by that same score, once again failing to stave off a second-half comeback by one of its division rivals.
Seahawks safety Julian Love, in speaking to reporters after the game, was asked what Seattle’s defense did differently in the second half that prevented 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and the offense from padding its lead.
“Honestly, I think we played well in the first half,” Love said. “That team is a team who always starts games fast. We negated that. We held them on drives. They scored that one touchdown, and we went into halftime close in a close game. We knew that in the second half, we needed to take off.”
The 49ers have a history of starting fast and failing to build on early leads in the second half of games, which Love and the Seahawks knew coming into Sunday’s divisional bout.
“They’re a first-half team. They like to get up early, and we wanted to make it a full 60-minute fight,” Love explained. “Yes, I think we kind of came in ready for this game. From here on out, we’re going to get gritty matchups. Today, I think both defenses started off the game playing very well. We had a couple of turnovers, but we got them behind the sticks, and that helped us out early in the first quarter again. It was a gritty football game. I’m a defensive player, so we love it that way.”
Unfortunately for the 49ers, they were unable to run up the score at all in the first half, scoring just once on four possessions.
San Francisco neither was a first- nor second-half team on Sunday.
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