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49ers CEO embarrassed by Seattle loss

Jay Busbee
· Senior writer

Every Thanksgiving, there's one dish on the table you stomach, year after year, with no pleasure whatsoever. Maybe it's corn pudding, or broccoli souffle, or pumpkin pie. You eat it, again and again, until one day you stop, because you realize that even though this dish might be tradition, it's still garbage.

This Thanksgiving, that garbage dish is the San Francisco 49ers. A team many predicted to reach the Super Bowl this season looked as lost on Thanksgiving night as your grandmother on an XBox. The 49ers, less than two years removed from a Super Bowl, could manage only a field goal against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks, who won 19-3. The performance was so bad that San Francisco's CEO apologized to the team's fans ... but we'll get to that in a moment.

The blame for this debacle starts with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who completed 16 of 29 passes for 121 yards, only topping the century mark in a pointless last-minute drive. Kaepernick threw two interceptions, both to Richard Sherman, and looked ineffective throwing anything more distant than the reach of his arm.

No 49ers receiver totaled more than 38 yards' worth of real estate. The ground game was no more effective; Frank Gore, the Niners' leading rusher, gained just 28 yards, not even the distance the stuffing traveled around your Thanksgiving table. And the coaching staff's game management and play-calling were suspect at best (slow-developing draws on third-and-20; lack of intensity in the fourth quarter with the Seahawks still within reach).

This is the kind of game that goes in personnel files, and not as a justification for a bonus.

York, the 49ers CEO, took to Twitter to apologize for the performance of his team:

The loss leaves San Francisco in real danger of missing the playoffs; without showing a fire and intensity that was sorely lacking on Thursday night, San Francisco will watch as a team like Dallas or Detroit claims the sixth and final playoff spot. Although Seattle is one game ahead and Arizona two in the hunt for the NFC West, it's hard to imagine this 49er team putting up enough of a fight to run down either one, much less both.

Indeed, the 49ers looked so bad that it's tough to give complete credit to the Seahawks. If anything, Seattle should have destroyed San Francisco by five touchdowns. Russell Wilson was his usual defense-shredding mobile self, flustering the 49ers with upredictable runs and quick-release passes. However, it's worth noting that Seattle managed only a single touchdown against four field goals; the Seahawks had little trouble moving the ball between red zones but considerable trouble once in them.

But that's a problem for next week against the Philadelphia Eagles. For now, the Seahawks' state of mind appears as focused as it's been all season. Consider the postgame ceremony, a traditional turkey leg at midfield for the game's best players. Here were Wilson and, of all people, Sherman, sitting on the 49ers' logo and diining on turkey. It was an NBC-fueled move specifically designed for Sherman to go rant-happy and call out the 49ers, their fans and the rest of the known universe. Instead, he calmly munched on his turkey leg and gave credit to the team while Wilson asked for mac and cheese.

These Seahawks are letting their game do the talking. And that, like an undercooked Thanksgiving side dish, could mean serious heartburn for the rest of the NFC.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. (Thanks to Whitt Busbee for the assist.)

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