Seahawks humble the 49ers

Last night was 49er Coach Jim Harbaugh's 49th birthday. Seattle's gift to the league's most hated head coach? A 42-13 rout.

Nothing could keep Seattle earthbound last night..The Seahawks soared over adversity.

Seattle suffered a setback before kickoff when the wobbly hamstrings of Walter Thurmond and Marcus Trufant forced their deactivation, thrusting fifth string cornerback Jeremy Lane into the starting lineup again.

It didn't matter. We are learning that the Seahawk secondary is deeper than the Mariana Trench.. Lane and his fellow defensive backs successfully contained a strong San Francisco receiving corps featuring the dangerous duo of Michael Crabtree and Mario Manningham, plus future Hall of Famer Randy Moss.and Pro Bowl tight end Vernon Davis.

In the first quarter, strong safety Kam Chancellor knocked Davis out of the game with a brutal blow  that prevented the 49er from completing a third-down catch near the goal line. Instead of forcing a San Fran to settle for a field goal, Chancellor's brilliant play prompted three officials to loft unfair flags for unnecessary roughness. Review of the video footage confirmed that it was a clean hit. Chancellor had led with his shoulder, not his helmet, hitting Davis in his chest, not his head. The force of the collision caused the tight end's head to snap forward and bump helmets with the defender. If personal fouls were subject to instant replay review, then the call would have been reversed..

The penalty gave the 49ers first and goal. A lesser defense would have folded, demoralized by the injustices inflicted by poor officiating. Instead, Seattle stymied San Francisco for three more downs, forcing them to settle for a field goal attempt again.

The kick was a mere chip shot, as routine as an extra point kick. A lesser team would have resigned themselves to conceding the field goal, having averted a touchdown..

Instead, Red Bryant plowed through the offensive guard, leapt skyward and batted down the ball. Richard Sherman scooped up the pigskin and sprinted 90 yards to paydirt.

Later, Optimus Prime intercepted a Colin Kaepernick pass in the end zone.

The 49er quarterback, polished in previous outings, played poorly, for the first time resembling a kid out of his depth in the NFL. He played tentatively, incurred several delay of game penalties, wasted several timeouts, and threw many errant balls. His demeanor was that of a a deer caught in the headlights. Kaepernick struggled all night, clearly rattled by the noise, by the smothering coverage of his receivers, by the pass rush that kept him bottled up between the tackles for most of the night, and by the speedy linebackers who ran him down when he tried to escape the pocket.

If Coach Jim Harbaugh had wanted to have any shot at winning, he should have benched Kaepernick at halftime for Alex Smith.

In the end, the Seattle D proved stingier than Scrooge.

In fact, this game moved the Seahawks into a statistical tie with the 49ers for the title of league's stingiest defense. Both units have allowed an average of 15.6 points per game this season.

Meanwhile, our offense soared again.

Rookie QB Russell Wilson lofted four more touchdowns, including two to the increasingly clutch Doug Baldwin. It was nice to see Husky alum Jermaine Kearse haul in a pass.

Marshawn Lynch tore off yet another 100-yard game. He has 1490 yards so far this season, with one game to go. If Lynch didn't gain a single yard next week, his 2012 yardage would put him 4th in team history, with more than Curt Warner or Ricky Watters ever managed in a single season for Seattle. A normal outing next week would elevate Lynch over Chris Warren's 1545 yards in 1994. However, Shaun Alexander's monster seasons (1696 yards in 2004, 1880 yards in 2005) remain beyond the reach of Beast Mode, at least this year.

This win was unprecedented. Before last night, the 49ers under Harbaugh had held opponents under 30 points in 30 of 32 regular season and postseason games. Only New Orleans (32 last year, in the playoffs) and New England (34 last week) put up more than 30 points, and both lost those games to San Francisco.

Seattle dropped a fortyburger on them and won emphatically. This was the demoralizing effort the Seahawks needed to hobble San Francisco in the season finale and allow Seattle a shot at the division crown.

Unfortunately, despite the ephemeral flicker of life the week before against Detroit, Arizona reverted to form and laid down for the Bears yesterday. The Cardinals are who we thought they were: a team in utter disarray. It is hard to imagine them posing much of a challenge for the 49ers next week.

St. Louis, on the other hand, looks increasingly potent, so the Seahawks will need to maintain their intensity to lay low the lambs next week.

Thanks to Marshawn Lynch and the Seattle defense, my fantasy football team--the Ajo Cholo Lowriders--rallied from behind in the championship game to win our second consecutive league title.

It was nice to see former Seahawks kicker Josh Brown (now a Bengal) eliminate the Steelers from the playoffs.